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WOMADelaide appreciation thread. Who's Attending?


t_mike

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To avoid feeling I've missed out, I have to say the Necks are half way through a pretty special series at the Palais tonight. Tony Buck's limb independence is blowing my mind and Chris has twinkled that harmonic magic through quite a few different themes in the first set 

Edited by christosd
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As usual a terrific weekend. 

We just got back to Melb after a long drive full of loud music!

 

As usual for me, the highlights were the discoveries. The bands I'd never heard of

BCUC - what can I say! Wow crazy crazy energy and such tight rhythms. These guys are insane and insanely talented

DuOud - techno ouds. My 14yo son discovered that music can put yo pin a trance (is that a good thing?)

Fatoumata Diawara - energy and fun. And a brilliant Nina Simone cover

Yo Carmen - despite some sound issue on Friday night, a real highlight

Christine and the Queens - can she dance or what!

 

the list goes on….

I missed a few:

I really wanted to see Compagnie Bilbobasso but they didn't show up on friday night for some unexplained reason.

I missed Fat Freddies Drop 'cos the kids were exhausted

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On 08/03/2019 at 8:43 PM, mrbuzzardstubble said:

Hi everyone :) Having a great time I hope. Looking forward to seeing these 2 ladies, so I've already bought their albums. 

images (39).jpeg

images (37).jpeg

Bought Alina's cd, had it signed by all the band!

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Another great Womad! As always a few unknown bands that absolutely blew me away!

 

Highlights..... pauses whilst he consults his list, in no particular order really enjoyed:

 

Fatoumata Diawara: she's a fantastic new talent, shedding her "turban" head dress for a wild version of Nina Simone's "Sinner Man"!

 

Khruangbin: surf/jazz/rock psychedelia via David Lynch perhaps! Took a while to warm to them but then I was hooked!

 

Companie Bil BobaSSo - Amor: impressive pyrotechnics, very clever! Caught their last show at 10:30pm Monday, a fitting end to this year's Womad.

 

Sona Jobarten: amazing female kora player and guitarist with killer band!

 

Mara Pages Compania -Yo Carmen: Jaw dropping! Stunning!

 

Alina Bzhezhinska Quartet: great Alice Coltrane inspired spiritual jazz

 

LaBrassBanda: energic fun from  the lederhosen wearing Bavarian lads

 

Baloji: a talent to watch!

 

Fat Freddy's Drop: epic groove as usual!

 

Canzoniere Greciano Salentino: superb traditional outfit from southern Italy, excellent musicians and dancer

(they have a Melbourne gig at the Thornbury theatre this friday, highly recommended!)

 

Maalem Hamid El Kasri: Gnawa trance from Morocco!

 

Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkestar: Balkan mash up from Shankel with great brass players, the crowd went crazy!

 

Angelique Kidjo: live wire dynamism from a super star, some of the Talking Heads covers worked better than others

maybe just because the originals are burnt into my brain. She was great fun at the Taste The World cooking sessions too!

 

The Correspondents: caught the second last minute replacement show, jeezus that guy is fit!

 

Have I missed any?

 

Maaria Nuut & Ruum: ambient dark electronica/folk from Estonia

 

DuOud: good for a few tunes, they were mighty loud, er, "l-oud" heavy metal oud? at the zoo stage, preferred Speed Caravan a few years back that featured one of them. they sounded good at the Frome Pavilion from a distance.

 

Christine and the Queens: a tad too slick for me, very good dance routines but very pop.

 

The late night DJ's: DJ Harvey OK on Friday, missed Leftfield, DJ Sama hard core techno, some good tunes from Danny Krivit.

 

Loved the cardboard spiral tower Ephemeral City, pity I misssed the deconstruction on Monday.

 

Bring on Womadelaide 2020!

 

 

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Ok, here's my take on this year's Womadelaide.

 

While I enjoyed this year's Womadelaide (I always do), for me it wasn't quite up to par with some previous years. Bear in mind though that my comments here are very much a reflection of my tastes in music, which will no doubt be different to many people here. So, feel free to disagree.

 

I am becoming somewhat disappointed at the increasing and pervasive intrusion of hip-hop and electronica in so much music these days, and that was very much the case with too many of the artists at this year's Womadelaide. Of course, it is the artists themselves who choose to do this, but to my ears it just tends to homogenise everything.

 

But, I will start with the positives (mostly).

 

Sona Jarbaten: Probably my personal highlight for this year. A terrific performance from this female kora player, and her band were brilliant.

 

Sharon Shannon Band: I've always enjoyed her performances at Womadelaide in the past, and this was no exception. She had a different band from last time, and the style of the performance was somewhat different in a few ways, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Jamie Smith's MABON: I enjoyed the performances of this Welsh band, but I am a bit mystified as to why they chose to include what to me were some fairly intrusive electronic effects in part of the performance. They are a very good acoustic band, but why try to make an acoustic guitar sound like an electric one? Nevertheless, I found their performances very enjoyable.

 

Canzoniere Greciano Salentino: I remember seeing this Italian band at an earlier Womadelaide, and this performance was easily as good, if not better than before.

 

Angelique Kidjo: I have to admit that I've not been a great fan of her over the years, but I quite enjoyed her performance here. It was interesting to see her doing some Talking Heads songs.

 

Fatoumata Diawara: I already have her CD, so knew what to expect. Quite an enjoyable performance, although I must admit it didn't hold my interest as much as I had hoped.

 

Taiwu Ancient Ballads Troupe: An interesting performance from this Taiwanese tribal group, and their costumes were impressive too. While I appreciate their passion to keep their ancient music alive, I do wonder about the inclusion of modern instruments, especially an electronic keyboard. It just seemed to be at odds with what they were trying to do. Aren't there some traditional Taiwanese instruments that would be more suitable? Even so, the performance was enjoyable to watch, and their workshop was a lot of fun (but no, I did not hold hands).

 

Baloji: Enjoyable, but with some reservations. I love the jangly guitar rhythms, but unfortunately the hip-hop influence keeps intruding and spoils it (my opinion).

 

BCUC: Very energetic, loud with lots of shouting from this South African outfit. I enjoyed seeing them once, but that was enough for me.

 

Amjad Ali Khan: I wasn't quite so taken with their performance with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, but I very much enjoyed the later performance of the trio by themselves (father and two sons).

 

Ollie English: I very nearly passed over his one only performance on the final evening, but happened to be passing by the Moreton Bay stage while he was playing, and just had to stop and take it in. A local Adelaide musician who I hadn't heard of before, and he was brilliant. Excellent voice, good guitar playing, and a good band with some backing singers. Would definitely like to see this guy play again.

 

And now for a few negatives.

 

DuOud: A huge disappointment. Over-amplified bass heavy doof-doof, from what I could see and hear. I thought they were supposed to be oud players, but they just seemed to be using their instruments as props. I only stuck it out for a short while before moving on.

 

Maaria Nuut & Ruum: Supposedly a mixture of Estonian folk songs with electronica, but I just found them terminally boring. The songs were really just snippets of songs that were looped back electronically. One again, I moved on after a fairly short while.

 

Gwenno: Similar situation with this Welsh singer. I didn't think her voice was all that great, and the electronic aspect did nothing for me. Boring!

 

 

 

Ohh, and I was present at the Ephemeral Tower deconstruction, and caught it on video. They toppled the whole thing over and then everyone piled on to it to complete the 'deconstruction'.

 

5AngryMen performing The Bells was entertaining when  I first saw it, but once was enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DuOud: seeing the Marshall stacks behind them I knew what to expect!

If you prefer more traditional oud check out Joseph Tawadros Australia's exponent, Le Trio Joubran, Anour Brahem and Dhaffer Youssef.

http://josephtawadros.com/

https://letriojoubran.com/

https://www.anouarbrahem.com/fr

http://www.dhaferyoussef.com/

 

I highly recommend all of them, have many of their albums as well! Seen Joseph , Le Trio Joubran and Dhaffer live too!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...


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  • 5 months later...


Haven't booked tickets yet, but its a fair bet I will be going. I see L. Subramaniam and Salif Keita are making a reappearance after a long absence, good to see.

 

Also a bit surprised to see Bill Callahan (aka Smog) on the program. I've always been a bit undecided about him. He has quite a good voice, but I can't say I've been all that impressed by his songwriting on what I've heard so far. Will be interesting to see him live though.

 

I'll be quite interested to see Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita. Welsh harp and African kora should be an interesting combination.

 

And the Cat Empire are back again, for the 5th time! Yes, I know a lot of people like them, but they don't really do it for me, sorry to say.

 

And then, of course, there is Mavis Staples.

 

 

 

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