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Black Ox Orkestar, "Ver Tanzt?"
Constellation
Records parading as ethnic albums tend to piss me off; there are veryfew exceptions to this fact. Unless the album is a field recording initself or an earnest attempt at perserving old music in a modern world,the music fails and sounds forced. Fortunately Ver Tanzt?does not fall to such symptoms and emerges as an exhilarating andpainfully beautiful blend of modern and old sound. Anyone that haslistened to a soundtrack from a movie about Jewish life is probablyfamiliar with all the elements of European Jewish music—it is lush,staggered, melodically exotic, and somehow steeped in the feeling ofimprovisation. No matter how well the arrangements come together,there's always a feeling that it's the musicians making it happen thatway, not that composition itself; it simply couldn't have been plannedthat way, it's just too lovely. Black Ox Orkestar run the gamut fromhyper tunes full of blood-pumping rhythms and grin-producing melodiesto the heart-wrenching guitar playing of disaster and rememberance.It's interesting that the group has decided to include a quote that,though I'm not entirely sure of it, references Zionism and the internalconflict between having two homes: one that always moves and one wherea temple once stood. While there is nothing inherently political aboutthe music (though I can't understand the language that is sometimessung), the duration of the album renders real the spirit of conflict,joy, and pain. It is in this way that the group succeeds; the album,despite linguistic and cultural differences, sounds human and iseffective for that reason. The music sounds honest and the use ofJewish musical roots doesn't sound forced or gimmicky—it is earnest andpowerful. I think this band has managed to explain to me why so manygroups fail at employing ethnic sources in their music; it's all just agimmick half the time meant to draw upon the alien and seductive natureof a foreign music without bothering to go through the pains of feelingthe sounds and instruments and making them the source of learning andhumanity that they are.
Records parading as ethnic albums tend to piss me off; there are veryfew exceptions to this fact. Unless the album is a field recording initself or an earnest attempt at perserving old music in a modern world,the music fails and sounds forced. Fortunately Ver Tanzt?does not fall to such symptoms and emerges as an exhilarating andpainfully beautiful blend of modern and old sound. Anyone that haslistened to a soundtrack from a movie about Jewish life is probablyfamiliar with all the elements of European Jewish music—it is lush,staggered, melodically exotic, and somehow steeped in the feeling ofimprovisation. No matter how well the arrangements come together,there's always a feeling that it's the musicians making it happen thatway, not that composition itself; it simply couldn't have been plannedthat way, it's just too lovely. Black Ox Orkestar run the gamut fromhyper tunes full of blood-pumping rhythms and grin-producing melodiesto the heart-wrenching guitar playing of disaster and rememberance.It's interesting that the group has decided to include a quote that,though I'm not entirely sure of it, references Zionism and the internalconflict between having two homes: one that always moves and one wherea temple once stood. While there is nothing inherently political aboutthe music (though I can't understand the language that is sometimessung), the duration of the album renders real the spirit of conflict,joy, and pain. It is in this way that the group succeeds; the album,despite linguistic and cultural differences, sounds human and iseffective for that reason. The music sounds honest and the use ofJewish musical roots doesn't sound forced or gimmicky—it is earnest andpowerful. I think this band has managed to explain to me why so manygroups fail at employing ethnic sources in their music; it's all just agimmick half the time meant to draw upon the alien and seductive natureof a foreign music without bothering to go through the pains of feelingthe sounds and instruments and making them the source of learning andhumanity that they are.
