dreadpirateroberts
‘The Effects of Weather’ is another impressive blend of world music and jazz, pulling the listener in and out of countries from parts of Europe, Africa, South East Asia and Australia. While I prefer their previous album to this one, that’s more a reflection of personal enjoyment rather than quality. ‘Effects…’ is just as good, and develops the band’s already fascinating sound in a way that suggests Dung Nguyen has taken even more of a leadership role this time around.
Part of me thinks of their last album ‘Old Grooves for New Streets’ as being ‘led’ by Knight but here I feel like Nguyen’s range of stringed instruments star more so. Whether it’s his modified electric guitar or the traditional Vietnamese instruments (the dan bau and the dan tranh) his jangling and singing lines are once again weaving in and out of the rhythms but also acting more as focal points, often leading pieces, such as in one of the highlights, blues workout ‘Blues for a Jungster’ or taking great solos like in the African influenced piece ‘The Seddonista.’
That’s not to say the rest of the band have melted away, they’re still there and the fusion of musical styles is still key to their sound. The ‘Droop Street Breakdowns’ for instance are reminiscent of ‘Old Grooves…’ and demonstrate the seemingly effortless blending of styles that the band achieves. In fact, even if some of the melodies here aren’t as memorable for me this time around, it allows more of that melding already mentioned, and here, almost as much as the guitar, Pereira and Jayaweera’s percussion and drums respectively are just as important to pulling the varied styles together. New drummer Jayaweera’s slightly busier drumming on this album actually seems to force some songs into slightly more abstract territory (‘Music for Six Friends’ for example). Knight and Williamson’s trumpet and saxophones are arranged a little more sparingly, but they still solo and still work the melodies, though there’s probably a shade less aggression to their roles. And I do mean a shade, it’s probably not that much – you can take Williams in ‘The Seddonista’ or Knight during ‘Music For April’ for evidence of energy.
In some ways quite a different album to their last release, but what is familiar is just as welcome – ‘The Effects of Weather’ is more great World Fusion from ‘Way Out West.’