(As a side note, I should point out that the CD liner to Tana Tani has translations of the songs - my only request is that in future they also include the literal transcriptions in Bangla.) As this CD shows, there is certainly something very distinctive and beautiful in the Bengali folk tradition I hope Zaman will continue to explore it. I personally don't mind the Punjabi dominance, as I understand a lot of Punjabi, but I think there is a huge reservoir of music in other languages that is being overlooked. This CD should appeal to Bengali speakers especially, as I think the modernization of Bengali-language music has been overwhelmed by the flood of Punjabi beats and hip-hoppified Punjabi folk songs coming from the UK. Paban Das Baul pulls out some very beautiful melodies, and Zaman's production is both inventive and tasteful (he goes easy on the electronics, and allows the songs to stand as songs).
Tana Tani (Pushing-Pulling) not exactly hardcore and it's not exactly downtempo rather, it's generally midtempo and it's groovy. Props to him.īut musicians need to keep moving forward, and I'm happy to discover that Zaman is finding his niche in this style of music.
If someone just says the phrase, "Passengers are requested to please proceed to the aircraft," it puts me (and probably not just me) in the mood to dance, and that is Zaman's doing. For one thing, Zaman gets at least one (maybe two) freebies from me for coming up with the catchiest asian drum n bass song ever, "Flight IC408." Whether or not the CDs that follow live up to the hype of that first, definitive track, is almost immaterial from a historical point of view. I agree with the reviewer Derek that the earlier State of Bengal collaboration with Ananda Shankar was forgettable (as jam records are wont to be), and that State of Bengal's first CD, Visual Audio was not quite what it could have been.īut I don't think Derek gives Sam Zaman (the man behind SoB) the credit he's due.
(I found it in my local rock n roll record store in New Haven - not in India!) But then I find that there is already a perfectly serviceable review of the CD at Ethnotechno, so I can skip explaining who Paban Das Baul and Sam Zaman are.
I wanted to review a new CD by State of Bengal and Paban Das Baul, Tana Tani (Realworld), which I've been enjoying quite a bit in the past few days.
0 kommentar(er)
