Mass review-RON TOMOCIK-CANTERACH-CINKUŠI-GRADEC-AMORPHIS
RON TOMOCIK
Icelandic Music
self-produced 1996

I was walking along through the buskers at NW Folklife and heard Eastern European mega-piano accordion and hence stopped dead in my tracks. The accordionist turned out to be Ron, accompanied on the fiddle by a woman in ethnic dance dress. I asked how much his tapes were and he apologized by saying that the only ones left were just Icelandic music. So I dove into the accordion case for this cassette, which carries no liner notes, only 2 lavender labels with song titles. [Ron actually did have a stage gig on Monday, so he wasnt just one of those crazy NW Folklife buskers...]

I looked Ron up on the internet when I got home, and he has no e-mail or web page, but reports of performances say that he is the human juke box of ethnic music. The album is interesting since almost no Icelandic accordion music gets circulated and so this is the only Icelandic accordion music I have ever heard. Icelandic Music is an example of the hold a microphone in front of an accordion and hit record method, which I think (seriously) really captures unamplified folk mega-piano accordion in all its true beauty without the polite twistings of production. I couldn't quite put a finger on the provenance of the Icelandic tunes, some does sound Eastern or maybe Fenno-Baltic, but most just had that continental sound. I have trouble picking tracks when the only tracklist is on a tape inside the machine, so can't comment on specific tracks. I'd love to talk to Ron about the tunes.

Ron Tomocik's address is 6905 S. Elati St./Littleton, CO 80120 ph. 303-734-1461

Tracks: I Hlidarendakoti, Snati Of Olin, Nu Er Sumar, Alfareidin, Thorrathraell, Hildin Min Frida, Sprettur, Krummavisur, Heidarkvaedi, Olafur Liljuros, Islandsljod, Sjomannavalsinn, Krummavisa, Maistjarnan, Island Er Land Thitt, Sofdu Unga Astin Min, Bi Bi Og Blaka, Trollaslagur, Islandsklukkur, A Sprengislandi, Smaladrengurinn, Ridum Helm Till Hola, Brugdid A Leik, Oxar Vid Ana, Tap Og Fjor, Bjossi Litli A Bergi.

CANTERACH
Canterach
KRL 2001
Krl@krl.co.uk , http://www.lochshore.com

Canterach is one of a number of contemporary Scottish traditional bands; the only time I have heard them before is on a KRL compilation called Live At the Lemon Tree. Vocals are by guitarist Ross Kennedy, whose voice reminds me a lot of old Blind Dogger Ian Benzie, but maybe a bit lighter. Former Iron Horseman Rod Paul plays really nice and very evident mandolin and speed banjo; he had a solo album on Greentrax called Berlinn that really impressed me a year or so ago. Another veteran of Iron Horse, also The Hudson Swan Band, Steve Lawrence, plays bouzouki and dobro and a whole lot of hand percussion. Iain MacInnes, stellar member of the Tannahill Weavers and Ossian, plays highland pipes, but also quite often smallpipes or whistle. Experienced session fiddler Alistair McCulloch plays fiddle...actually though it seems to me all these people have played with each other in various other arrangements...anyway, Fraser Spiers guests on Harmonica and throws in a couple neat tricks..

There's no electronic fireworks here, though the tunes and especially the songs sound like the 80s or 90s or 00s. Of the five songs, two were written by Ross, about shipyards and immigration, who takes a moderately low key approach in singing all of them. "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel" has a composed tune and words from Ords Bothy Ballads; Johnny of Braidislea is traditional; "They'll Never Be Peace Until Jamie Comes Hame" is from Burns. The album starts up-tempo with "McPhee's Reels; on this track you can hear the highland pipes, fiddle, lots of mando family, nice speed banjo, and percussion, and even with the enthusiasm, the ambience is casual, nothing is formal here. Steve and Iain mix highland pipes and dobro for awhile on "Strathspeys and Jigs." The hand percussion and vocals on "Johnnie o'Braidislea" do remind me of Old Blind Dogs. The pipes carry "MacGregor's Jigs" admirably. "There Will Never Be Peace..." though accompanied by fiddle, keyboards, twangs, and Fraser's harmonica, still maintains a nice starkness. "Great workmanship throughout.".

My biggest problem with this album is the use of synthesizing keyboards on some tracks, at times even intimating a chorus on risers of well-scrubbed smiling women wearing tiny earrings and polo shirts singing "Ah" constantly behind the musicians. Imagine an imaginary drive up B723 from Lockerbie and then confronting a Granada rest area. Nothing like synthetic keyboards to turn crisp, powerful music into the mush of a cellophane wrapped cheese and onion pie on the rack at the BP station. Why do this? From the booklet, it looks like this is an add-on, too, not part of the touring band; its not on the Lemon Tree track. But they're doing it because they want to, and I suppose that's good enough reason.

CINKUŠI
Zeleni Kader
Kopito/Croatia 1999

Zelini came with no explanation from the Croatian Consulate. I think it's a *wonderful* album but I can't find anything out about it on the web, not being able to read Croatian except for a couple Russian cognates, except that one Croat webzine rated it as the #2 domestic release of 2000. I think it likely arrived as a result of me having stopped at the Croatian booth at WOMEX in 1999 and from that point sporting a "Croatian Musicians Union" sticker on the back bumper of my Windstar. The consulate has spies everywhere, maybe.

Zeleni Kader is perhaps traditional folk-bluegrass-punk acoustic fusion and it is really great fun, especially with the big drums. If I remember the Turks didn't get this far for too long, so maybe the basic music's a little more European or Slavic than further into the Balkans. All but two of the tracks are "narodni." One pick of mine would be "Oj Krapinske Vuske Staze;" one of the male singers is sort of a Euro good old boy, like maybe he drives a three trailer Euro-semi on the side, on vocals, so it's similar to Marko Rantanen from Koinurit singing on that Szeki Kurva track on Balkans Without Borders. Another great old song is "Grad Si Beli," a little dirgy and more off key than usual and with some nice mandolin by Natalija B. Raduši and fiddle by Igor Bazi. Others are not so peppy, for example "Vupreti Oi" is slow minor key female vocals and lazy hand rhythm, again some lovely fiddling, and a lot of stand-up bass. The styles vary.

GRADEC CROATIAN TAMBURICA ORCHESTRA:
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
epon.
Self-released, date not given

I bought this CD at NW Folklife, where they performed. There's no date on it or much besides tracks and performers. If you are interested, you could contact Vida Jurcic at vida@hangar18.bc.ca .

I have a couple older tamburitza LPs but this is the only current CD I own. Common in Croatian folk and spread into North America is this type of band, playing little tamburas and singing along in a chorus. It's pretty music, perky and strummy and harplike. On this album, the chorus singing is thankfully not perfect enough to sound choral, which should mean that real people are singing. There are 5 musicians in Gradec, and nine singers. In addition to the tamburas there is a dulcimer-cimbalo and some sort of bass. "Grad Se Bela" has jumped down from the previous review, and as well on this album there are included polkas, waltzes and other songs. It is a lovely and untampered with album.

AMORPHIS
Am Universum
Spinefarm/Relapse 2001

Amorphis used to be a little Finnish death metal band screaming along unintelligibly The Kalevala on albums such as The Karelian Isthmus and My Kantele. Then, they switched singers, with Pasi Koskinen on in their last album, Tuonela, which means in English something along the lines of Hell. This new album sounds similar; Pasi sounds like he belongs in They Might Be Giants, and I think those who bother to classify call this either "hard rock" or "doom." They have an ominous gothic keyboard, depressing blackish fuzz guitar, and the lyrics are about stuff like dying suns, emptiness, grief, silence, flowers on your grave, etc., and there's an artistic photo of a bloated dead horse and what looks like a trachea on the booklet, so "doom" sounds about right. Unlike Tuonela there is no obvious unifying melody (or maybe it's just the same one and I'm used to it) and the arrangements seem very smooth and complex. People have given this Ad Universum good reviews; the controversy concerns Sakari Kukko's beautiful and in this case brighter sax put into the mix. Not a conventional metal instrument, some believe there is too much of it, and others just like it a lot. No one I have read has said, "Get that blasphemous thing out of here." What fascinates me is that the saxophone is so beautifully used, and that various pieces of Finnish music that I have heard lately by sheer luck, like Slobo Horo and Underworld Hammers, have used killer saxophone, so this Amorphis CD gathers even more into the glum sax- pot of dark, vibrant Finnish music. Wow. They use a saw on track 10 too, to good avail.

judith@gorge.net

The Columbia Gypsy