Yemen Blues – Only Love Remains (KARTEL MUSIC GROUP)
“The term “world music” has long underserved the artists it has been applied to, but for Yemen Blues, it just might be accurate. For nearly 15 years, the collective has been deftly blending musical styles and languages from across the globe.
At the core is Ravid Kahalani, a Yemenite-Israeli who plays the guitar-like North African gimbri and sings in a patchwork of Hebrew, Arabic, French and English. On Only Love Remains, the band’s latest (and, frankly, greatest) album, you’ll hear hypnotic Moroccan gnawa-style music, Arabic electro-grooves, down and dirty blues and stomping hip-hop, all mixed up into something unlike any band that exists. World music? Sure. This record will transport you to another time and place altogether. Rhythm is at the core of Yemen Blues, but not the steady four-counts you’re used to. Drummer Dan Mayo and percussionist Rony wryn lay down mesmerizing polyrhythmic patterns through these 11 tracks, creating a musical playground for bassist/ oud player Shanir Blumenkranz and absolute madman Kahalani to go wild. Let’s use “YYY” as an exampie.
We’ve got Kahalani repeating a tumbling gimbri melody, hooting and hollering in Arabic about the magic of each present moment as the tension builds. When Mayo drops a heavy drum-machine beat, Malian rapper Oxmo Puccino enters with a rumbling verse in French. You may not understand a word, but you may also be out of your seat, your body gyrating. Only Love Remains brings in heavier, more aggressive sounds than Yemen Blues has created before; the lovely, classical-folk elements of earlier albums are gone. In their place is a gruffer, electrifying style that reminds us that everyone, all over the world, needs a soundtrack as they lose their minds.”
Justin Jacobs
