Matachin
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Artist: Bellowhead List Price: £12.99 Our Price: £9.98 You Save: £3.01 (23%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Release Date: 22 September 2008 Record Label: Navigator Rating:   Sales Rank: 1287 | | Look for similar items by category:
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| | Customer Reviews: Better and better (31 December 2008)They just keep improving. Probably helped by their joyous, incendiary, ecstatic live performances, Bellowhead's range and reach continue to develop. 'Matachin' marks an inventive new stage in their growth, and I can't wait to hear numbers such as 'Kafoozalum' next time I see them in the flesh. This is fresh, inventive and bursting with life. Highly recommended for anyone who likes their heart being made to beat a bit quicker in time to some of the most original music available. Tremendous. Disappointing (28 December 2008)After Burlesque, Matachin is a great disappointment. Like Burlesque, I suspect it will grow on me, but after a dozen listens it seems very weak compared to its predecessor. If you are new to Bellowhead, start with Burlesque. A burlesque collision between a folk band and a big band (11 November 2008)The excellent CD booklet that comes with this CD informs us that the name Matachin is enigmatic and of uncertain origin .Originally thought to be Arabic and derived from the word mutawajjihin meaning "mask-wearer" though now it is considered to derive from the Italian mattaccino the diminutive of the meaning matto -mad or fool. This is more apt for this 11 piece band have a certain barmy frisson . There is also a hypothesis that the name comes from an old Spanish sword dance ! This album could make you dance though I suspect it will make your head spin and your knees pop out of their sockets if you do . Bellowhead are for the uninitiated, which until listening to Matachin I was, like a burlesque collision between a folk band and a big band . The music is expansive and fervently expressive with cello, fiddle, violin, trumpet , trombone, oboe, pipes, mandolin, banjo , concertina and avid percussion. There are elements of jazz, music hall , cabaret, mariachi , traditional folk and it's all done with a playful vigour that doesn't subtract from the wonderfully individual performances. That booklet also helpfully explains the origin of each song excluding the three short instrumental vignettes dubbed helpfully Vignette one , two , three. To be honest the album wouldn't lose anything if these hadn't been included. However the same cannot be said of tracks like "Widows Curse" a traditional song arranged by Pete Flood with emphatic burgeoning strings and a terrific twittering oboe. Or of "Kafoozalum/The Priests Miss" which again is a trad song arranged by the band and is so completely barmy it would make Jeremy Paxman jig. "Roll Her Down The Bay " a shanty arranged by Pete Flood seems a touch incoherent and slapdash but is actually cleverly arranged . What is also noticeable is the way the band can cleverly arrange a song to match it's subject matter. The way that Kipling's 1896 poem "Cholera Camp" has wheezy sounding horns or the unearthly trumpet on "Spectre Review" or the woozy but rambunctious "Whiskey Is The Life Of Man" .Then by way of contrast opening track "Fakenham Fair" is more gracious and mannered and the head spinning cello/accordion on "Trip To Bucharest" segueing into "The Flight Of The Folk Mutants Parts 1 & 2" is just a giddy joy. The vocals by Jon Bodem occasionally struggle to match the intensity and virtuosity of the songs and it made me wonder just how special this band could be if they had a vocalist as unique and powerful as Devotchka .s Nick Urata. None the less in a great year for albums Matachin is another to add to the list. Splendidly singular stuff. Brilliant (08 November 2008)They go from strength to strength. The arrangements are innovative and exciting - I love it! the unique, thoroughly live, irrepressible and irreplaceable Bellowhead (29 October 2008)If you have an ear each side of your head rather than a collection of labels, prejudices and musical anxieties, if your spirit is actually moved by music, if you got (any) rhythm, if you've heard/seen them live or haven't and wish their tour schedule was wider and longer, if ... hang on. Why are you still reading this? Try a few sample bits off iTunes or whatever and then buy the CD. You'll see it's not "just" folk yet grows from the tradition, and it doesn't mess folk up merely to be trendy. It's music with bottom and also plenty of top, bursting at the seams yet carefully considered and controlled, it tells stories but it doesn't ramble on with its finger in its ear, it can fight you and it can soothe you, it's highly entertaining and unexpected, it has real integrity it's...unique. |
