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Recording:
  There Is Only Love And Fear
 
 
Artist:
  Bex Burch
 
 
Label:
  International Anthem
 
 
Release Date:
  20.October.2023  
 
Reviewed by:
  PostLibyan  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

Bex Burch is a jazz musician, a xylophonist, and one of the nerdiest musicians I have ever discussed on this site. (And I play Dungeons and Dragons in my spare time, so I am fairly well versed with nerdiness!) Ms. Burch travelled to Ghana in order to learn about the xylophone and make her own. I suppose this makes her a xylophone hipster. Okay.

I'm not much of one for "purity". That is to say, travelling to the "old world" to learn from a master is cool and all, but sometimes hipsters to that and come back confused about what interested them in the first place. They become obsessed with some notion of purity, of true intent, or righteousness, and lose sight of how the thing in question has grown, changed, and been utilized in other cultures, such as ours.

I guess I see this a LOT in food hipsters, many of whom have smarmy shows on streaming service providers. I have become burnt out on food hipsters, so I approach this musical hipsterdom with suspicion.

That said, I think that Ms. Burch is doing some interesting things here.

The record starts with birds singing in the appropriately named Dawn Blessings. There is the sound of someone walking as the birds chitter. The steps form a rhythm, to be joined by the xylophone, an upright bass, some drums, and eventually some strings. This song has a loping rhythm.

The next song, If I Was You, I'd Be Doing Exactly the Same is a stranger, more jazzy song. There are horns droning, an oddly scattered xylophone, some drumming. The drumming is more regular than the xylophone, and it is coupled with a slippery bass riff that helps keep the song grounded.

Burch gets her Tortoise on for Don't Go Back To Sleep. This is a very xylophone song, but as it grows, the rhythm starts to remind me, slightly, of Kraftwerk. It's a sparse echoing kind of sound. It ends with a bass rumble, deep and overpowering.

The Delicious Fruit Smoothie With Peanut Butter is a short interlude of hand drumming. Very cool. It fades into Pardieu, where it is back to the xylophone, here coupled with a sort of keyboard trill. I like the bass here, just an occasional rumble in the background, combined with the xylophone and the clattering drumming.

Water sounds and bird chittering dominate Start Before You're Ready, which seems more like a two minute interlude. You Thought You Were Free? meanders for a bit before fusing into a Latin infused jazz tune. Trumpet sings out with fast drumming, some bongos, and a rolling bass riff. And … is that a tube laying a bouncing little melody? The whole song parades forward, joyously.

"Joy is not meant to be a crumb"
is the title of the next tune, an interlude, and yes the title is in quotes as if someone else said that. But this is a joyous song, with bass, xylophone, some kind of shaking percussion. it's a two minute, fun little tune.

On Falling
is more of a normal song of piano and rhythm. Follow Me, I Make You Happy has droning strings and Tortoisey rhythms. Both of those are fun, if bust tunes, but This Is the Sound Of One Voice is very minimal. The main rhythmic element is a clicking that sounds like the click of an old camera (think: the start of Girls On Film.) Burch plays a normal drum kit on When Love Begins, and does it well.

And that's the album. Each individual song has something worthwhile to offer, and there are no snoozers here.

However, like a lot of jazz, then franticness of it gets wearying after a while. I find it difficult to listen to the whole record – the music is too "samey". You can really say that about anything (and lord knows I can listen to hours of droning metal!), but you kind of have to be really into something to get past the samey-ness.

And I cannot do that here. It wears me out after 3 to 4 songs. I thoroughly enjoy the songs, but then I am ready to move on. If you are more into jazz than I am, you might find that this rewards longer listens. But if you are less into jazz, well, a little bit of this might go a long way.
 
         
 
Related Links:
 

https://bexburch.com/
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-only-love-and-fear

 
         

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