ADRIAN
RASO and FANFARE CIOCARLIA
Devil’s Tale
Asphalt
Tango Records 4414
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Pictures tell stories. The cover of Devil’s Tale features a bat-flocked
Gothic background. Front and center we see a lady of no discernible virtue leaning
against a tuba. Guitar-packing Old Nick sits astride a horse led by a
cigar-smoking skeleton holding a trumpet.
Maybe the old legend is true and the Devil does have the best music. Within
Balkan music, Fanfare Ciocarlia occupies the semi-mythical space analogous to
The Bothy Band in Ireland, Vartinna in Finland, or La Bottine Souriante in
Quebec. Soaked in the brine of Romani music and seasoned by everything from
Austrian military band music and Macedonian melodies to Bollywood and radio pop
sounds, Fanfare is brassy, bold outfit that often sounds like Gogol Bordello
meets a mariachi band. Their mix of energy and whimsy is cyclonic and
virtuosic. You need to be good, really
good, to keep up with these guys. Enter Canadian guitarist Adrian Raso, whose
rakish personality and love of Django Reinhardt put him on the same wavelength.
When Raso is laying down a seriously fast lick, it’s what you’d get if you
stuck a Gypsy soundtrack to microwave popcorn. Put some fierce brass behind all
that, and even the Devil had better watch out. Even song titles suggest inequity:
“Urn St. Tavern,” “The Absinthe Minded Gypsy, “Devil’s
Tale.” Throw what you know about
time signatures out the window and move the furniture from the room, you’re
going to need room to flop, flail, and dance along with the musical demons partying
in your head.
Rob
Weir
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