Mark Gibbens listens to Xosé Manuel Budiño, a highly respected virtuoso of the Galician bagpipe (Gaita Galega), flute and low whistle. Concluding that his 2007 album, Home, "somewhat of a mixed bag, ranging from fairly average celtic chill-out tracks, right up to some top-notch driving dance music in the best Galician tradition".
Tackling the downsides first, I found the programming and synthesised stuff rarely worked well on this album. True, there are tunes where the fat basslines and beats provide a good solid foundation. But, although I'm no traditionalist here, I think there are many instances where the electronica gets in the way. Take Inmaterial, which brings in the considerable vocal talent of Mercedes Peón. She has a rich, strong voice, shifting to the wistful and reflective on this track. Yet the electronic stuff tended to mask the subtleties of her singing rather than enhance. By the end of the album, I was starting to get heartily sick of the stray windchimes that seemed to be thrown in at the slightest opportunity.
Moving (as quickly as possible!) away from the windchimes and other over-cooked twinkly effects, I must now fess up to a personal bias. I'm an amateur whistle player myself, but I'm always nervous of albums where there is a superabundance of whistle and flute. Over-used, particularly on more reflective celtic ballads and airs, it can pull albums dangerously close to becoming moods music. Lots of people love this, but I'm not one of them. Budiño is clearly at the top of his game on the low whistle, and there were occasions where his playing got the heart racing and the foot tapping, but more generally, I found the whistlely stuff to be a bit pedestrian and forgettable.
Galician music is full of syncopation and adding jazz to the mix resulted in some really cool rhythmic twists.
After that slightly hard-hearted beginning, I do have to say that I also enjoyed parts of the album. I really liked the jazzy influences on many tracks, including some arabic-tinged fiddle on Pedra de Abalar and soulful, floating sax motifs on Ollos de sal. Paulo Borges' piano was great to hear, strengthening this jazz undercurrent, and getting positivly funky on Shokran. Galician music is full of syncopation and adding jazz to the mix resulted in some really cool rhythmic twists.
No doubt about it, there are some awesome tunes here. Ollin Kan, bringing in Basque trikitixa guru, Kepa Junkera, frankly rocked my world. The programming was much less in the way here, the track being held together by Junkera's frenetic squeeze-box, as is common for him performing magic you wouldn't think humanly possible on the instrument. Helped again by Borges' piano, some of his driving box punctuation also picked up the jazz theme, pulling the rhythm into new shapes before snapping back into place and storming on. And on this platform, Budiño's Galician pipes and low whistle started to crackle with excitement and fun. But there's that darned windchime again! But nevermind, we can forgive it here! This track really was everything I love about the Galician tradition: electric, lilting, ecstatic, foot-stomping party music.
And it wasn't the only highlight. The opening track, Pedra de Abalar was a place I thought the programming worked well, raising hopes that weren't entirely maintained on the rest of the album. Pedra de Abalar introduced the evocative, almost arabic-sounding Breton fiddle of Jacky Molard, woven about with rich percussion and deep bass, and carrying a busy but graceful Galician pipe riff. There were points on this track where the programmed percussion was used to pull the rhythm around in much the same way that other bands achieve with bazouki, cittern or guitar. I was also very taken with Sempre Alalá, where a great old sample of vernacular song was overlaid by a soaring pipe anthem and fantastically underpinned by Carlos Castro's echoing bombos. There was also Shokran another great platform for Budiño's pipes, this time built on a startlingly funky platform reminiscent of classic cop thriller themes. Rounding the album off was Imos Dj, a refreshing traditional blend of Galician pipes and percussion. All great stuff.
So, I wasn't sure about this album in general. The saddest thing for me was missing the rich and inventive arrangements present in other Galician and Asturian bands such as Berrogüetto, Llan de Cubel and Tejedor. I just felt this was pushed out by the programming, and not altogether made up for. At it's worst: a poorer expression of one of the most exciting musical traditions on the planet. But with musicians of the calibre of Budiño, Kepa Junkera, Mercedes Peón, Jacky Molard and others here, you can't fall completely flat, and wherever their talents are allowed to shine it is hard not to be pulled in.
