WOMAD 2011 – Four of the Best, One of the Worst.

Bellowhead at Womad 2011 - Photo - Dr. Biddlecombe

Bellowhead – probably the best English folk band around. When you read the words ‘English Folk Band’ you do tend to think of chain-knit pullover wearing beardies who look like they should be presenting a Physics programme on the Open University, and sound exactly like Old Bert Hardy used to sound. This is a very unfair generalization and certainly untrue in this case, Bellowhead are sharp and funny, some might even say sexy, they are raucous and loud, and they rock out on the banjo.  

Musically they are very adventurous, and yet they sing sea shanties, Cumbrian folk songs from the nineteenth-century, not to mention songs that are intended to accompany Morris Dancing. They wear their Englishness on their sleeves, not in a nasty, idiotic nationalist way, but in a charming, enthusiastic and slightly odd way, tons of personality and wit, a hearty openness about their music that, despite its complexity and depth, makes it welcoming and warm. If anyone ever asked me to play them some quintessentially English music I would be happy to play them Bellowhead, not The Kinks, Blur or The Jam.

Afrocubism – A world music supergroup made up of Cuban and Malian superstars; Bassekou Kouyate and Toumani Diabate representing Mali and Elias Ochoa leading the Cuban contingent. Some musical collaborations are like PhD topics, occasionally interesting, usually very worthy, but very rarely exciting. Afrocubism is a collaboration between artists from two cultures that have blended different musical styles to create something wonderful. Mali and Cuba seem to share the same attitude to live music performance. In both cultures virtuosity is celebrated, the more skill the better, the more difficult the piece the greater the achievement in completing it. Both musical cultures require a solid and exciting rhythm section, that can provide the heart of the sound, but which can also break out into virtuosity on a par with that of the lead performers. Both cultures also rely on great melodies that flow, fly and dance into the ear, that lift the heart on high and send the mind on sweet winding pathways.

The musicians look very happy together, the songs they play owe much to both sides of the collaboration, and the sense of equal contribution and mutual respect results in a celebratory mood at the heart of the performance. This is how you do musical collaborations, with joy, celebration and bags of respect for each other.

Mahala Rai Banda – I have been looking forward to seeing this band live since getting their album ‘Ghetto blaster’ last year. I was expecting them to be on the main stage, headlining, but instead they are in the Arboretum on the BBC Radio 3 stage, and late too. Mind you the lights, the trees swaying, sipping cool cider all creates a bit of a magical space. And then on stage came this bunch of Romanian gypsies and an ex-Moldovan army oompah band. The combination of brass, violin, accordion, thumping rhythms and great singing add to the magical space to create one of the best sets of the weekend at Womad, and hardly anyone saw or heard it. The wonderfully rich sound of the brass and woodwind and the high melodic tunefulness of the violin, united with exuberant singing and a very joyful, dancing crowd lead me to believe that this is the best Gypsy Wedding/Birthday/Funeral Dance Band in the world.

Bomba Estereo – I tend to avoid the Big Red Tent at Womad, it tends to have stuff that is too clubby and too loud. They have DJ sets which usually result in lines of stoned thirty-year olds sat in deckchairs outside the tent nodding their heads like a row of dogs on the back shelf of a 1974 Austin Princess. I thought this was a music festival, not an excuse for some blokes to play some records. Anyway, rant over and bias against Big Red overcome we went to see Bomba Estereo, who are Colombian, they are clever, they mix up what they do brilliantly and they have a charismatic lead singer with s stunningly fast vocal style. Spanish is definitely a language that lends itself to rap and hip hop – witness Cuban band Orishas – and the mix of their native Cumbia – a fairly ancient folk music style – with electronic and psychedelic sounds is exciting and occasionally unique.            

One of the great things about Womad is hearing things you have never heard before. Sometimes those new things are obvious – the band Ayarkhaan are from the far end of Siberia, they use a variant of the Jews Harps and their own voices to present the sounds of their homeland. Sometimes it sound a little bit like Ross in Friends playing one of his ‘sound poems’ on the keyboard, but more often it is fascinating, eerie, and very original. Bomba Estereo are more subtly original the newness creeps up on you and you realize that this sound is distinctive and new.

Dub Colossus - one of those collaborations that feels really uncomfortable. Occasionally it is interesting, and clearly it is a good project, but it appears that the relationship between the white, European musicians led by Nick Page and the black, Ethiopian stars is somewhat dysfunctional. Sometimes the music works so well that you can ignore it, their version of Satta Massagana is great for example. But, when Teremage Woretaw, a traditional Ethiopian folk singer, an azmari, and exponent of the one-stringed messenqo violin comes out to sing a song that has been sung in Ethiopia for nearly two thousand years, it is announced in a desultory fashion with a seeming complaint about how long he takes to tune the violin. As he sings the song the other musicians stand around at the back having a laugh, sharing a joke, swigging a beer and generally ignoring what is going on. When it is finished the singer walks off with not a word said by the band. I was pretty disgusted by that, it felt disrespectful, exploitative and wrong. I took against Dub Colossus and all they stand for, maybe it was just me and i had taken one too many ciders by that time of night but they are not for me, twits.

Feel bad i have not reviewed Asa who was very entertaining, Hassan Errajin and his Morroccan Rollers who was lovely and created a gentle melodic sound, or the Eurocool dudes known as Nidi D'Arac who were aces.  Maybe next time.