Album reviews: Sean Paul | The Dodos | Robert Glasper | Elgar and Schnittke | Ken Campbell's Ideal Band | Mexico

Published on Sunday 30 August 2009 21:15

POP SEAN PAUL: IMPERIAL BLAZE ** ATLANTIC, £12.72

JAMAICAN dancehall star Sean Paul has a guttural voice made for mischief and he has been happy to base an internationally successful career on imparting all the naughty things he'd like to do with and to the ladies. But when he tries to express himself in lovey-dovey terms, he has neither the softness nor the lyrical prowess. "You'll be my wind chime," he coos on super-slick single So Fine.

He delves even further into sentimentality with Straight From My Heart, a schmaltzy song for his mammy. All very nice for Mrs Paul, I'm sure, but it would make a more interesting curveball to dedicate a song to his attorney (thanked on the CD sleeve) or, better still, his "other attorney" (also thanked on the CD sleeve).

THE DODOS: TIME TO DIE

***

WICHITA, 10.76

SAN Franciscan duo The Dodos subscribe to a creative modus operandi which they like to call "hitting things". The results are far from the incontinent cacophony that might suggest. Instead, Time To Die shares common ground with the euphoric sounds of fellow indie Statesiders The Shins and Fleet Foxes.

Their distinctive style is characterised by a relentless rhythmic drive and frenetically finger-picked acoustic guitar which gradually builds in hypnotic power – but also starts to sound pretty repetitive from around the half-way point on.

JAZZ

ROBERT GLASPER: DOUBLE-BOOKED

****

BLUE NOTE RECORDS, 7.82

THE first half of pianist Robert Glasper's new disc features his jazz trio with bassist Vincent Archer and drummer Chris Dave; the rest is by his hip-hop-based Experiment band, with guest vocals from Bilal and Mos Def. The title comes from a literal double booking when Terence Blanchard and Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson both wanted the respective bands on the same night, but Glaspar's real aim is to underline the fact that both musical forms are equally important to him, and equally central in what he does.

While the two segments of the record are notably different, the influences also leak into each other, and both bands are linked by his incisive and inventive piano playing. Most of the music is his own, although the trio serve up their own distinctive interpretation of Monk's Think Of One, and the Experiment segment includes their take on Herbie Hancock's Butterfly.

CLASSICAL

ELGAR & SCHNITTKE: VIOLA CONCERTOS

*****

ONDINE, 12.72

LIKE so many modern young viola virtuosi, David Aaron Carpenter is on a mission to reinstate an instrument that was painfully ignored in the 19th century. Still only in his early 20s, he demonstrates a phenomenal technique – and more importantly, a rich and penetrating tone – that is a feature of today's confident new breed of violists.

The sheer brilliance he exudes in Schnittke's 1980s Viola Concerto not only sets the solo protagonist out as vital and self-confident, but inspires a performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra that captures the music's huge extravagance of moods, from wickedly jocular to hideously pained, from quietly ruminative to heated passion.

Schnittke's mercurial eccentricities are further embraced under the masterly baton of Christoph Eschenbach. Lionel Tertis's heroic viola arrangement of Elgar's Cello Concerto – sanctioned by the composer but further remodelled by Carpenter – provides a wholesome complement to the weirdness of the Schnittke.

Very little of the cello's gravitas is lost in this performance, particularly as Carpenter realises the concerto's bold personality with trenchant insight and self-belief.

FOLK

KEN CAMPBELL'S IDEAL BAND: KEN CAMPBELL'S IDEAL BAND

***

FELLSIDE RECORDS, 11.74

KEN Campbell may not be immediately familiar to folk fans weaned on the current generation of performers, but older fans may remember an earlier version of the Ideal Band with Alasdair Robertson in the 1980s. The CD sleeve has the look of the kind of album you find in the racks of tourist information offices and visitor centres, down to its own advertising strap ("A unique blend of contemporary and traditional songs from Scotland") on the cover, rather than a title.

His modest, old-fashioned vocal style is cushioned in lush accompaniments that are well enough played, but with no virtuoso display. Campbell and band members Seylan Baxter and Gavin Paterson play a diverse range of instruments between them, and are joined by four guests, including Wendy Weatherby and Hamish Moore.

WORLD

MEXICO: FESTIVAL OF SAN MIGUEL TZINACAPAN

****

OCORA, 11.72

BEFORE we discuss the CD, let's look at the label. Ocora – Office de Co-operation Radiophonique – was set up by Radio France in 1957: its humdrum purpose was to train sound engineers in French colonies, so they could set up their own radio stations after independence. In the early Sixties they began cautiously producing records – just one symbolic LP per year – before they realised what a goldmine they were sitting on. Ocora's output grew dramatically, but a few years ago it hit a rock in the form – surprise, surprise – of the world-music boom.

When I spoke to the label's boss, I got a grim prognosis, despite the unparalleled sweep of his backlist, from which no record is deleted. "Traditional music simply hasn't shared in this boom," he said, "because the shops want stuff they can pile high and sell fast, and we're simply getting squeezed off the shelves. The so-called world music that is currently fashionable is not world music at all – it's just mainstream pop from somewhere else."

What labels like Ocora needed, he said, was something like the recommended retail price for books. "It's saved the book in France, and it could do the same for our CDs. We simply have to get them back into the shops. I know there's a market for them – there are plenty of people like me around."

This new CD consists of recordings made 13 years ago of a series of Aztec village dances whose origins lay in 12th century Aragon: what we hear are the musical fruits of a melding of indigenous styles and those brought over by the colonising Spanish. It's highly atmospheric, with drums, flutes, bells, and clashing swords beating up a wonderfully merry storm.