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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Native Hue (2004)
Verdict: Rimming the Med
Music CD - Alex Panayi (vocal) & Matheson Bayley (piano)
Review - London - June 05
Matheson Bayley, ex London's Royal Academy of Music, teams up with singer Alex Panayi for a romp round the rim of Mediterranean (with brief expeditions north). It's an album that takes songs from several European countries - with a focus on the South - in their languages; and rounds up with a neat satire of the European Song Contest.
In the spirit of the ESC, judging notes are included for each track below - complete with points out of 10.
Amante Del Amor - 4'40" - (Spanish). Hot love song, rising to orgasm; elegant rich and romantic opening chords; powerful coupling between piano and voice; histrionic piano; vocal brimming with sex. (7/10).
Where Are You - 3'13" - (Various). From the heart of the echo chamber; languages include English; vocal almost kissing the mic; romping pace; a bit out of control. (4/10).
Fångad Av En Stormvind - 4'34" - (Swedish). Intimate close voice; strong piano underpinning, with robust bass; flickers of colourful treble piano; angsty voice, intimate and close with falsetto skim; exciting set of choral voices later on lift it from 4/10 to 6/10 overall.
Le Dernier Qui A Parlé - 4'21" - (French). Echo-assisted voice; quiet intimate start, gathers pace and drama; a chanson delivered with full poetry; bursts of astonishing piano excitement. 6/10
Dinge-Dong - 4'09" - (Dutch). Light finger-snapping; almost New Orleans-ish jazz with nod to West Side Story; oral bass; someone's mobile goes off and is incorporated; frenetic interplay of voices; boisterous piano romping under. 5/10
Lep Poletni Dan - 4'09" - (Slovenian Piano Solo). Fabulous, emotional, robust, pizzaz, over-the-top exhuberance - outrageous and unapologetic. 10/10.
Dinle - 3'47" - (Turkish). Mouth work and sound mix starts it off; gathers pace and excitement; melange of voices; manic laughter and ululation. 5/10.
Ániksi - 11'04" - (Greek). Blend of voices on top; plangent piano under, mainly strident in treble; very long - too long. 5/10.
Nómiza Pos Tha’Nai Fteroúgisma - 7'55" - (Greek). Atmospheric singing; vivid percussion; great female vocal work is a relief from the overall male-ness; interesting cello; too long - just. 6/10.
Lusitana Paixão - 3'19" - (Portuguese). Strong vocal; very emotional; strident Grieg-like piano chords; almost circus-like excitement; soft breathy voice, rich range, passionate. 5/10
Shara Barkhovot - 4'30" - (Hebrew). Harsh, gutteral vocal. Emotional piano opening, busy, complex; piano runs in and out of the vocal with outrageous virtuosity. 6/10.
Johnny Blue - 10'24" - (German). Frisky piano-work scampers across the track like a mouse; whistling; musical box; opera; warbling Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata effect; reed synthesiser; vocal in throbbing emotional German; spoken voice mix intercut; sinister, skin-prickling; too long - just; drama lifts it to 7/10.
Rapsodia - 4'20" - (Italian). Strolling piano opening; strong gutteral Italian vocal with equally strong inter-flowing piano; full-blooded emotional power. 7/10.
ESC Kids - 5'47" - (English). ESC is European Song Contest; two singers; comedy; history of the European Song Contest with jokes; very funny (and topical); neatly takes piss out of whole CD; funny, and oddly sweet; nod to Flanders & Swann; some jokes missed by competing voices, could gain from tighter production. 8/10
Gia Hatiri Sou / Dinle - 3'47" - (Greek). Re-runs Dinle (above) in Greek. Similar techniques, but a notch above. 6/10
Overall:
Native Hue defies a category. Probably an average listener is confined to one European language with splashes of a couple of others; it's difficult to review the album fairly - because each song needs to be understood fully in its own language.
Whether the words are understood or not, likely keywords include: drama, passion, throbs with sex. They won't include: shrinking violets. Alex Panayi (vocal) & Matheson Bayley (piano), by their performances here, burst with exhuberance.
Alex Panayi's vocals are strong, often over-emotional, richly in tune, passionate, compelling. Piano is histrionic, precise, passionate; exhuberant showmanship coupled with showbiz razzmatazz and Chopin-esque precision. Matheson Bayley is Liberace for the 21st Century.
*** CREDITS ****
TRACK LIST: Native Hue: 1 - Amante Del Amor (Juan Carlos Calderón) - 4'40" - (Spanish) - Ballad. 2 - Where Are You (Scott English, Phil Manikiza, Simon Stirling) - 3'13" - (Various) - Pop. 3 - Fångad Av En Stormvind (Stephan Berg) - 4'34" - (Swedish) - Gospel. 4 - Le Dernier Qui A Parlé (Wasis Diop, Amina Annabi) - 4'21" - (French) - Ethnic Funk. 5 - Dinge-Dong (Dick Bakker, Will Luikinga, Eddy Ouwens) - 4'09" - (Dutch) - Jazz. 6 - Lep Poletni Dan (Martin Stibernik, Karmen Stavec)- 4'09" - (Slovenian Piano Solo) - Nocturne. 7 - Dinle (Mehtap Alnitemiz) - 3'47" - (Turkish) - Ethnic Dance. 8 - Ániksi (Andreas Mikrousikos) - 11'04" - (Greek) - New Age - Vocal - Sofia Vossou. 9 - Nómiza Pos Tha’Nai Fteroúgisma (various) - 7'55" - (Greek) - Orchestral - Vocal - Marlain Aggelides. 10 - Lusitana Paixão (Fred Micaelo, Jorge Quintela, Jose Da Ponte) - 3'19" - (Portuguese) - Bossa Nova. 11 - Shara Barkhovot (Rami Kleinshtein, Tzruya Lahav) - 4'30" - (Hebrew) - Ballad. 12 - Johnny Blue (Ralph Siegel, Bernd Meinunger) - 10'24" - (German) - Classical. 13 - Rapsodia (Giancarlo Bigazzi, Giuseppe Dati) - 4'20" - (Italian) - Torch Song. 14 - ESC Kids (Brendan J Graham, new lyric by Matheson Bayley) - 5'47" - (English) - Spoof lyric to Rock N Roll Kids. 15 - Gia Hatiri Sou / Dinle (Mehtap Alnitemiz, Greek lyric by Anna Ioannidou) - 3'47" - (Greek) - Greek version of Dinle. Total Playing Length - 79'59"
PERFORMER CREDITS: Alex Panayi and Matheson Bayley. Guests on Fångad Av En Stormvind - The London Community Gospel Chorus: Åse Bergstrom, T-Jae Cole, Ladonna Harley, Bazil Meade, Stephanie Meade, Geo Onayomake. Vocal on Ániksi - Sofia Vossou. Nómiza Pos Tha’Nai Fteroúgisma: Theo Mavrommatis (flute), Yiannis Papayiannis (oboe), Ioannis Samprovalakis (clarinets), Georgios Faroungias (bassoon), Kostas Siskos (French horn), Alexis Theophylactou (1st violin), Frangiskos Margaritis (2nd violin), Ilias Sdoukos (viola), Marilena Vassou (cello), Marlain Aggelides, Matheson Bayley (vocals).
COMPANY CREDITS: Native Hue. Engineers - Matheson Bayley, Jim Demetri, John McCortney, Vaggelis Papadopoulos, Akis Paschalakis, Kevin Porée, Tasos Chamosfakides, Demetris Stamatiou. Track Mixers - Tasos Bakasietas, Demetris Digi Chorianopoulos, Jim Demetri, Kevin Porée. Athens Mastering - Christos Hadjistamou. Various arrangements, additional lyrics, conducting - Matheson Bayley and Alex Panayi. Photography - Nicholas Panayi. Booklet Notes - Matheson Bayley. CD Design - Marios Tziakouris. Printing - Marios Georgiou. Thanks to - Mike & Elias Achladiotis, Christos Zorbas, at Sierra Studios, Athens. Pandelis Gabriel, Savvas Savva at Music Works Studios, Cyprus. Sofia Alex Panayi. Jerry Olson. Klery Panayi. Panos Panayi. (c) February 2004. Info - info@jmathesonbayley.com. Sales from Dress Circle at http://www.dresscircle.co.uk/product.asp?StockID=27801.
END
John Park
reviewed Tuesday 7 June 05 / London
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
