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| Track list: 1. Cha Cha 2. Bulgarian Chicks 3. Adir Adirim 4. 9/4 The Ladies 5. Shushan 6. Ya Man 7. Gross 8. Sunday Arak 9. Hassan's Mimuna 10. Meboli 11. La Bush Resistance Running time: 52 minutes Released: 2005 |
This is an oddball and one I cannot think why I have. I suspect it must be something I picked up after getting into Beirut and loving the balkan-themed tinge to their work. This is nothing like that and, if my memory is anything close to accurate, it will be gone by the time I hit publish on this post!
We start with a cock crowing and a beat kicks in with some rudimentary overlay which gradually offers a little more as well as a horrible vocal that appears sporadically. In truth it is less annoying than I thought it would be, but equally it does nothing for me and sets a tone of prospective boredom rather than one of unpleasantness. Am I in for a long hour?
I like the themes appearing, which do indeed remind me of the first times I heard Beirut, but not the specific presentation of them here. A little too persistent, a little too much of a tremor coming through from all the instrumentation. Jaunty is all well and good but it can be taken too far. I find myself tiring of the structure of the tunes more than anything else, with the rhythms particularly to blame here, hammered home with less subtlety and a little more repetition than I would like.
There is no doubt that the aesthetic, pointed and stylised as it is, makes for an acquired taste. On the one hand there is something compelling about the muted and staccato tunes, chants and obvious performance element that this material would have been rooted in. On the other it is awfully oppressive after any period of time, boring away at the same spot over and over in a way that can easily infuriate. I am 3 complete tracks in and my head is already pounding from repeated sounds. As with a number of other things I have listened to, I find myself disappointed, seeing potential but having it overshadowed by a facet of the composition that I cannot live with. I am in for a long one, but for different reasons than I thought.
9/4 The Ladies actually softens a lot of the problems, at least compared to the first three tracks. As a stand alone track it is much more palatable, rebalancing the presentation to date. I have a weird moment during Shushan where the rhythm reminds me quite strongly of a Busta Rhymes song from way back (maybe I will remember which when I come to Extinction Level Event) but the very fact my mind wandered in that direction tells you a lot about how I am not engaged with what I am hearing right now. In fact, it is largely blurring into a continuous drone over which I occasionally hear something that stands out and drags my mind back to what I am supposed to be doing - almost invariably it is not a good type of drag back, either.
So far, however, Gross has been anything but. This track seems to have ditched the incessant repeats of single notes in favour of actual tunes and melodies whilst keeping the distinctive tones that lend the music its Balkan identity. This I can approve of. In fairness, I could see everything I have heard here so far going down brilliantly with the right crowd getting up and engaging by dancing, spinning, clapping and whooping along whilst sinking generous amounts of alcohol, but ultimately that is not me here now on my sofa on a January evening as the temperature outside sinks and the first snow for a year or more is on its way. The second half of this album seems to be less demanding than the first, or maybe I am accustomed to it now and the pounding has receded some.
Oh, now that is interesting. A genuine change of pace which feels like it has been a long time coming. Much more airy rhythm giving a feeling that things have opened out a bit and sped up. For the first time I hear a real change in the tone and thrust of the music - the construction too. I am not sure I like the result in Hassan's Mimuna but I do appreciate the difference which is, as much as anything else, a result of a much softer percussion and not using the harsher sounds for structure for the majority of the piece. I am caught slightly off guard by Meboli starting as an homage to jazzy drum and bass but there is really nothing to the track of note - at least not understanding the vocal. The end of the album is definitely in a very different mould to the start - much more relaxed, smoother, "cooler". I do not really feel it does that cool well enough to recommend it but it does at least show range, and a better use of the dominant themes than simple mash it into the skull omnipresence.
So, what to do with this lot? Well most is going. I think I might just keep 9/4, Gross and Sunday Arak which seemed to walk the line of interest and offensiveness the best. The rest I have no place for.
We start with a cock crowing and a beat kicks in with some rudimentary overlay which gradually offers a little more as well as a horrible vocal that appears sporadically. In truth it is less annoying than I thought it would be, but equally it does nothing for me and sets a tone of prospective boredom rather than one of unpleasantness. Am I in for a long hour?
I like the themes appearing, which do indeed remind me of the first times I heard Beirut, but not the specific presentation of them here. A little too persistent, a little too much of a tremor coming through from all the instrumentation. Jaunty is all well and good but it can be taken too far. I find myself tiring of the structure of the tunes more than anything else, with the rhythms particularly to blame here, hammered home with less subtlety and a little more repetition than I would like.
There is no doubt that the aesthetic, pointed and stylised as it is, makes for an acquired taste. On the one hand there is something compelling about the muted and staccato tunes, chants and obvious performance element that this material would have been rooted in. On the other it is awfully oppressive after any period of time, boring away at the same spot over and over in a way that can easily infuriate. I am 3 complete tracks in and my head is already pounding from repeated sounds. As with a number of other things I have listened to, I find myself disappointed, seeing potential but having it overshadowed by a facet of the composition that I cannot live with. I am in for a long one, but for different reasons than I thought.
9/4 The Ladies actually softens a lot of the problems, at least compared to the first three tracks. As a stand alone track it is much more palatable, rebalancing the presentation to date. I have a weird moment during Shushan where the rhythm reminds me quite strongly of a Busta Rhymes song from way back (maybe I will remember which when I come to Extinction Level Event) but the very fact my mind wandered in that direction tells you a lot about how I am not engaged with what I am hearing right now. In fact, it is largely blurring into a continuous drone over which I occasionally hear something that stands out and drags my mind back to what I am supposed to be doing - almost invariably it is not a good type of drag back, either.
So far, however, Gross has been anything but. This track seems to have ditched the incessant repeats of single notes in favour of actual tunes and melodies whilst keeping the distinctive tones that lend the music its Balkan identity. This I can approve of. In fairness, I could see everything I have heard here so far going down brilliantly with the right crowd getting up and engaging by dancing, spinning, clapping and whooping along whilst sinking generous amounts of alcohol, but ultimately that is not me here now on my sofa on a January evening as the temperature outside sinks and the first snow for a year or more is on its way. The second half of this album seems to be less demanding than the first, or maybe I am accustomed to it now and the pounding has receded some.
Oh, now that is interesting. A genuine change of pace which feels like it has been a long time coming. Much more airy rhythm giving a feeling that things have opened out a bit and sped up. For the first time I hear a real change in the tone and thrust of the music - the construction too. I am not sure I like the result in Hassan's Mimuna but I do appreciate the difference which is, as much as anything else, a result of a much softer percussion and not using the harsher sounds for structure for the majority of the piece. I am caught slightly off guard by Meboli starting as an homage to jazzy drum and bass but there is really nothing to the track of note - at least not understanding the vocal. The end of the album is definitely in a very different mould to the start - much more relaxed, smoother, "cooler". I do not really feel it does that cool well enough to recommend it but it does at least show range, and a better use of the dominant themes than simple mash it into the skull omnipresence.
So, what to do with this lot? Well most is going. I think I might just keep 9/4, Gross and Sunday Arak which seemed to walk the line of interest and offensiveness the best. The rest I have no place for.
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