DROWNED IN SOUND, £10.99ONCE you get past the terrible title and a couple of tracks which sound a little airbrushed, Martha Wainwright's second album stealthily reveals its distinctive character, bounding from the fragrant folky
flutter of So Many Friends to the torrid angst of In The Middle Of The Night with graceful ease.
Her naturally poetic lyrics are still a source of intrigue and while her swooping voice remains the star instrument, there are also some truly lovely embellishing touches such as the trad jazz trumpet on Hearts Club Band and some wonderful mandolin on I Wish I Were.
THE CHARLATANS: YOU CROSSED MY PATH ***
COOKING VINYL, £10.99ALREADY available to download, The Charlatans' tenth studio album does enough to keep them in the game, but without ever threatening any fresh excitement. Occasionally, as on the title track, they try a bit too hard to be relevant, but mostly their Hammond organ-soaked indie pop still sounds pretty sprightly.
Oh! Vanity steals blatantly from Booker T & the MGs, while Bird sounds like Low-Life-era New Order in a good mood. A Day for Letting Go is simply a fine song with a charming arrangement – if they keep up its calibre, The Charlatans might succeed in doing more than preaching to the converted.
SANTOGOLD: SANTOGOLD ****
ATLANTIC, £9.99YOU know the immediate future of pop music is in safe hands when you hear an album like this. The Björk-endorsed Santogold – aka singer and sometime actress Santi White – comes across like a more accessible MIA on this impressive and infectious debut album which blithely mashes up pop, electro and dub influences to produce something entirely fresh yet seemingly effortless.
Her shrill voice – reminiscent of Kate and Cindy from The B-52s or even the blessed Poly Styrene of X Ray Spex – sounds slightly unhinged yet still rooted in pop, whether swooning over the sensual electronica of Starstruck or doling out attitude on the sonorous dub track Shove It. Destined to be one of the landmark releases of the year.
CLASSICALOLIVIER MESSIAEN: CHAMBER WORKS ****
LINN, £12.99TUCKED away among the many lip-smacking tracks on this recording by the Scots-based Hebrides Ensemble of chamber music by Olivier Messiaen is a work that has rarely seen the light of day, the fiery Fantasie for violin and piano.
Written in 1933 for his then wife, Claire Delbos – a violinist who died in 1959 after a long period of mental illness – it bears a similarity of style to the better-known Quartet for the End of Time, and with that an intrinsic, dynamic tunefulness that is hotly pursued in this performance by violinist Alexander Janiczek and pianist Philip Moore. The Fantasie was only published recently after Messiaen's widow (his second wife, Yvonne Loriod) discovered the music among his papers, so this is a highly significant recording.
But there is much more to this timely disc than one rediscovered piece. The Hebrides, who mark its launch later this month with a live show at London's Wigmore Hall, include many more Messiaen delights – the affectionate Thème et Variations for the same duo combination; the beguiling Le Merle Noir for flute (Rosemary Elliot) and piano; the vigorous Pièce pour piano et quatuor á cordes; and last but not least, Quartet for the End of Time, famously written and first performed in a German prison camp. It is played here with vibrant intensity and genuine belief in the music.
JAZZJAZZ WARRIORS: AFROPEANS ***
DESTIN-E RECORDS, £12.99A SLIGHTLY fuzzy live recording of a concert at the Barbican last year celebrating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, in which Courtney Pine led a revived 15-strong version of the Jazz Warriors.
The saxophonist supplied most of the compositions, but is otherwise self-effacing, leaving plenty of space for others to shine. That includes established names such as violinist Omar Puente, trumpeter Byron Wallen, saxophonist Jason Yarde and pianist Alex Wilson, and emerging talents – steel pan player Samuel Dubois, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson and clarinettist Shabaka Hutchings.
Some of the free-form excerpts are a little messy, but the music gives off plenty of sparks, and incorporates overt influences from reggae (including trombonist Harry Brown's tribute to the late Don Drummond on Pine's Blak Flag), funk and Latin sources.
FOLKCEÒLRAIDH GHÀIDHLIG GHLASCHU: SLIGHE AN AIRGID – THE SILVER WAY ***
MACMEANMNA, £11.99THE Glasgow Gaelic Musical Association are not great ones for changes at the helm. This disc celebrates Kenneth Thompson's 25 years as conductor, while a predecessor, J Norman McConochie, racked up 47 years. The choir is highly regarded in Gaelic song circles, and that reputation is amply justified in the performances captured here.
As with last week's disc of pìobaireachd, it should be pointed out that converts to Gaelic song via the likes of Karen Matheson or Julie Fowlis should be aware that the choral tradition is a beast of a different stripe, closer in style to a classical choral group than a folk session and honed in a competition milieu with strict requirements. That said, the singers create a richly sonorous vocal texture, and Thompson's arrangements are skilfully designed to bring out the best in the voices and the language.
WORLDDAOUD AND SALEH AL-KUWAITY: MASTERS OF IRAQI MUSIC *****
EUCD, £8.99IRAQ is in ruins, but long live Iraqi culture and above all its music. This superb CD is a reminder of that civilisation in the form of remastered original recordings by two of the country's greatest traditional players. Violinist Saleh and oud-player Daoud Al-Kuwaity were scions of a merchant Jewish family who rose to fame in the 1940s, leading their own band in their own compositions.
Emigrating to Israel when King Faisal was murdered, they refused to trade on their fame, and got second-class-citizen treatment as Arabs until their adoptive land also recognised their worth. Two decades after his death, Saleh's songs are still sung throughout the Arab world today. Here they are in pristine form, voices and instruments sounding urgent and plangent against the plucked, strummed, drummed, or choral backdrops.
BADMA KHANDA ENSEMBLE: MONGOLIAN MUSIC FROM BURYATIA ****
EUCD, £8.99THIS beguiling music comes from the heart of Asia, but its wistful charm has a curiously Celtic feel. The Buryats of south-eastern Siberia were heavily repressed by the Soviets, for whom the practice of shamanism was a capital offence – and shamanism lies at the core of Buryat culture.
The songs which Badma Khanda sings sit on both sides of the commercial fence – some are pure ethnic music, others are ethno-pop – but they are all actuated by the same honest impulse, which is to preserve the Buryat heritage.
She and her fellow musicians all have a Western classical training – the good side of the Soviet legacy – but they handle their instruments (the limbe flute, the morin khur horse-head fiddle, and the yatag tube-zither) as to the manner born.
The full article contains 1182 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
