Don't know about you, but this time of year makes me feel distinctly migratory. It's not just the sight of geese flying south out the bus window, either, or the flight of warm weather to be replaced by clouds and rain (as I write this, it sounds like surf is crashing into the house). In fact, Mabon this year found me driving along the coast in my trusty pickup (which broke down twice on the way to Santa Cruz), taking a well-deserved vacation. Of course, by the time Samhain rolls around, the instinct toward migration has generally been replaced by an instinct toward hibernation. A few weeks before, I guess I'm feeling a little of both. Hence the selections for this installment of Earth Tones.
To the surprise of everyone who knows me, one of my favorite movies of the summer was Pirates of the Caribbean--insert the usual disclaimers about the Disney World ride here, and get on to the observation that it was glorious fun, from billowing sails and crashing swords to Johnny Depp's Keith Richards impersonation. The soundtrack, by composer Klaus Badelt (K-19, Ned Kelly), himself a protégé of Hans Zimmer, like the movie is noisy, aggressive, and fun, which is really the entirety of my reason for recommending it. There's little restraint shown here, and almost no subtlety, but one doesn't go see a film like Pirates of the Caribbean for these things. On the other hand, if you need a bit of salty, brass-laden orchestral attitude to chase away the winter doldrums, this score is just the thing to put some wind in your sails.
Equally fun, though in a different way, is Big Beautiful Sky (MCA), the recent release from Montana-based Venus Hum. Initially intriguing to me because of its awesome name, this band also opened for the Blue Man Group at their recent show at the White River Amphitheater. Though it's a little lighter and poppier than most of the albums reviewed in this column, Big Beautiful Sky has a couple of things going for it. Chief among these is its lead singer Annette Strean, who has clearly listened to a lot of Björk and has the pipes to do this major influence justice. Venus Hum also takes advantage of the flexibility of electronic instruments; instead of trying to imitate existing instruments, the band creates new sounds and proceeds to do interesting things with them. The music is also very danceable, with a lot of air and light throughout, resulting in a very enjoyable listen. If there's a spiritual dimension to Venus Hum's music, it's probably Christian, but don't let that deter you; like the music itself, it's neither overbearing nor heavy-handed.
More appropriate to the season, perhaps, is Annie Lennox's new CD, Bare (J Records). One of the chief pleasures of listening to a mature artist at the height of her powers--as Lennox definitely is--is the sense of tangibility about the resulting work. Bare is a controlled, refined work, in the very best way; there's a sense of deliberation about the music, the lyrics and the CD as a whole. That doesn't mean, however, that Bare is predictable or plodding. As the title implies, Lennox strips her material to its emotional core, and the result is incredibly powerful. Bare is also a reflective work, a study of the emotional complexity that drives our human lives, generally whether we want it to or not. If there's a better set of material for the season when we reap our personal harvests and take stock of what we have, where we are, and what we've achieved, it didn't come out this year.
Regular readers of this column will observe that I've been going on a lot about Asian Massive (the genre) recently, with reviews of artists including DJ Cheb i Sabbah and Karsh Kale. Thanks to Six Degrees Records, a label I've praised effusively in the past, you can now acquire Asian Massive (the album). Although somewhat limited in scope -- it consists mostly of remixes by Cheb, Kale and New Delhi mix-meisters the MIDIval Punditz -- this is a pretty good, concise, reasonably priced introduction to the genre with lots of interesting raga rhythms and soaring vocals, anchored by electronic beats. It's only a matter of time before this genre spawns a lot of unfortunate knockoffs, as seems to be the norm in dance music -- any of you who listen to trance music and its relatives can probably cite me examples of stuff that's unoriginal or just plain boring. Right now, though, Asian Massive is still new enough that that hasn't really happened yet, and the artists included on this compilation are some of the genre's chief innovators, musicians as well as producers and DJs. And, of course, this collection features several selections that would work very well for ritual.
Skipping over a couple of continents, we arrive once again in Scandinavia, as we do in just about every column. This time, it's to call attention to the somewhat amusingly named Frigg, a Finnish-Norwegian septet that includes four fiddles on their self-titled first album. Affiliated with the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the ensemble does occasionally have a classical inflection; generally speaking, I've found that in Scandinavian music, classical and folk aesthetics lie more closely together than they do elsewhere in Europe or in the United States. Frigg isn't above adopting elements of related genres, either; there are flavors of Irish and bluegrass in their music as well. This has the effect of making them sound more cheerful than most of the Scandinavian bands I've profiled here, and their music is highly danceable, with a crispness and vitality perfectly suited to the autumn weather. Regrettably, Frigg may be difficult to find in this country; Amazon doesn't list it (the matches you'll find if you search there are not the same ensemble) and it seems to be available by import, if at all. The CD's promotional sheet included the following e-mail address, so try that: anjarvel@siba.fi. It's worth it.
Speaking of worthwhile imports, you'll recall that I mentioned in a previous column the controversy surrounding the latest release from Irish band Lúnasa. Here's the latest: the band has ended its association with the Green Linnet label, and regained the rights to its album Redwood, which can now be acquired by visiting the band's Web site at www.lunasa.ie. This means that you'll be ordering the album from Ireland unless Lúnasa secures a North American distributor, but take heart: Mine took only a couple of weeks by regular mail, and the exchange rate was reasonable. To be honest, I personally don't hear any difference between this recording and the one that came from Green Linnet, but this is the band's preferred version (and probably the only one you can get, at this point), and that's good enough for me. Or wait for them to come through town again; they've visited Seattle twice in the past three years again and are more than worth seeing.
That's it for this issue. If any of you are planning to attend the Hekate's Sickle festival this year, I'll be participating as part of the ritual cast. Feel free to come chat with me about music once we're outside of ritual space. Meanwhile, here are some yummy upcoming shows: Northwestern folk-fusioneers Taarka play the Tractor Tavern November 22, and the Red Elvises come all the way from Russia to the Tractor on December 9. Seattle Town Hall presents "Global Rhythms: I Heard It Through the Grapevine," featuring local musicians from diverse cultures on November 4; go to www.townhallseattle.org for information and a calendar of events. Firewater plays Chop Suey on November 11. All of these shows are in Seattle.
Genevieve Williams is a Seattle freelance writer and drummer. She can be reached at rimrun@drizzle.com with feedback, suggestions or recommendations. Local musicians and pagan groups are encouraged to submit material for review.
Copyright © 2006 by the article's author