..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page    The Desert Island    Copyright Notice
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Afro Celt Sound System: Volume 5 - Anatomic

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s

Artist: Afro Celt Sound System
Title: Volume 5 - Anataomic
Released: 2005.10.04
Label: Real World
Time: 74:00
Producer(s): Simon Emmerson
Appears with: Peter Gabriel
Category: Pop/rock
Rating: ****...... (4/10)
Media type: CD
Purchase date:  2006.02.11
Price in €: 16,99
Web address: www.afrocelts.org

 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] When I Still Needed You (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/D.Munyaneza/M.Russell) - 8:16
[2] My Secret Bliss (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/S.Nazarkhan/M.Russell) - 7:04
[3] Mojave (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/M.Russell) - 10:35
[4] Sené [Working the Land] (S.Emmerson/K.N'Faly/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/M.Russell) - 5:59
[5] Beautiful Rain (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/M.Russell) - 4:59
[6] Anatomic (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/S.Massey/J.McNally/M.Russell) - 5:24
[7] Mother (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/D.Munyaneza/M.Russell) - 6:29
[8] Dhol Dogs (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/S.Massey/J.McNally/M.Russell) - 6:25
[9] Drake (S.Emmerson/L.Iarla Ó/J.McNally/M.Russell) - 6:04

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Simon Emmerson - Bouzouki, Producer, Mandolin, Cittern, Guitar
Richard Marcangelo - Percussion
James McNally - Guitar, Accordion, Piano, Harmonium, Keyboards, Whistle, Kalimba, Producer, Low Whistle, Keyboard Programming, Drum Programming, Bodhran
Martin Russell - Keyboards, Programming, Engineer, Producer, Mixing
Johnny Kalsi - Percussion, Tabla, Drums
Moussa Sissikho - Djembe, Talking Drum
Iarla Ó Lionáird - Vocals
Emer Mayock - Flute, Uillean Pipes
Francis Hylton - Bass
Sevara Nazarkhan - Vocals
N'Faly Kouyate - Vocals, Kora
Simon "Mass" Massey - Bass, Keyboards, Drum Programming, Mixing, Engineer, Producer, Synthesizer Programming
Ian Markin - Drums
Dorothee Munyaneza - Vocals
Eileen Ivers - Fiddle
Nigel Eaton - Hurdygurdy
Hossam Ramzy - Percussion

Ian Cooper - Mastering
Marc Bessant - Logo Design
Ron Aslan - Programming

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2005 CD Real World 31800



Their debut album broke down many tediously outdated barriers. Now the Afro-Celts are back with another genre-bursting, non-preachy, multi-culti soundscape. There has never been anything bland or generic about the ensemble's output as their concept of one-world music is less color-blind than color-appreciative; in other words, they don't ignore our differences but celebrate them. Anatomic continues an ongoing pilgrimage of respectful collaboration, wherein Western studio mastery abuts Irish flutes and percussion, harp-like West African koras, keening bagpipes, and gutty Greek bouzoukis, all presented over a resonant, crunchy bottom with beats and electronica for days. Iarla Ó Lionáird sings in English and Gaelic, sitting in with Sevara Nazarkhan from Uzbekistan (who is lovely if disembodied on "My Secret Bliss") and Dorothee Munyaneza, a genocide survivor whose soulful pipes made such a strong impression on the soundtrack to Hotel Rwanda. As always, Simon Emmerson's guitar fulfills dual roles as a melodic vector and tireless rhythmic powerhouse.

Christina Roden, Amazon.com
 


Afro Celt Sound System: Iarla O Lionaird (vocals); Simon Emmerson (guitars, bouzouki, cittern, mandolin); James McNally (whistle, piano, keyboard, keyboards, drum, bodhran, programming); Martin Russell (keyboards, programming). Additional personnel: Sevara Nazarkhan, Dorothee Munyaneza (vocals); Nigel Eaton (hurdy-gurdy); N'Faly Kouyate (kora); Eileen Ivers (fiddle); Emer Mayock (Uilleann pipe); Mass (keyboards, bass guitar, drum, programming); Francis Hylton (bass guitar); Johnny Kalsi, Ian Markin (drums); Moussa Sissokho (drum); Hossam Ramzy, Richard Marcangelo (percussion); Ron Aslan (programming). Producers: Simon Emmerson; James McNally; Martin Russell; Simon 'Mass' Massey. The Irish/African/international collective Afro Celt System's fifth platter is a bit more reserved than some of their previous sets, but no less compelling. While in the past they've combined traditional music of Celtic and African sources with contemporary dancefloor mixology, ANATOMIC may be considered their "ambient" or "chill-out" album. Featuring guest singer Dorothee Munyaneza (from the HOTEL RWANDA soundtrack), ANATOMIC fuses cyclical, sighing Irish melodies, pensive West African folk music, dance beats, echoes of Indian music, and more, creating their own abundant-as-a-rainforest, compassionately captivating sound-world.

CD Universe

Afro Celt Sound System celebrates their ten year anniversary fusing world music and electronica. In that decade their four albums and a remix collection have sold a staggering 1.2 million albums and contributed to the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda. With "Anatomic", they've taken a profound trip into their hearts and souls and once again the Afro Celts have grown. This time six of the nine tracks began with members Martin Russell and James McNally collaborating in the studio, "with James playing the bodhran, and building from there," Russell recalls, "so things had his rhythmic interpretation on them as a base." From there the Afro Celt Magic took over as each of the band members added their unique signatures in the group's London studio. N'Faly Kouyate's kora parts interwove with Simon Emmerson's guitar and bouzouki hooks while a rhythm section combined live and programmed beats with world class dhol, tabla and talking drum, and McNally's virtuosic multi-instrumentalism layered in whistle tunes and top line pipe melodies with keyboards and guitars. Finally, with all the pieces in place, the massive tapestry of sound was bound together and brought into focus by Russell and Mass's keyboard and drum programming.

"Anatomic" adds another storey to that edifice. It also continues the longstanding Afro Celt tradition of cultural collaboration, bringing in two stunning vocalists - Uzbeki star Sevara Nazarkhan and Rwanda's Dorothee Munyaneza - who add their own special qualities to the disc. The album also includes two previously unrecorded concert staples, 'Drake' - originally written for Release - and the atmospheric, spectacular 'Mojave', a tune that still affects the band "in a simplified way that a lot of other things do in a complicated way. Iarla opens up with a call, it sounds Native American, and it brought us to that wide-open vast space of Mojave. The rhythm's hard and pounding, but the tune is soft and invites you in. That one comes purely from the heart."

© 2000 - 2006 Intuitive Music


Volume Five of the Afro Celts’ global journey opens with a real builder ‘When I Still Needed You’ which climbs and climbs from rural beginnings to a clubby dance driven mix, and moves through enough territories to provide a lesser band material enough for a full album. The mix then moves through the hard, familiar and irresistible groove of ‘Dohl Dogs’ and the heavy Celtic title track ‘Anatomic’ through to the euphoria of the break section whistles soaring in ‘Mojave’ before the beat truly kicks in, to Iarla O Lionáird’s sweeping ‘Beautiful Rain’. Heavy club beats weave in and out of celtic laments and West African rhythms. Programmed music and live instruments rarely sound as comfortable together as this, neither have breakbeats, bodhrans and kora. The album also features two new additions to the Afro Celts vocalists Dorothee Munyaneza of Rwanda and Uzbekistan’s Sevara Nazarkhan, who add their own flavours to an ensemble who’s cooking never seems to spoil no matter how many chefs stick their ingredients in. Anatomic is very much a rhythmically based album but is full of the expected diverse range of instrumental and vocal sounds, brimming with a whole panapoly of emotions and telling stories beyond the multi-lingualism of the lyrics. This has the hallmarks of yet another massively successful Afro Celt hit album.

Anatomic is released on 3 October on Realworld.

Wyl Menmuir
Wednesday 5 October 2005
CC Some Rights Reserved FLY 2006



On Anatomic, the Afro Celt Sound System return as a streamlined quartet and to their original name. Following the CD/DVD remix project Pod, this is welcome return to the sound the band initiated on Seed. This is a group whose members no longer care about programming as their primary function, but instead work together -- writing, performing, and jamming -- as a band. The 14 guests here range from Celtic fiddle wizard Eileen Ivers to griot and kora master N'Faly Kouyate. The sheer heaviness and thudding beats are evident from the album's first cut, "When I Still Needed You," with the mighty Dorothee Munyaneza on vocals. Sevara Nazarkhan duets with the Afro Celts' tenor, Iarla O'Lionaird, on "My Secret Bliss," a seductive, deliriously romantic track created for nocturnal listening. Texture is everything on this recording. "Mojave" is a slow, gently swirling and droning piece with O'Lionaird working at the upper end of his register to reveal some of the mystery in the desert, and it works wonderfully as the cut shifts tempo and Emer Mayock's Uilleann pipes enter the fray in tandem with sequencers and James McNally's Edge-style pulsing guitars. The sheer loping beauty of "Mother," with its programmed sequencers elegantly making room for the pipes, acoustic guitars, and hand drums, is alone worth the price of the set, but when Munyaneza's vocal slips in through the back door and is joined by O'Lionaird's, it becomes transcendent. Ultimately, Anatomic is fresh sounding while retaining all the elements that made the Afro Celt Sound System so unique. It is a pleasure from start to finish, and may be their strongest album overall.

Thom Jurek, All Music Guide



Afro Celt Sound System’s fifth studio album sweeps an incredible sonic range, from their unmistakably beat-driven and cinematic dance epics to emotive, melodic ballads radiant with the band’s trademark fusion of soaring Celtic reels and syncopated African vocals and drum. Guests include Rwandan singer Dorothee Munyaneza (featured on the soundtrack to Hotel Rwanda) and Uzbeki star Sevara Nazarkhan — and lead vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird turns in marvelous performances in both Gaelic and English. Recorded at Pink Floyd’s old Islington studios and self-produced by the Afro Celts, this joyfully danceable soundscape showcases the extraordinary musicianship and richly articulated vision of this great band, celebrating ten years of unparalleled innovation on the cutting edge of world music.
 
©2000-2005 Real World Records Ltd.  All rights reserved.



Their debut album broke down many tediously outdated barriers. Now the Afro-Celts are back with another genre-bursting, non-preachy, multi-culti soundscape. There has never been anything bland or generic about the ensemble's output as their concept of one-world music is less color-blind than color-appreciative; in other words, they don't ignore our differences but celebrate them. Anatomic continues an ongoing pilgrimage of respectful collaboration, wherein Western studio mastery abuts Irish flutes and percussion, harp-like West African koras, keening bagpipes, and gutty Greek bouzoukis, all presented over a resonant, crunchy bottom with beats and electronica for days. Iarla Ó Lionáird sings in English and Gaelic, sitting in with Sevara Nazarkhan from Uzbekistan (who is lovely if disembodied on "My Secret Bliss") and Dorothee Munyaneza, a genocide survivor whose soulful pipes made such a strong impression on the soundtrack to Hotel Rwanda. As always, Simon Emmerson's guitar fulfills dual roles as a melodic vector and tireless rhythmic powerhouse.
      
©2006 Whiteswanmusic.com


Full of beautiful melodies, unique instrumentation, and the top-notch musicianship fans expect, Anatomic marks the Afro Celt Sound System's ten-year anniversary with power and style. The band's first album of completely new songs since 2003's Seed (the remix project Pod was released in 2004), Anatomic contains enough of the band's signature sound to satisfy longtime fans while at the same time embracing more traditional song structures, English-language vocals, and what might be described as a "pan-global music" approach.In the past, the band has employed the talents of several rock artists (Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Sinead OConnor, Mundy) to flesh out its songs, but the majority of Anatomic's guests come from the "world music" genre. It is surprising, then, to discover that the new album rivals even Further in Time as the band's most accessible, "pop-oriented" effort to date. "Beautiful Rain" finds vocalist Iarla O'Lionaird singing entirely in English, amidst a backdrop of atmospheric keyboards, acoustic guitar and percussion. Iarla also trades English vocals in a duet with Dorothee Munyaneza (singing in Kinyarwandan) on "Mother" and Sevara Nazarkhan (singing in Uzbeki) on "My Secret Bliss." The latter track is another example of Anatomic's mainstream appeal despite the Uzbeki language barrier and the traditional harp and acoustic guitar, the song is enhanced by keyboard programming and a distinctly European vibe that are perfectly suited for radio play.Fans of the band's distinctly African and Celtic elements as well as the epic, extended soundscapes in which they are contained will love Anatomic and appreciate the forays into more conventional song craft. The album's emotional and musical high point, "Mojave," is the Afro Celt Sound System at its absolute best. A concert favorite for several years, "Mojave" unfolds slowly with a spiritual, Gaelic invocation courtesy of Iarla. About three minutes later, the signature programming of Simon Emmerson, Martin Russell and Mass emerges, followed closely by a beautiful duet between Irish whistle and uilleann pipes courtesy of James McNally and Emer Mayock, respectively. The massive percussion of Johnny Kalsi and N'Faly Kouyate take "Mojave" into full flight, and just as the song appears to be winding down, James swoops in again (near the eight-minute mark) with a top-line flute melody that pushes it into the stratosphere.When it comes to the band's African element, three tracks, in particular, are deserving of attention. "Sene´ (Working the Land)" combines an agrarian lyric honoring those that farm and work the land (sung in Malinke by N'Faly, who also plays kora) with keyboards and modern production reminiscent of Youssou N'Dour's later work. Rwandan singer Dorothee Munyaneza, who duets with Iarla on "Mother," also contributes vocals to the album's epic opening track, "When I Still Needed You." Like all of the band's best work, "When I Still Needed You" unfolds slowly, adding layers of keyboards, guitar, percussion, hurdy-gurdy (courtesy of Nigel Eaton which hasn't been featured this prominently since "Release") and, eventually, Dorothee's compelling vocals. Fans might recall that the band first worked with Dorothee Munyaneza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, while composing music for the film Hotel Rwanda. While their collaboration on the soundtrack, "Mama Arira," was limited by the abbreviated nature of film scores, "When I Still Needed You" and "Mother" are both stunning triumphs.The remaining songs on Anatomic are diverse and top-notch. The instrumental title track finds the band members taking memorable turns on whistles, pipes, fiddle, percussion (Johnny's dhol drums make a powerful appearance) and guitar (Simon brings the funk with some quirky electric guitar riffs). Meanwhile, "Dhol Dogs," despite its title, is not so much a showcase for percussion as it is for Simon's guitar and what sounds like an Asian flute over a Euro-dance groove. "Drake" makes for a fitting conclusion to the album, as well as to the Afro Celt Sound System's first ten years as a band. Like "Mojave," this song has appeared in the band's live repertoire for years (under the title "Mandrake") but makes its album debut here. Featuring Iarla's Gaelic vocals and taking a mellow, acoustic approach similar to Volume 3's "Onwards" for much of its duration, the song suddenly shifts gears near its conclusion to incorporate spicy electronic sounds and "drum-n-bass" flourishes.Anatomic proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Afro Celt Sound System is still one of the most innovative, talented and creative acts on the world stage. Here's to another ten years and beyond!

irishmusicmail.com

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!