music

18 - Wednesday, January 24, 1990 - North Shore News

More Rai than rock

DISSIDENTEN
ROCKS THE CASBAH

ISSIDENTS LEVEL
cultural walls;
Icelanders compel;

Yemenite Madonna _ offers
more than mirage.
Dissidenten — Out Of This
World, Sire 1989

A decade betore the Berlin walt
crumbled, a small group of
avant-garde Teutons in sheikh’s
clothing were already busy chipp-
ing away at the cultural walls of
the divided city.

More Rai than rock, this unique
band mixes emotionally heady
North African sounds with cooler
Eurobeat dance music.

The songs are sung in Arabic.
This time out the dissidents work
with poet Cherif Lamrani and the
Strings Of The National Orchestra

MICHAEL
BECKER

record review

of Morocco. While some of the
song titles, Shake The Sheikh, Ur-
ban Dervish, belie a tongue-in-
cheek feel for this cross-cultural
adventure, the catchy spin on
traditional desert songs elevates
Dissidenten beyond novelty and

AND BEG
FORMORE-’

Good Moming

“YOU'LL SIT UP

onto a higher plane of border-
bashing relevance.
Sugar Cubes — Here Today,
Tomorrow Next Week, Elektra
1989

The Jetsons are jiving. They‘ve
got a band together in some not-
too-distant year. They're doing
well. They’re galactically looped
on some futuristic, mind-adjusting
substance. On a hi-tekkie whim,
they beam back to Iceland an
enlightened reading of pop
possibilities. The upshot — a
ground-breaking, quicksilver
sound. Why, that’s the ticket. The
indefinable defined, nailed down
pat. Here Today, Tomorrow Next
Week is visceral, surreal

TOM MANKS

TURNER
&HOOCH

The Oddest Couple
Ever Unleashed!

bouillabaisse for body and brain.

Byork Gudmundsdottir, Bragi
Olafsson, Einar Orn, Margret Or-
nolisdottir, Sigtryggur Baldursson
and Thor Eldon, push edges.

The group claims collective
credit for the often transfixing
lyrical content. ‘Food is love’
takes on new meaning on Pump:
‘eat me love/ your open
mouth/ 1, on your tonyue/ you
gulp me/ then down yaur guilet/ in
the stomach you splash acid on
me/ | travel down the in-
testines....""

A wild ride is inevitable February
23, live, compelling, cubist vibes
at the Commodore.

Ofra Haza — Desert Wind,
Teldec 1989

The World Beat Madonna's
roots were planted 30 years ago in
the Yemenite Jewish community of
Tel Aviv.

Inspired by the traditional songs
of her people and blessed with a
remarkable voice, Haza is already
big business in her own country.
She’s released 21 discs in Israel.
She caught broader attention with
the 1987 release of Yemenite
Songs. The shift from traditional to
a more Westernized sound began
in earnest with 1988's Shaday. It
came off with spotty results but the
enriching synthesis is taken a step
further on Desert Wind with the
help of Thomas Dolby and Arif
and Joe Mardin: Thankfully Haza’s
helpmates had the smarts to in-
clude some powerfully simple ar-
rangements as well. Delicate, an-
cient prayers live side by side with
contemporary expressions of
Middle Eastern realpolitik.

The resulting fusion is a feast.

“LOADS OF FUN!”

— SNEAK PREVIEWS,
Jeffrey Lyons

TOUCHSTONE
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