Sharifi, Jamshied – One
Reviewed by Sadie O., 4/30/08
Beautiful, mellow multiculturalism. Mostly rather trancey, but with subtle excellence of singing and playing, definitely inviting you to listen closely. Total disregard for musical/international boundaries, so you get things like a Tibetan and west African vocalist together on the first track. There are Western aspects, too, but mostly the voices and instruments are from Middle East, Africa, Western and South Asia. Fine stuff for going to sleep to – dream pretty…
Nothing in English (FCCs? Dubious…) I like 6 and 9 best.
1. **very quiet intro, drones, harp – then floating female vocals with hand percussion and mellow pipes. Builds very slowly, adding elements. Lovely, and fine hand drumming.
2. ***flutes and low female vocal intro, then slinky Middle Eastern groove – with sort of a latent urgency, and very pretty.
3. **chanting and water flowing and clarinet… Slow beat comes in very slowly, very languid.
4. *thumb piano and female voice, hypnotic, no beat.
5. *very low-key pipes and drones intro, pretty female voice (same as on track 1), very lush and extremely relaxed, no beat until mid-song. You are lying beside a mountain stream… You can feel all your muscles relax, and your body melt into the earth… This is actually just on the border of the amount of relaxedness that I can tolerate, but I’ll tell ya something – that girl can do fantastic things with her voice…
6. ****West African vocals and kora, very groovy downtempo beat, sneaky and cool. Some great hand drums start up in mid song.
7. *mellow drone and koto intro, pretty deep alto female voice. Builds and adds elements.
8. *Irish whistle and female vocals – do NOT drink Guiness while listening, or you WILL cry.
9. ****Nice! Lots of hand drums, male vocals, lots of energy. Variety of terrific woodwinds and other instruments. VERY long fade.
10. **very low-key “guitar” intro, suddenly starts up into slinky belly-danceable groove after a minute and a half. Another sudden shift into very powerful beat and horn for last minute or so.
11. *slow monotone intro with occasional bells (people listening in their cars won’t make out a damn thing, alas), very sad… unbearably mournful Irish whistle…