Psyche-belly Dance MusicBaBa ZuLa & Mad ProfessorBaBa ZuLa's third album Psychebelly Dance Music released in May 2003 was mixed and mastered by the British musician and producer Mad Professor who previously worked with Massive Attack, The Orb, Lee Perry and alikes.
The music of BaBa Zula is a subdued, atmospheric mix of folkmusic and Western rock. Traditional and electric instruments are augmented by samples of organic environmental sounds and electronic and sequenced parts. The fact that the music on that disc was created for plays in the theatre might explain the somewhat sketchy approach. On their third album Ruhani Oyun Havalari (translated into: Psyche-belly Dance Music) the material is more songbased but the environmental sounds remained. In Cecom for instance, where crickets add a strong nightly mood to the song. The quintet has several guests on the album like clarinetmaestro Hüsnü Şenlendirici from Turkish folkjazz-group Layco Tayfa as well as Canadian singer Brenna MacCrimmon who studied Turkish music in Istanbul for 5 and half years and played in Karsilama.
What makes this album even more special and exciting is that they got British dublegend Mad Professor to treat their music in his own way. Several songs appear in roomy dubmixes like the hypnotizing Su Daglari Sardi Feryadim. The title means "My cries covered all these mountains" and the reverberating vocals surely emphasize that feeling. Mad Professor treated the tracks very tasteful as it doesn't feel he had to force Jamaican riddims over the Turkish ones. Otherwise the full spectrum of dubtechniques passes by,
So what we have here is another great example of "world-music" in the true sense of the word. A lovely and charming mix of two traditions (well, roughly, there's more to it) very far apart geographically but working great together in a colourful psychedelic oriental trip.
Released: 29 Sep 2003 - Doublemoon |
