Pasa Tempos Cd Reviews
By ROB DEWALT; CRAIG SMITH; PAUL WEIDEMAN; ROBERT BENZIKER
THE VERVE
Forth (On Your Own
Records/4AD) When former alt-rock heavyweights The Verve released the album Urban Hymns in 1997, the opening track, “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” became an instant crowd pleaser. Some may still argue that the band’s illegal use of a sample from Andrew Oldham Orchestra’s recording of The Rolling Stones’ 1965 track “The Last Time” as the song’s backbone had something to do with its overwhelming success. The rest of the album, while not as memorable, still proved that the guys from Wigan, Lancashire, in England, knew how to alt-rock pretty hard. Forth, the band’s fourth album and its first in more than 10 years, finds the musicians continuing their taste for atmospheric, shoe-gazing compositions, but most of the material here is too tame, too long-winded, and honestly, too pretentious to be considered Verve-acious rock. There is no indication of a runaway hit single on the album, most of which barely hints at ingenuity. Guitarist Nick McCabe’s driving,
echo-laden guitar playing is utilized well on only one track, appropriately titled “Noise Epic.” Unfortunately, what begins as a memorable high-energy rock song is spoiled at the close by the looped voice of lead vocalist
Richard Ashcroft saying, “Wake up.” Frankly, that’s something Bono would do. This song is followed by the spacious, well-crafted “Valium Skies,” perhaps the only track that will compel die-hard fans to purchase this nearly flavorless comeback effort. — Rob DeWalt
BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT Motion to Rejoin (Matador Records) I almost didn’t expect Brightblack Morning Light to have a second major release. These Northern New Mexico residents — who played a
stellar show at Santa Fe Brewing Company a couple of years back that roughly 12 people attended — are very talented, no doubt. But their music is so deceptively simple that half of the time, I shake my head and wonder how they’ve hoodwinked people into paying them to make it. Of course, the other half of the time, I’m nodding my head to these Grand Canyon-deep grooves. So what do I know? Motion to Rejoin is similar to their self-titled Matador debut in that it relies on bass so deep that it will make your shirt vibrate and an organ that sounds like the hot fudge on your sundae. But the concepts here are more developed and the rhythms more surprising. A lot of the record, particularly songs like “Gathered Years” and “Oppressions Each,” sounds like church music on nitrous oxide. Some songs, like “Past a Weatherbeaten Fencepost” even contain woozy horns. It’s true that the CD’s bass is recorded at awkwardly high levels and the lyrics are impossible to understand, but complaining about this is like complaining
about there being too many anti-Bush bumper stickers on a 1986 Volvo. That’s just the way it is, brother.
— Robert Benziker
RUSSELL OBERLIN
Handel Arias (Decca) This remastered reissue of a 1960 Deutsche Grammophon LP is timely, for the Ohio-born Oberlin turns 80 this October. His performing career — which lasted until his mid-30s, after which he became a distinguished teacher — paralleled that of English singer Alfred Deller, though Oberlin’s voice was very different from Deller’s. Both men repopularized the countertenor voice during the Baroque revival of the ’50s and ’60s. I don’t think there are many countertenors today who can match Oberlin in terms of a unique vocal timbre. His voice was high and accurate, with an assertive but not sour edge, and capable of light, quick movement. There’s no trace of hollowness: he sounds like a light baritone singing with perfect ease an octave higher than usual, though without a terribly well-defined trill or much dynamic
variance. This recording is in the taste of the times, with relatively few
ornaments on the da capo repeats in opera arias from Muzio Scaevola, Rodelinda, and Radamisto, and without much of the dramatic inflection, both there and in the various Messiah selections, which we expect from today’s performers. Similarly, the orchestral accompaniment is fluent throughout, though without a lot of dynamic range. On the other hand, Oberlin’s two octave-plus interpolated scale in “Ombra cara” is a gorgeous stunner, and the sheer sound is always riveting. This disc is a historic artistic statement and for voice lovers, very well worth having. — Craig Smith
VARIOUS ARTISTS Acoustic Arabia (Putumayo) Putumayo World Music previously released Sahara Lounge (2003), with a focus on Arabic electronica, and the bouncy, punchy pop album North African Groove (2005). With this CD, we’re stepping into a softer, gentler presentation of more traditional and gorgeous world music. The overall ambience is more of the club than of the desert. Sudanese folk singer Jamal Porto opens with a relaxed mood, and then things turn French with a classic tune from Algeria by the three-woman band Les Orientales. In “Azara Alhai,” Rasha, a Sudanese transplant to Spain, sings breezily about a woman puzzled by the disappearance of her beloved. A song by Souad Massi of Algeria has a wonderful introduction on oud. At least I think it’s oud — the liner notes focus on leaders, telling us nothing about the other musicians. Anyway, this
passionate piece by Massi, whose political songs were once banned by the Algerian government, is an album highlight. So is the Middle East-flamenco-Gypsy stew offered by the Palestinian Arabs of Zaman and a great piece by the Algerian Jewish piano star Maurice El Medioni, who cut his teeth in the golden age of the Algerian music halls of the 1940s and 1950s. The album’s Sahara-flavored love songs end with the beautiful voice of Zein Al-Jundi, born and raised in Damascus, Syria, but a
longtime resident of Austin, Texas.
— Paul Weideman
ALFRED DELLER
Folk Songs and Ballads (Vanguard) English countertenor Alfred Deller (1912-1979) was a
parent of the mid-20th-century revival of authentic early-music practices — the international movement fervently devoted to rescuing medieval-to-Baroque music from overopulence by returning to original scores, techniques, and principles.
As a soloist, scholar, and founder of
The Deller Consort, Deller was the first countertenor to gain attention outside the English church choir repertoire, in which he had worked as a male alto. His bright, sharp-edged and sometimes vinegary voice didn’t have a huge range, but it defined the difference between the gentler hooting church alto and what we now accept as assertive,
contemporary countertenor sound. It is well to the fore, of course, on this seven-CD set, the first volume in a projected reissue of all his Vanguard LP recordings. The rep here features English tavern songs, catches, glees, and the cries that street merchants would call out to advertise their wares; lute songs; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ masterful arrangements of folk melodies. Some of the repertoire is pure hey-nonny, ring-around-the maypole stuff. Other is in the tragic vein that English composers of earlier days loved, including such heart wrenchers as “The Three Ravens” and “The Cruel Mother.” Still more, especially the catches and glees, are delightfully smutty, redolent of a wink, a nod, and more glasses of port than are typically advisable. In one catch, as the voices enter in their round, the phrase “so kiss my eyes” suddenly morphs into “so kiss my arse.” Another, “Sweet Sir Walter,” has words based on a bawdy Elizabethan tale. As Sir Walter seduces a nervous maiden, her entreating cries of “Sweet Sir Walter” gain in speed and force
as pleasure grows till the catch reveals itself as “swisser swatter, swisser swatter.” Throughout these discs, the group performances are a bit rough-edged technically, and the singers don’t always blend well; ears
used to smoother singing of this type of music will find that Deller’s sharp sound can get annoying very quickly. So can the torturingly tuned octaves many of the ensemble songs demand. Oddly enough, the singers are more in tune in fast sections than in slow ones. The words are excellently pronounced and the poetry superbly inflected throughout; the instrumental work is solid; and the Vaughan Williams’ folk-song settings are a treat. This is not a straight-through set by any means, though. It’s best to pick and choose and take the performances in relatively small doses to explore specific areas of the art.
— Craig Smith
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