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Review
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Penguin Eggs, Review >>
Albert Kuvezin & Yat-Kha
Re-Covers
World Village
When i got my copy of Re-Covers and looked at the titles of the tracks I was flummoxed. Why would Central Asian overtone-singer Albert Kuvezin - whose ultra-low voice sounds like the rumbling of a concrete-mixerwant to reinterpret such pieces as Santana's Black Magic Woman, Bob Marley's Exodus, and Hank Williams's Ranmblin' Man? After a couple of cuts it becomes clear that the Tuvan artist and his trio Yat-Kha are paying musical dues to their early westem pop and rock inspirations, while at the same time having a cross-cultural lark.
Kuvezin's droning, growling versions of the Jagger-Richard ballad Play With Fire and late 60s West Coast band Iron Butlerlly's embarassingly vapid dirge In Gadda Da Vida are clearly not to be taken too seriously. And his rendition of the traditional Scottish ditty The Wild Mountain Thyme suggests a lovelorn Highland troll bedevilled with indigestion. It does nothing tor the song; the joke is on us.
However, the deep pitch of Kuvezin's voice and the mix of electric guitar and bass with instruments from Central Asia works well on several other cuts. Led Zeppelin's bluesy When the Levee Breaks and Joy Division's intense Love Will Tear Us Apart gain from a sense of ancient darkness and menace. Likewise, Kuvezin's and YatKha's mesmeric reworking of Captain Beetheart's Her Eyes Are.A Blue Million Miles enhances the song's psychedelic edginess. Except for one number in Russian and another in Tuvan. Kuvezin sings throughout the album in heavily-accented and sometimes strangely-articulated English. Re-Covers' oddball blend of world music and pop-rock deserves praise for its adventurous spirit, but the rough charm wears a bit thin after two or three plays.
- By Tony Montague 10/01/06
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