Mon, 24 Mar 2008
Carpathian ....
Electronic folk? It covers a wide range, doesn't it.
You can have same as it always was, except louder. You
can have a psychedelic trip or you could have something
that resembles the folk tradition with a little
electricity more as an afterthought. For purists, there's
nothing to be said other than 'bogus!'. For other people
there might be something, depending on how it goes.
Joanna Newsom is a pleasant night out in this way
and London's Hush the Many is as well although both are
somewhat more complex musically than the folk tradition
would allow or maybe it's better to say the academic folk
tradition. Still, folk is more (or less) than just what
folk are listening to at any given time. It has historic
roots in both style and substance and the style is
understood to be simple. When you start to hyphenate,
anything goes of course, and the only thing the performer
is really interested in is whether anyone will come
along.
Hadamansky bill themselves as electronic folk from the
Carpathians. What could that mean? The punters waiting for
the gig to start weren't much of a clue as they included
punks, students, your standard model beer monsters, and
quite a few who looked like they'd just arrived from
Eastern parts, as well as people who looked like they were
after a bit of a knees-up and didn't much care where or
what it was as long as it was loud and had a beat.
The five piece (or occasionally six) immediately tell
us what they're about when they start playing fast and
loud dance music from eons past. It's the celebration of
some free moments, maybe even a special event. In the
style of gypsy bands, there's quite a lot of skilled and
fast trumpet playing as well as electric guitar, bass,
drums plus a muscle-bound frontman who looks a little
like a modern imagining of Genghis Kahn in a good mood.
After a little of this hell-for-leather stuff they
break into more psychedelic things and there's a high
standard of play throughout. The change doesn't seem to
result in much in the way of raised eyebrows. Beers are
being quaffed and people are dancing as best they can in
the solid crowd.
So, maybe more for the World bin than the Folk bin and
maybe not the thing for sleek urbans either. Thanks to
Henning Kuepper for taking us along.
I'd better give Bleepfest Berlin 08 a plug as well.
This runs from 8pm or so on Friday 28 March, through
Saturday starting about 5pm going until late, and then
Sunday is a chill/ambient/BBQ day starting at 2pm and going
until 11 or so. There are artists from all over and it's
usually a very groovy event - Three Days of Peace, Love,
and Electronica!
(thunderfinger)
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here
