Album reviews: Broken Bells | Jimi Hendrix | Beethoven | Secret Quartet | Altan | Gopal Krishan | Flowers and Ashes

Published on Sunday 7 March 2010 20:02

BROKEN BELLS: BROKEN BELLS **** COLUMBIA, £10.99

BRIAN "Danger Mouse" Burton and Shins frontman James Mercer are at pains to point out that their new duo Broken Bells is not some idle vanity project or short-term collaboration, but a living, breathing band from whom we can expect more in the future. That's good news because their partnership lives up to their respective strengths – Mercer is a beguiling vocalist, Burton is a talented sound alchemist and both men are handy with an effortlessly captivating melody.

Broken Bells is slightly closer in spirit to Mercer's indie rock output, flirting at points with the dreamy progscapes of Air, the ever-amenable New Order guitar sound and a touch of mariachi soul, while still laying out its own gentle charm.

JIMI HENDRIX: VALLEYS OF NEPTUNE

***

SONY, 12.99

JIMI HENDRIX was the greatest electric guitarist in the known universe. His reputation has not waned in the 40 years since his death, and neither has the hunger to hear more from his tragically short-lived career. Valleys Of Neptune could go some way to sating that appetite.

Appearing ahead of a major re-issue programme, this album of previously unavailable material, recorded in various sessions throughout 1969, and mixed for this release by Hendrix's long-running engineer Eddie Kramer, provides – in places – a tantalising snapshot of what might have followed Electric Ladyland.

From the first frisson of distortion, Hendrix lovers will feel at home – not least because it belongs to an alternative version of the already familiar Stone Free. A couple of other existing favourites – Fire and Red House – have also been revisited without improvement. For the completists, as they say.

Fans will also be familiar with the famous footage of the Experience tearing up Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love on Lulu's TV show. The recorded version comes with added indulgent breakdown. His funky take on Elmore James' Bleeding Heart feels fresher. As for the "new" material, the emphasis is often more on blues noodling than snake-hipped sexiness. Hendrix makes a right old meal of Hear My Train A Comin', while Ships Passing Through The Night could have launched a million truck-stop blues-rock squalls.

The title track showcases the almost casual brilliance of his voice and guitar in partnership, but the song is nothing special in the Hendrix canon. The same applies to the raw Mr Bad Luck and the brooding Crying Blue Rain. This is not the place to start your Hendrix collection, but it is still a worthy addition.

CLASSICAL

BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTOS NOS 4 & 5

****

ECM NEW SERIES, 12.99

THE character of any performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto is defined in its opening bars – where the piano plays alone. It can be assertive or reflective, pliable or metronomic, anticipatory or declamatory. In Till Fellner's case, in this new recording with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the mood is relaxed and unforced, but at the same time remarkably authoritative.

Throughout this very listenable performance, the pacing has a natural repose and inbuilt subtlety that is neither laboured nor mannered. In contrast, Fellner and Nagano deliver the accompanying Emperor Concerto, No 5, with a power that befits its bold, dramatic gestures. This is a fresh and attractive coupling of two concertos that never tire of new approaches.

JAZZ

SECRET QUARTET: BLOOR STREET

****

EDITION RECORDS, 11.99

IT HAS been almost a decade since the Secret Quartet made their first recording, but they have reconvened in glorious fashion on this intelligent, beautifully crafted follow-up. The quartet features the great Martin Speake on alto saxophone and pianist Nikki Iles from the UK, with Canadian musicians Duncan Hopkins on bass and Anthony Michelli on drums.

All but Michelli provide compositions in a set of original material. Speake's purity of tone and fertile invention on alto is a constant pleasure, and Iles is equally resourceful in her lyrical but tough-minded explorations at the keyboard.

The two Canadians form a razor-sharp rhythm section, and the band plays with great sensitivity and empathy on a set that offers a pleasing diversity of material. Edition Records are making a serious impact on UK jazz, and their studio recording here is exceptionally vivid.

FOLK

ALTAN (with RTE CONCERT ORCHESTRA): 25TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

***

IRL RECORDS, 10.99

FOR the past quarter century the Donegal-rooted band Altan have generated a distinguished international reputation, drawing on the county's rich fiddle and Gaelic song traditions.

This celebratory album sees them join forces with the RTE Concert Orchestra, under the baton of David Brophy, to reprise some of their best-known songs and tunes in arrangements by Fiachra Trench. Fiddler-singer Mairad N Mhaonaigh's voice is as beguiling as ever and the band's playing characteristically tight.

The orchestral forces here sometimes provide a fairly nominal backdrop, as in the lovely song Cit na gCumann, give dramatic sweep or make a fair play of rumbling and galloping alongside jigs and reels.

There are some spine-tingling moments but, to be honest, Altan in their own right are a band of such distinctive spring, smeddum and delicacy, that I can't fully see the point of harnessing them to an orchestra.

WORLD

GOPAL KRISHAN: DHRUPAD – KHYAL

*****

OCORA, 10.99

THIS CD was recorded in 1996 – Ocora grinds slow – but no matter: its championing of the rare vichitra veena makes a marvellous contribution to our aural library.

The veena is a fretted stick-zither with two large gourd resonators towards each end of a bamboo soundboard.

The vichitra veena is its unfretted cousin, with additional sympathetic strings; its pitch is determined by a glass ball which operates as on a slide guitar, allowing the glissandi to be sustained and ornamented in a lovely way. Its sound is majestically deep and resonant – hence its adoption for the sacred art of dhrupad, and as an accompaniment to the human voice.

In Gopal Krishan's hands, supported by the dreamy sound of tabla and tempura, it creates mesmerising beauty, mostly staying within a single octave and following a structure so slow in revealing itself that one simply surrenders to its spell. Khyal, by contrast, means "imagination", and denotes the improvisatory mode which grew out of the codified raga style. With two tracks each lasting more than half an hour, one can immerse oneself in a state of blissful forgetting.

FLOWERS AND ASHES: HYMNS TO SHIVA

*****

OCORA, 10.99

THE musicologist William Tallotte recorded these sacred songs in Tamil Nadu temples, as part of an investigation into the now-threatened art of the odavar cantors, who traditionally marked the rituals of the Hindu calendar.

As there are just ten such singers now in operation, this melismatic music is precious: its poems and stories are still widely known, and reflect a sublimely mystical view of the world.

"Praise to the feet of the Lord, who approaches the riverbank floating on a stone" begins one song. The voices are richly coloured, with a drone – plus birdsong – providing the sweetest background.