Reunions rarely rival history. But with this collection of burbling grooves, these Senegalese legends recapture the Afro-Cuban bliss of their 1982 classic, Pirates Choice — imagine the Buena Vista Social Club weaned on motherland polyrhythms. The secret weapon remains Barthélemy Attisso, a guitar giant with a touch as delicate and melodically sublime as Jerry Garcia’s. His lines on “Nijaay” and “Cabral” are so chill they’ll buckle your knees.
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Filed Under (Adult Contemporany) by admin on 09-09-2008
Indie rock is undergoing a folk renaissance, which has spawned some great harmony singing. Case in point: Fleet Foxes’ debut opens with a woozy a cappella that’s part sacred-harp-choral tradition, part Beach Boys, and it resolves into a Celtic-flavored march with a searing Richard Thompson-style guitar line. The 11 songs are mostly pastorals — the sun rises, snow falls, spring comes, birds fly and, on “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,” the “tall grasses wave/They do not know you anymore.” (Dis!) This style is what critics used to label “freak folk” before the term became verboten, though plain freakin’ lovely is more to the point. A lower-dosage Animal Collective, the Foxes stuff their free-form songs with rich, swirling melodies; billowing clouds of organs, tom-toms, bells and assorted stringed instruments cloak Read the rest of this entry »
