Various Artists
Quango/Palm Pictures
2001
From the breeze that opens this CD to the insistent hip-hop groove that ends it, Mystic Groove is one of the better fusions of dance music styles and world music from various countries. While the general sound is Indian, there are several tracks that have a pan-Eastern feel and several that are distinctively Arabic. Likewise, the dance component stays mostly in the downtempo range, with a few forays into house, dub, and drum+bass.
Despite this variety, there is enough overlap in style that many of the tracks sound similar, and they’re mixed to flow into each other smoothly. This is one of those CDs that’s best either played loud to accompany dancing, or at a subdued volume as background to more sedate pursuits. This is not meant as a criticism. The drone common to the music of the countries represented here, along with a steady dance beat, has certain trancelike qualities that are helpful in getting into the “zone” of intense mental or physical activity.
While there is a sameness to the tracks in this compilation, there are a few standouts. Christopher Goze’s “Sirocco” floats in with a flute over spare drums, then kicks into gear with more pulsing percussion and a flamenco-style duel for guitar and sitar. “Der Bauch”, by MC Sultan, starts off with a solid swath of solo doumbek, then segues smoothly into a throbbing house beat. And the remix of Omar Faruk Tekbilek’s “Shaskin” offers an intriguing blend of Arabian pipes against a syncopated backbeat, with a dollop of hip-hop synth on top.
If you’re interested in branching out into world music from more familiar strains, Mystic Groove is an excellent place to start—its sensuous mix of East and West will likely inspire further explorations.
[Originally published in Reclaiming Quarterly #87, Summer 2002]
Indigo Girls
Epic Music
2002
In the words of the title track, “it took a long time to” Become You. It?s been almost three years since the densely-layered rock of the Indigo Girls’ last album, Come On Now Social. With this new release, they’ve revisited the more spare instrumentation of their earlier releases, but with a greater lyrical and musical palette.
In particular, the vocal arrangements will please those who gravitate to the soaring harmonies that have become the Girls’ trademark. On “Deconstruction of Love,” they bob and weave around each other to bring out the emotion in a tale of love’s collapse.
Amy Ray’s songs on Become You tend toward the jaunty side, from the Memphis-style soul of “Moment of Forgiveness” to the more country-flavored title track and “Yield.” Fans of Ray’s usual intense style of songwriting will more likely prefer “Starkville”’s elliptic lyrics and haunting melody—it reminded me greatly of Testimony-era Ferron.
Emily Saliers’ selections are generally more subdued than Ray’s musically, while packing a painful lyrical punch. Taken as a whole, they present a song cycle of love lost and balance slowly, painfully regained. “You’ve Got to Show” offers a Latin tinge to two lovers trying, but afraid, to meet in the middle, while “Our Deliverance” gives a portrait of an unexpected awakening out of grief. These songs were so deep in that experience and so of a piece that I was convinced Saliers must have broken up with her partner recently (a theory that was happily refuted in a recent magazine article about the album).
The Indigo Girls have spent the better part of the last decade expanding their musical horizons from the two-singer/two-acoustic-guitar format they began performing with—from bouzouki to electric guitar to drum loops, they have brought a vibrant energy to all of the musical camps they keep their feet in. With the back-to-basics approach on Become You, they show that those musical journeys are explorations from a strong, deep root of human experience.
[Originally published in Reclaiming Quarterly #87, Summer 2002]
