In the ’90s, hip-hop replaced rock as the world’s most influential
music, injecting new vitality into sounds long ignored or marginalized.
Gypsy, Balkan, and tribal Arab rhythms have become part of club music’s
international vocabulary and Oakland’s Beats Antique uses them to
create their transcendental global pop.
On Collide the band —
multi instrumentalist/composer/arrangers Sidecar Tommy Cappel and David
Satori and composer/arranger, belly-dance innovator Zoe — and its
guests veer between earthy and symphonic, cinematic and psychedelic,
but always remain wildly swinging. “Caterpillar” is a mash-up of
flamenco handclaps, Dan Canterell’s sinuous tango-drenched accordion,
and the weeping gypsy fiddle of Ryan Feldthouse. “Roustabout” appears
twice, once as sci-fi Balkan circus music with a one-drop reggae
backbeat and later in a bubbling synth-heavy remix by Bassnectar.
“Erase” blends a simple repeated melodic line from Satori’s saz with
constantly unfolding rhythms produced by a battery of electronic and
acoustic percussion. The plaintive sound of a Middle Eastern frame drum
and spacey keyboard effects create a hot, hypnotic atmosphere on “Sweet
Demure.” The slow pulsation of “Shrine” has just the opposite effect,
laying down an ominous wash of sound marked by Seth Young’s sinister
acoustic bass and Satori’s bluesy saz. “Nesatovo” and “Borino” feature
the Brass Menazeri, a San Francisco Balkan brass band, on rave-ups that
take Balkan folk tunes into uncharted waters. “Nesatovo” combines a
loose-limbed reggae groove and Peter Jaques’ feverish clarinet
excursions; “Borino” is a more straightforward track with Balkan brass
accented only by occasional dub effects. (CIA)
