Various Artists - Voices of the Real World
p. 
I don’t often buy compilation albums, but I stretch a lot of rules where the Real World Records label is concerned. I have a few of the albums featured on this compilation, but it has also prompted me to get albums by some of the artists I hadn’t previously heard, like Geoffrey Oryema and Yungchen Lhamo. The album—as the name suggests—focuses on the vocal talents of the artists. A huge variety of vocal styles are represented, from Tibetan singing, through Georgian table music to some amazing Sardinian tenore signing.
p. The album kicks off in extraordinary style with Tuvan “throat singers”:http://www.itotd.com/index.alt?ArticleID=120 Shu-De. Throat singing might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but even if you don’t like it, this track provides a lot of scope for marvelling about the flexibility and sheer range of sounds that the human vocal tract can produce. Personally, I love throat singing, and this brief track raises the hairs on the back of my neck. After this rip-roaring opening, the album stays in Asia for Yungchen Lhamo’s haunting ‘Happiness is…’. It’s unfortunate that it shares a title with those revoltingly syrupy and slightly creepy cartoons, because it’s a beautiful song—longing and passionate.
p. I could go through all the tracks because I love them all, but I’ll just pick out a few that really stand out. ‘Mosquito’ by the Dimitri Pokrovsky Ensemble is a wonderful example of traditional Russian singing, and makes me think of warmth and fellowship. And vodka. ‘T’Amo’ by Tenores di Bitti from Sardinia is traditional tenore Sardinian a capella singing, in which one man takes the melody line and three others provide harmony, using some of the same throat singing techniques at Shu-De. I heard a radio documentary about this style of singing a while ago, and was absolutely entranced by the sound. It’s quite percussive, and makes you think of dry, bare mountain sides. ‘Orovela’ by the Tsinandali Choir from Georgia (not the one in the US) is another track that makes my hair rise. Their voices are so rich and full of feeling. Finally, ‘Awa Y’Okeyi’ by Papa Wemba (Democratic Republic of Congo) is one of the most heartbreakingly sad songs I’ve ever heard, and I don’t even know what the lyrics are about. Papa Wemba has such a sweet and sorrowful voice, and when he sings slightly falsetto, something in me cracks. Someone who speaks the language will probably write to tell me that the song is about the difficulty of growing yams, but somehow I doubt it (I caught something about ‘deciding to leave’ in the few lines of French).
p. Overall, this album makes you realise how impoverished and flat the vocal styles of most pop and rock artists—with a few honourable exceptions—are. Artists like Kate Bush, Sinead O’Connor, Daniel Lanois, Peter Gabriel, Björk and Lisa Gerrard all use their voices in extraordinary ways, but most other singers seem completely bland by comparison.
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I like to buy comps as a way to widen my musical aquaintences, the fact that I then take the songs I like and redistill them into my own musical mixes is perhaps mildly perverse. Anyhow I suspect that you may be more of a purist than myself, myself being just a simple gardener and an admitted cultural dilitante, I wanted to recomend a series of world music comps., which I have found to be strangely addictive and satisfying, by Putumayo, my spanish subconscious won
t allow me to even attempt this name aloud for fear of freudian emberassment, but I have found this series unusually solid. I have, in a very short time, to my amazement purchased the following : Asian Groove,Dublin to Dakar, Arabic Groove, African Odyssey, World Lounge, Cover the World and Euro Lounge and despite the totally untantalizing titles I have been well pleased, although Euro lounge basically sucks unless you like some sort of lo-fi cocktaillounge nonsense. I am now restraining myself from purchasing more of there titles for awhile so as to leave room for other dicoveries and to avoid disenchantment. But if you have an opportunity give them a listen maybe theyll give you some happiness too.----- john: I don't think I'm a purist, exactlyThose compilations sound interesting - I might try to get hold of a couple of them.
by bsag @ 09/11/2003 4:11 pm • Permalink •
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