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CD Review
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Santa Fe New Mexican, CD Review >>
The steady upswing of world music on store shelves has been both a blessing and a curse for artists and consumers. The line between record companies that seek to preserve global musical traditions and those that wish to exploit them is narrowing. Remember Lifesavers' encounter with Ladysmith Black Mambazo?
The Warsaw Village Band dangles a carrot of cultural integrity in front of us with its latest album, Uprooting. Imagine former communist country, in this case Poland, struggling between tradition and conformity at every level of social interaction. The pre-communist mountain folk music of rural Poland, punctuated by a melodic screaming vocal style (bialy glos, or "white voice"), nearly disappeared with the arrival of communism. However, all is not lost.
In the late '90s, the Warsaw Village Band began reviving mountain- dwelling Polish folk music Mixing technology (loops, scratches, break beats) with tradition, a new generation of bialy glos is emerging. From dulcimer jams to Jew's-harp interludes, songs like "In the Forest" provide a glimpse of the old converging with the new. There's something deliciously pagan about songs like "Fishie," where the hypnotic female vocals of Maja Kleszcz tell of a boy in love and a girl fantasizing about reciprocating. She's a fish to be caught by his net, a star to be bathed by his moonlight.
Metaphorical and sensual, the songs on Uprooting provide tbe listener with a palette of dreamlike slates, even if you don't understand a lick of Polish You're almost guaranteed an authentic musical journey that won't soon sec the boardrooms of Nike.
-Rob DcWali
04/22/05
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