Description:
Oi Va Voi's strong live reputation gained them twin nominations in the 2002 BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, and Laughter Through Tears marks the long-awaited album debut from this London-based sextet. The opening run of tracks are commercially viable and soulfully relaxed, with all Jewish traditional elements appearing as peripheral traces. On another level, this is a courageous (or perverse) move, saving the faster, more characterful numbers for the album's second half. This has a slow-building effect, but doesn't necessarily convey the band's full live personality. KT Tunstall provides emotive vocals on "Refugee" and
Oi Va Voi's strong live reputation gained them twin nominations in the 2002 BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, and Laughter Through Tears marks the long-awaited album debut from this London-based sextet. The opening run of tracks are commercially viable and soulfully relaxed, with all Jewish traditional elements appearing as peripheral traces. On another level, this is a courageous (or perverse) move, saving the faster, more characterful numbers for the album's second half. This has a slow-building effect, but doesn't necessarily convey the band's full live personality. KT Tunstall provides emotive vocals on "Refugee" and "Yesterday's Mistakes", backed by soothing strings and nimble basslines, akin to Nitin Sawhney or Zero 7, given subtle traces of traditional klezmer. As Judith Ne'meth sings an atmospheric Hungarian love song, Oi Va Voi enter the more active second phase, all of its dancefloor elements hand-crafted by the live line-up of drums, bass, guitar, violin, trumpet and clarinet. Earl Zinger raggas up "Gypsy" and Uzbekistan's Sevara Nazarkhan trills on "7 Brothers", which is later remixed by Hefner, appearing as a hidden track. But it's "Dror Yikra" that provides the most extreme example of cross-culturalism, with Tunisian vocalist Ben Hassan tackling a traditional Sephardic tune from the Yemen, bolstered by flamenco touches and a pin-pricking jazz trumpet solo by Lemez Lovas. --Martin Longley
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Manufacturer: Outcaste
Release date: 29 September 2003
EAN: 5030688100063
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