release of new album - marionette
With their new album Marionette La Boum! are once again at the forefront of the boundary-crossing genre of World Roots music. La Boum! is one of the originators of the genre before the term was coined and with this new album they continue to cross the boundaries. The new album has echoes of frontman Tom Salter's work with Malian legend Ali Farka Touré but continues to cross musical frontiers to include the Folk, Latin and Jazz influences of Scottish band members - Ben Ivitsky of the Eliza Carthy Band, Mary Macmaster of the Poozies on vocals and harp, Heather Macleod with her jazz inflections on vocals and Dougie Hudson of Salsa Celtica on percussion. The horn and vocal sections give the band a big sound live and this big sound has been boosted on Marionette by guests from the Indian band Mrigiya - Sharat Chandra Srivastava on violin and Athar Hussein on tablas, by the precise percussion of the Peatbog Faeries Iain Copeland and the beautiful voice of Eliza Carthy.
As Charlie Gillett says, the fear that World music would become a euphemism for 'third-world-rest-of-the-world-music' has proved untrue. Instead it has become a mark of distinction for the best music from anywhere. La Boum!'s new album Marionette proves the point.
“The steamiest band North of the rainforest.” (The list.)
“Zimbabwean guitar pop, reggae rhythms, deep acoustic West African grooves, intriguing lyrics…backing singers who sound like Bob Marley's I Threes and a booting horn section. Who the hell are these people?” (Froots)
The opening song and title track of the album Marionette sets an exuberant carnival tone for the journey ahead, driven by the horn section and the backing vocals of the Wee Frees. The obvious Latin influence on this first track returns in the penultimate track The Sound of Leaving. Again the horn and vocal sections carry us along the tracks to the dance floor. The Latin tinge in these tracks recalls the Atlantic heritage that has bound the Americas, Africa and Europe in an amazing musical conversation for over a century. La Boum! cannot resist joining in.
In Shopping the beat of the dance floor continues to pulse. The terrible lust for shopping that inspired the song also drew a good friend, Eliza Carthy, to join in and add her distinctive tone to the chorus. Funky horns on top, an insistent Malian style guitar riff underneath and the swinging percussion of Doug Hudson of Salsa Celtica and Iain Copeland of the Peatbog Faeries imbetween provide the backdrop for a showpiece guitar solo, inspired by the work of Zani Diabate, one of Mali's guitar heros.
Devil kicks off in a mellower mood, Doug Duncan, providing an inspired trumpet solo and the Wee Frees holding forth in before the whole band kick in to pull the music once again back to the dance floor. The song Home brings us back to Scotland for the interplay of Salter and Ivitsky's guitar in jig time, before the musical journey takes us further a field. La Boum! invited guests from the Indian band Mrigiya - Sharat Chandra Srivastava on violin and Athar Hussein on tablas to join them on the Home to startling effect. On Power the Scottish influence is again evident in the evocative harp playing of band member Mary MacMaster. The sound of the harp sets off another guitar tune inspired by Salter's time in Mali, where the kora is such an important instrument.
The band are in a more experimental mood on the track Believe. Ben Ivitsky's tune has its origins in a journey to Namibia when he was performing with the Peatbog Faeries. Ben was blown away by the rhythms he heard in the nightclubs and when given the chance to play with local musicians. What rubbed off on him has turned into the pounding drums, bass and dubbed up vocals of Believe.
In This Land Tom takes a swipe at ethnic nationalists in Scotland and claims the land for all the people who inhabit the island to the buoyant lilt of a catchy horn line. Falling sees the band in a poppier vein, with a tongue in cheek love song brought on by Ian Dury and the recent spate of war on the news. Bamako, the final song on the album, takes us all the way to the Malian capital where Salter was drawn into the world of the Super Rail Band in the capable hands of guitarist Djelimady Tounkara in the late 1980s. The song pays homage to the capital and the country.
Tom says of the new album
'This band is a real powerhouse and we have produced a formidable piece of work. I think we've managed to integrate what I love in Africa with what I love in cosmopolitan Scotland. Working in the past with Ali Farka Touré in Mali, Biggie Thembo in Zimbabwe and Bob Sen of Super Diamono in Senegal it's great now to play at home. In this new album I've been working with Scottish musicians every bit as inspiring, who've made a real gem. The friends from India, England and Scotland we've invited to play with us on this album have really added important new colours. We'll be touring the UK from Somerset to Wester Ross in April playing music from the new album.'
