Monday, May 25, 2009
Group Doueh, Omar Souleyman/ Marina Celeste, 20/5
This was an evening of North African/ Middle Eastern music at the lovely setting of St George's Church in Kemptown. Doueh is a self-taught guitarist from Western Sahara who plays both ordinary electric guitar and traditional stringed instruments, augmented with keyboards, percussion and vocals.
The guitar playing verged on the psychedelic at times, but the harsh sound mix proved a less than pleasurable listening experience, and the band never seemed to get into a groove. Syrian Omar Souleyman was a different proposition. The sound sorted out, he started with a long vocal intro before the rhythms kicked in and his mojo started working on the eager audience, inspired into bursts of 'ethnic' hand-dancing to his infectious Arab pop.
The guitar playing verged on the psychedelic at times, but the harsh sound mix proved a less than pleasurable listening experience, and the band never seemed to get into a groove. Syrian Omar Souleyman was a different proposition. The sound sorted out, he started with a long vocal intro before the rhythms kicked in and his mojo started working on the eager audience, inspired into bursts of 'ethnic' hand-dancing to his infectious Arab pop.
Then it was a nip onto a bus for Marina Celeste at the Speigeltent. Marina is one of the multutide of breathy French female vocalists to add her talents to the three albums by Nouvelle Vague, who re-work punk, new wave and 80s classics into a bossa-nova style. She's now working on solo material, and her elfin charm, cheekbones and sexy French accent wowed a packed house as she slunk and skipped her way through impressive original material and Nouvelle Vague classics. Lovely.
