March 2009 Music Review
Shoom; A Place Called Peace
Shoom
What a hot collection of spellbinding tribal rhythms this is! From the upbeat initial track, “Speaking Curves,” to the fourth, “Skinny Lights & Fast Beats,” Shoom picks you up, deposits your mind on the shelf and sets your feet to tapping, your body to shaking and your arms to flailing. This is ambient tribal rock at its best, true to its roots, trancing you out—way out—and giving your body the workout it craves.
Come the fifth and closing cut,—“On the Other Side of Here,” and waves of soft vocals backed by gentle instrumentation float by as you collapse from the ecstasy of all that movement.
That was my experience of Shoom.
Gabrielle Roth isn't called “the high priestess of trance” and “rock‘n' roll shaman” for nothing. This is the seventeenth album she and her husband and co-producer Robert Ansell and their ensemble have released over the past twenty-five years. This smoking hypnotic blend of drums, bass, strings and female chants will blow you away.
—Chiwah
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A Place Called Peace
What does “peace” mean to you? Calm relaxation? Stillness and serenity? The title of this album of eight original songs, played on a variety of native flutes and drums, was taken from lyrics describing peace as “a great party, where the people are happy to be alive.” And the initial cut, a playful creation featuring the hong drum and named after its nonsense-syllable chorus “Za Zee Za Zu Zing,” welcomes us straight on into the party.
From there on, this soulful mix of music takes its inspiration from Randy's Southwestern lifestyle and his Native American heritage. Each track expresses a different look at the meaning of peace. One, a haunting melody called “The Dog Star”—flawlessly executed on native flute—was written after performing at the Gila Cliff Dwellings, where Randy says he looked up into the night sky to see the constellation Sirius (the dog star) just as it was depicted on a wall of the ancient ruin.—“Rio Grande Lullaby” is his tribute to that great Southwestern river and to his Apache and Comanche ancestors.
In “Apache Tears” the flute and drums reflect the sadness of the Apache people, who, driven from their homes, fled to the hills of Mexico and survived on what they could find—which sometimes meant hard cactus and the leather of their own moccasins. “Ghost Dancers” and “Double-Barrel Train Wreck” bring us the haunting sound of the double-barrel flute, on which the notes played on one side are back grounded by a drone sound coming out the other. In “Chaco Moon Meditation,” Randy celebrates the peace of the ancients who lived there with a poignant tune played on a reproduction of an ancient Anasazi flute.
If you enjoy native flute, I believe you will find this album varied, interesting and musically delightful. As I listen to it I can almost see the gleam in Randy's eye as he experiments with his instruments and the emotions he stretches to evoke.
—Chiwah
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