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Review:
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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.
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