Singer's grave - a sea of tongues
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Keywords
Reviews (2)
The observer
d. 9. June 2013
By
By
Neil Spencer
d. 9. June 2013
"The previous album by Aussie rockers Chris Eckman (the Walkabouts) and Hugo Race (the Bad Seeds) was a brave fusion with Tuareg band Tamikrest. This follow-up, cut in a makeshift studio in Bamako, at first seems more of the same, its rock guitars riding African rhythms, heavy on shimmering atmosphere but light on structured songs".
fRoots
2013 October
By
By
Chris Nickson
2013 October
"Dirtmusic (...) went to play Festival in the Desert in Mali and hooked up with the folk in Tamikrest. It transformed their sound. Now, on their third disc, a slimmed-down Dirtmusic with just two original members brings most of Ben Zabo's band into the fold to become a true fusion of East and West ... Imagination, arrangements and execution cross continents ... The music is beautifully grounded and rhythmic, most notably on the opening cuts, Chicken Scratch and the epic Fitzcarraldo, both of which offer faint nods in the direction of Talking Heads, a band actually far ahead of its time ... What truly sets this album apart is the democratic approach to the music. Neither the Western nor the African element is more important. Each instrument's voice and idea is a vital part of the whole. That puts Dirtmusic on a whole new track, one that's not the global fusion of yore but something meatier - planet rock, if you will ... A searing, powerful disc".