SOUNDTRACK: DakhaBrakha-Tiny Desk Concert #435 (April 25, 2015).
DakhaBrakha are a band from Kiev, Ukraine. There are four members, one man (unsure how he is dressed because he plays the accordion which covers his body) and three women. The women are dressed in fetching white gowns (with lovely detail work done on them) and gigantic woolen “farmer’s hats.”
The women play drums, (with what looks like a wooden spoon), bongos a horn instruments that sounds a bit like a kazoo (I wish NPR gave more details here) and a cello. They also provide most of the singing.
The first song, “Sho Z-Pod Duba”features bowed cello. It opens with the male yelling quite loud and some wild yipping and shrieking from the women by the song’s end.
The second song, “Torokh” features lead vocals by the middle woman (the one with the kazoo). But it also features interesting backing sounds and hums from the other two women. The cellist (who is plucking the strings like an upright bass) also sings a partial lead vocal. When the kazoo (which isn’t a kazoo at all, and is more like a penny whistle with some kind of vibrating piece on it) kicks in, the song goes utterly bonkers for a few measures. The male singer starts yelling and the song is just insane until it stops and slowly builds again.
The end of “Torokh” and a lot of “Divka-Marusechka” has the women singing in the style of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (Bulgarian folk harmonies). This song is the most unsettling of the three because the accordion and cello play an incessant drone that is a two note lurch. The male sings lead while the females sing harmony and dissonant harmonies as well as a bird call kind of sound. The end has one of the women signing an almost hip hop style while the other sings a higher, faster lyrics (all of which is in Ukrainian, so I have no idea what they are saying).
It is a strangely familiar music and yet it is also disconcerting. I listened to it three times and I loved blasting it in my car–t woks great at loud volumes. I also want to get one of those hats.
Check it out here.
[READ: March 28, 2015] Never Love a Gambler
This is a collection of three short stories from Irish writer Keith Ridgway. They are quite dark and explore the criminal underbelly.
“Never Love a Gambler”
In this story we meet a family, the father of which is a gambler. We meet his son and wife as they talk tough to the loan shark’s thug. The son is pretty tough, standing up to Mossie, who gets the whole bar quiet when he walks in. Mossie explains that he has been round to their house and they have some lovely things, but he can’t find the gambler himself. They tell him that they don’t know where he is and then set out to try to find him. In the meantime, they find a filthy homeless dog and a boy who is waiting to be picked up by his dad. And they go on a quest together. The stories converge in a dark but funny (but actually very dark) way.
“Shame”
In this claustrophobic story, a man is plagued by all manner of troubles. He dreams that his wife is planning to kill him and he believes it to be true. His job is to stay with his boss through the evening. When his boss asks him to deliver a letter he refuses, shockingly, because his orders are to stay with the boss and not leave his side. The boss is unhappy but is cheered when he gets his reply to the letter. Sometime later the boss gets a visitor, a lady. The narrator is unsure whether to let her in, but he does so and it is clear he did the right thing.
The boss is involved with some kind of activity at the water which uses a measuring stick. The narrator doesn’t know what they are doing and so neither do we (well, I didn’t anyhow, but I assumed it was no good). And then the man goes home to the family he loves.
“Ross and Kinder”
This is a fascinating story about a man who pays another to kill people. As the story starts Kinder has gone to a bush to pick up the gear which Ross has left him. Then Kinder goes and does the deed–a grisly murder made only more grisly when the story is told and retold by the locals. Ross is passive and not a little bit mysterious in his plans. Kinder knows very little about the man or why he does what he does. There are stories about Ross that paint his as a vicious murderer, but he says that he is not wiling to get his own hands dirty. There’s an interesting twist at the end.
None of these stories were pleasant, and they were all shrouded in darkness and mystery. While they weren’t exactly enjoyable to read, the writing style and especially the perspective was unusual and interesting. I don’t know that I need to read more from Ridgway but it’s good to read stories from someone with whom you are unfamiliar, especially in a genre you wouldn’t normally.
Leave a Reply