EUGENIO BENNATO & TARANTA POWER
Che Il Mediterraneo Sia
Rai Trade ERE 0141052

The opening title track's a pulsating wonderwork, full of driving pace and neat key changes. "From Naples, inventor of melody, to the tabors of Algiers", runs the English translation, and while Bennato intones a captivating soft-voiced Italian song over a subtle but frantic tarantella groove, Tunisia's Zaina Chabane launches into an Arabic rap and, just for this one track, there's an Algerian orchestra. You're transported straight out there into the centre of the Mediterranean, your ears picking up musical signals beaming in from all directions and welling up out of history. Follow that....

They do, no problem.... In comes a frame drum and Bennato gently sings a lullaby welcoming refugee children from Sri Lanka and Cape Verde, then it's into a heavier taranta sound as Marcello Vitale cranks up his electric chitarra battente, and the voice of Mozambique's Mbarka Bentales floats in high and hard. And that's the way it goes: always perfectly understated but constantly ringing the changes, it has great musicianship and singing, imaginative arrangements, and very, very catchy tunes. Even if you don't understand any Italian (and you don't need to, as the booklet's got it trilingually in Italian, English and French) it's a CD that has just about everything covered. Remember how it was when you first heard Planxty or Radio Tarifa and everything was just right, new roots music that sounded as natural as it comes? Well, this is another one of those.

Track 9, Frontiere Antimusical, seems to sum it all up, both as a listening experience and a statement of intent. "This music is all the world. There is no north, there is no south and frontiers are all equal, completely antimusical. This music that I hear doesn't have a passport and it doesn't care 'cause it's an angel, 'cause it's a devil, and goes round the world with no passport." By track 11, Vola (Fly) you're so far into the taranta experience that you'll swear a CD can sneak up and bite like a black spider. Press the replay button, because my sole complaint is that this album is only 36 minutes long....

Ian Anderson