Orkestra del sol

Published on Monday 19 May 2008 20:51

QUEEN'S HALL EDINBURGH ****

IN THE mid-1990s, Edinburgh's New Street Bus Station building was turned into the Bongo Club and became the heart of the city's alternative cultural scene. But all was not lost when it was demolished to make way for the Canongate Development, as was proven by two local groups playing at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday night.

The Den Collective, led by Dougie Hudson, create an African fusion filled with the sound of balafons, thumb pianos and djembe drums over saxes, keyboards and guitars. With South African singer Rosita and Sierra Leonian dancer Bebe, they had the crowd stomping in seconds.

This celebratory playfulness set the tone for a rousing night. The dynamic Orkestra del Sol, prefacing their appearance with The China Monologues, a witty film of them fooling around at the Beijing Carnival in February, showed just how brilliantly they have caught the zeitgeist. Fusing brass fanfare with gypsy sensibilities, adding in a dash of Caribbean calypso, a touch of klezmer and a whole lot more musical ingredients on the way, their mix of music-making and on-stage theatricality is irresistible.

With the appearance of the voluptuous Saska Haramina, the queen of the Balkan scene, to sing Mesecina, the international crowd started pogoing madly, proving Balkan is the new punk. The genius of the Orkestra is the way they hide serious musicianship inside tongue-in-cheek humour. It's a winning combination.