| CD REVIEW Joep Pelt |
 |
|
Band : Joep Pelt Joep Pelt is a Dutch singer-songwriter-guitarist with an unrestful soul, continuously packing up his guitar and backpack to visit new horizons around the world. Hum, the title of this album is quite in keeping with that spirit then, wouldn’t you agree? To be quite honest, I’d never heard of him before, even though he has several albums to his name! Born in 1979, Joep has travelled both in the USA and Africa, looking for new mucisal influences to absorb and re-mold into his own songs. Live, Joep plays both as a solo artist (with just his acoustic guitar), or with a full-blown band during more energetic gigs. At the end of the ‘90s he was travelling in the South of the US and made a halt down Mississippi to play jams on porches or local juke joints with the likes of veterans like R.L. Burnside and T-Model Ford, whom introduced him to the old guitar techniques from the Southern cotton counties and the bushy hills just down South of Memphis. He then apparently wrote a thesis about the Devil in Rock and travelled to Mali for the first time in 2004. French label Bad Reputation Records would release his debut album Stick it In that same year (following it up with It Is What It Is n 2006). While in Mali and on later trips over there, he meets up and jams (getting lessons on the guitar along the way) with such African legends as Ali Farka Touré, Djelimady Tounkara, and Lobi Traoré. With the latter he eventually records the album I Yougoba! in the country’s capitol city Bamako, an album released in 2007. After playing at the Festival Du Niger in Segou (Mali) and Dutch festivals Festival Mundial, Oerol and North Sea Jazz Festival (where Joep played for the 4th consecutive time), the collaboration project was taken to the US for a bunch of concerts in New York, Chicago and the SxSW festival in 2008. The collaboration is concluded in 2009 with a documentary for Holland’s Museum van Volkenkunde (translates at “Ethnologic Museum”, I guess) in Leiden and the re-issue of I Yougoba! through Dutch label Excelsior Recordings. End 2009 Joep travels to Ethiopia, where (during his gigs and meetings with local legends) he drew influences from Ethio-Jazz. Not that a lot of that is evident on Joep’s 3rd solo album! In fact, the album is a melting pot of àll of his musical influences, with slight overtones towards the one or the other, depending on the track. Thus, you’ll find the album opening with the strongly Southern Rock influenced “The Writer”, the sound of which is enhanced with a warm organ layer. The ensuing “Hypochondria” is a weird one, containing an additional female spoken word bit in African (her part of a telephone conversation which later in the songs even turns over iinto some kind of “singing”…and you can shoot me, but I don’t know what language she’s at). Musically, the songs starts off as a soft-Blues tune, to which are then added a mixture of lapsteel guitar and trumpets, adding a wacky Afro Jazz influence. There’s also some Jazz influence in the organ of the in essence Soft-Bluesey “Willing To Stay (Part II)”. But with the following “Sparkling Pacific” comes a track for vocals and acoustic guitar only, and regrettably the depressive mood of it can be found on much of the rest of the album. On reflection, the depressive mood comes forth from the man’s vocal style and lyrics mostly! At least in the more energetic “Playing Your Piano” (containing Joep’s most energetic singing on the album) and album closer “Good Old Days” (also has some nice female backings) that mood is somewhat turned around towards the positive side. As a special guest on this album, he had bassist Brehima Kouyaté flown in from Mali – no mention of all the other people whom participated to the album! According to the promo talk with our download copy of the album, Joep’s music is best compared to the diversity of artists like Ry Cooder, Damon Albarn, Beck, Nick Cave, and Vampire Weekend. As far as I am concerned, I can swing with the more energetic songs, but refuse to wallow away in the depressive moods of the other tracks…which regrettably make up the bulk of the album. Sure, in Blues you’re supposed to talk about all the bad things that happen around you, but there’s more uplifting ways to do it…as proven by the better songs on the album, by the way! Ah well, if you’re interested there’s some songs posted both at myspace.com/joeppelt and in the “Music” section of Pelt’s own webbsite (www.) joeppelt.net! Meanwhile Joep has gone off travelling again, leaving at the end of April to visit South Africa and immerse himself in the music of thàt part of the world. Hum, curious whether that may bring a more jolly touch to his future material! 80/100 Tony. |