Singing in Tongues (Big Mind, 2014)
Global fusion junkies are in luck because Canada’s Eccodek’s latest Singing in Tongues is set hit the streets May 6th on the Big Mind label. With releases like Voices Have Eyes, Shivaboom and Remixtasy to their credit, this dub, electronica and tribal groove group headed up by Andrew McPherson is this time kicking the sound with Malian singer and musician Jah Youssouf and guest artists Onkar Singh, MC Yogi and Meral Mert.
Filled to overflowing with electronics, moog, n’goni, electric guitars and basses and meaty, bone-deep grooves, Singing in Tongues serves up a voluptuous mix that will have listeners diving deep and drinking their way to the very bottom to get the very last drop.
Singing in Tongues takes a nose dive directly into the opening African dense and funky groove “Village In Me” and doesn’t let up. Onkar Singh’s vocals blaze a fiery path through “In Confidence” against a kick ass backdrop that seamlessly weaves the sounds of Africa and India.
MC Yogi takes over vocals for “My Primitive Heart” in this sultry, weighty groove punctuated by n’goni. Every inch of Singing Tongues is worked over with help from drummer Adam Bowman, beat programmer Deliveryboy, electric bassist Marc DeVos, saxophonist Brent Rowan, conga and djembe player Jason Shute, hang player Morgan Doctor, oud player Aaron Lightstone, with Mr. Youssouf on n’goni and percussion and Mr. McPherson taking on the colossal weight of programming, moog, fender Rhodes, slide guitar, bass guitar, bamboo flute, tenor sax, percussion and dubbing among others.
Summoning up a Middle Eastern flavor, vocalist Meral Mert dominates “The End Begins” with some dishy oud lines surrounding the track. Other goodies include the title track “Singing in Tongues,” the African sweep of “The Big Man” with Meral Mert and Singing in Tongues closing track “Permission to Speak.” This closing track is a bit of a departure where the listener gets to climb down off the ceiling for a meditative space created laced with hang, xaphoon and spare percussion.
Drawing from all the corners of the musical map, Singing in Tongues kicks up a global groove dust storm that’s well worth getting lost in.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
