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CD Review By Tony Montague
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Georgia Straight, CD Review By Tony Montague >>
Uprooting opens with an 18-second cut of rough-and-raucous traditional singer Jozef Lipinski that segues, via a hammered dulcimer ostinato, to the full-tilt Warsaw Village Band attack on “In the Forest”- scratches, pounding drum beats, droning fiddle, and three Polish girls singing in unison with a wild and ancient sound that evokes images of vodka-fuelled Valkyries at a pub singalong in the halls of Valhalla.
The six-piece WVB calls its music “hardcore folk”, and the tag fits. The traditional songs and tunes, which come in the main from the central Polish region of Mazovia, are played on acoustic instruments with an energy that at times recalls the Pogues or the Levellers at their finest. It’s not that there are no “softcore” moments on Uprooting. When the roots go deep, the tempo isn’t always up. The album includes four brief field-recordings of traditional musicians who’ve inspired theWVB. But the overall impression is of a swelling wave of East European sounds: strings, percussion, and voices - half-singing half-yelling - that’s being directed with attitude and intelligence.
Special mention should be made of teenage cellist Maja Kleszcz who plays and sings with equal power. One of the highlights of this incredible recording is her unaccompanied voice interpreting “Lament”, the prayer of a dying young man wounded in war. European roots music doesn’t get any more timeless or moving than this. Get Uprooting, fill your glass with some 80 proof Belvedere, and let the WVB give the goosebumps on the back of your neck some exercise.
Tony Montague
04/05/05 >> go there
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