| This Week's Highlights |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
analysis w/e 14.5.11 |
DVDs out 9.5.11 |
|
@ DVDfever Youtube |
|
|
|
|
May 11 2011 
DVDfever co uk
|
Intoxicating brew of East meets West. When the Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin introduced eastern flavours into rock music it turned the genre on its head, and opened the floodgates. Now teenage Turkish -Cypriot Dogan Mehmet, from Brighton, has masterfully infused them into folk music. In 2008 he was runner-up in the 2008 BBC Young Folk Awards. Vocally, sounding way beyond his 19 years, Mehmet, a superb violinist and percussionist, has masterfully combined Anglo-Turkish traditions and has pulled it off with aplomb, using a handy five-piece band called The Deerhunters – Tom Wright (drums / percussion) Tom Redman (bass guitar / French horn) Matt Price (guitars) Matt Quinn (mandolin / mandolin-banjo) Colin Nicholson piano accordion / keyboards) who play a major part in the success of this album. Many of these songs are traditional except where noted (see tracks), and they curiously sit comfortably next to each other. It’s a dramatic and beguiling Eastern start with a drone-like backdrop slightly dressed with shimmering but understated violin before the standard 18th century Scottish tale Wraggle Taggle Gypsies, (aka The Gypsy Laddie, or Black Jack Davy) unfolds into a steady jaunt. A slow, but equally exquisite self-penned The Raging Seas taken from stories told by his grandfather combines Turkish / English elements while West Pier beautifully laments the demise of the Brighton Pier in March 2003 with plashes of keyboards which segues seamlessly into dazzling violin solo over an Eastern drone for the improvised slow air Ozun Hava from the Turkish instrumental tradition.
Ceftetelli, common among Turks and Greek, one of those tracks that makes you want get into a belly dance routine. Dillirga is a full-on celebration of beautiful girls boasting sizzling violin and chants, whereas Ozman Aga, an upbeat traditional gypsy song tells the tale of a man from the Ottoman times, featuring a slipped-in tune written by band member Tom Wright, called Eighteen Months. The same trick is done again with a Glen Redman song Southover interwoven into a pulsating southern English standard The Lawyer (Mowing The Barley) aka Lawyer Lee by Cecil James Sharp, Britain’s leading folk revivalist in the 20th century. Closing a great album, Mehmet delved into the Penguin Book Of English Folk Song (1912) for The Royal Oak, a English ship caught up in a battle with a Turkish ship. A riff by The Who inspired the main musical hook of this engaging near six minute wonder with Matt Quinn’s mandolin-banjo running amok. This CD will appear to both folk purists and the generally inquisitive - you won’t be disappointed. The verdict – A very special album.
Weblink: doganmehmet.com
The full list of tracks included are :
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier. PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
|
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
