A Low Down Dirty Shame

Technobeat by Bob Tarte

The Beat magazine, Volume 24, Number 6, 2005

      When Re-Covers (Yat-Kha Recordings) belches forth the first sung bars of "When the Levee Breaks," Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie McCoy's 1929 blues made famous by Led Zeppelin in 1971, you might suppose, "Oh, that Tom Waits is at it again." But suddenly the subterranean bass lead vocal bottoms out into ain't-humanly-possible territory. Not even that guy in the Statler Brothers could coax such froggy tones from his larynx, but there they are in full unearthly glory threatening to rupture the polypropylene cone of your woofer.

      Albert Kuvezin of Tuvan folk-punk throat singing ensemble Yat-Kha conceived of this album of cover versions while recovering from an automobile accident in Kazyl and pondering the future after second lead singer Radik Tiuliush called it quits. Since Yat-Kha's previous releases borrowed an aggressive rock aesthetic as their operatic modus operandi, Kuvezin's decision to filter a handful of his favorite rock songs through the rough-hewn musical vernacular of the South Siberian steppe makes as much sense as anything these days. The only question is, does the strategy bear thorny fruit, or is Re-Covers merely a Tuvan version of Pat Boone's In a Metal Mood?

      A major ingredient for success is the quality of the source material. The catastrophic images of "Levee" fit Yat-Kha's characteristically gloomy delivery like a Tuvan fits a saddle. And a plucked-string rendition of Kraftwerk's "Man Machine" benefits from the farfetched but far from misguided attempt to coax a synthesizer sensibility from a twanging jaw harp. So far, so good. But the band's website quotes Kuvezin as saying that he never liked the Rolling Stones "and even less the Beatles," which unfortunately doesn't save us from a lackluster cover version of the Stone's "Play With Fire." Albert's tastes inexplicably gravitate toward Iron Butterfly's ghastly "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," a song so far beyond the pale of redemption that it defeats all attempts at satire. The croaking version here, whether for real or in jest, elicits more eye rolling than an exorcism despite nifty throat-singing whistles during the intro. "Strawberry Fields Forever" would have made better psychedelic fodder, but kitsch beats art in this case.

      I had high hopes for Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." With a voice resembling that of an Eisenhower-era creature feature villain, Ian Curtis was hardly a crooner, yet his awkwardness lent a needed touch of pathos to the original. While Kuvezin's delivery sounds admirably close to an idling chain saw in places, it manages to make mincemeat of the song's not too subtle irony and may leave you thinking of King Kong attempting to serenade Faye Wray. Not good.

      On the plus side of the ledger is a superb cover of Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles" that tops the anarchy of the original through bash-everything-in-sight percussion, swooping slide guitar and goofy backing vocals. A rollicking version of Carlos Santana's "Black Magic Woman" suggests that the sorceress succeeded in making a devil out of the gravel-voiced lead singer after all, and an unrecognizable yet still marvelous version of Bob Marley's "Exodus" will have you mumbling along after a few spins if only to add a few familiar phonemes.

      Re-covers may be a mixed bag, but albums of cover versions are notoriously difficult to get right. No less a luminary than Caetano Veloso flubbed his recent attempt at this in 2004's A Foreign Sound. Kuvezin's triumphs are strong enough to carry the missteps, and these are at least entertaining. At the moment, this disc is only available as in import, but Harmonia Mundi will distribute a reasonably-price U.S. version soon. Get it for "When the Levee Breaks," which is quite simply one of the best covers I've ever heard in my life. Note to Albert and producer Ben Mandelson: more like this, please.