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. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 