Artist.......: black ox orkestar
Album........: nisht azoy
Label........: Constellation
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: CST-038
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Mar-30-2006
str.date.....: Apr-03-2006
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: http://www.cstrecords.com
track title time
01. bukharian 04:45
02. az vey dem tatn 05:29
03. violin duet 05:22
04. ikh ken tsvey zayn 05:34
05. ratsekr grec 04:18
06. tsvey taybelakh 07:13
07. dobriden 06:50
08. golem 07:21
Runtime 46:52 min
Size 64,8 MB
Release Notes:
The second record by Montreal's Black Ox Orkestar
places the group at the forefront of a 'new Jewish
music' that rejects contemporary fusion and musty
nostalgia in equal measure. With backgrounds in
folk, punk-rock and free jazz, the group's four
musicians distill Balkan, Central Asian, Arabic and
Slavic sources into a coherent, impassioned sound
that gives teeth to old Jewish songs. Never relying
on museum-piece reverence or an obvious, forced
collision of musical forms, Black Ox is rewriting a
Yiddish songbook in ways that sound organically
anchored to tradition without being suffocated by
it. Nisht Azoy (Not Like This) builds dramatically
on Black Ox's debut (Ver Tanzt?; cst029), striking
a similar balance between vocal and instrumental
tunes, but with more intensity, mystery, and a
readiness to stretch things out, whether in the
incantatory opener "Bukharian" or the clomping
crescendos of "Az Vey Dem Tatn" and "Tsvey
Tabelakh". Further upping the ante with greater use
of percussion and group singing, the band's
entirely acoustic instrumentation pumps and pulses
with explosive energy and emotion. Radwan Moumneh
captures the 4-piece band (at Montreal's
Hotel2Tango studio) with a detailed warmth and
authority, and a large cast of guest players
expands the group to bona fide orchestral size on
"Tsvey Tabelakh". The slow plaintiveness of vocal
songs "Ikh Ken Tsvey Zayn" and "Golem" rank among
the group's most spine-tingling, mesmerising
moments. "Ratsekr Grec" summons a Balkan dance
rhythm in one of the album's more overtly
traditional arrangements, adding a flurry of
colliding horns down the home stretch. Taken as a
whole, the cycle of songs on Nisht Azoy further
opens up a world, inspired by Jewish diasporic
culture and politics, that challenges conventional
appropriations and forges music that is highly
original, deeply felt and very much alive. As the
band writes: "Nisht Azoy is the melancholy and
uncompromising sound of our mongrel music splitting
at the seams, the boat creaking as we drag our
friends on board. As we sing in Tsvey Taybelakh:
'When you come to a strange city, my love / Think
of my words / When you come to deep waters, my love
/ You will not drown in sorrow / When you come to
great fires, my love / You will not be burnt in
sorrow.'"