A Wild Ride
Joseph Morales | California | 02/10/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Here is a raucous, highly energetic performance of tribal dance music. The exotic rhythms should appeal to anyone who likes bellydance or similar traditions. But squarely at the forefront is an ensemble of pipes, whose names I do not know, but in Western music would come closest to a bagpipe. Imagine about five bagpipes playing rambunctious, overlapping, high-and-low, call-and-response-parts as if the world is about to end. In the background, some pipes trumpet deeply like elephants. High in the front, a frenetic madman bends, warps, and strangles notes out of his pipe like a deranged Jimi Hendrix of the desert. At first listening, it's unbelievably brash, but on second listening, it becomes truly intoxicating. Recommended if you like groups like the Musicians of the Nile or those Renaissance music groups that play early wind instruments."