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Susheela Raman
Love Trap
$16.99
To be released June 25th.
Listen:
Love Trap
Bliss
Ye Meera Divanapan Hai
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There's a moment on Sarasa, the second track on this follow-up to Raman's Mercury Prize-nominated debut Salt Rain, where her voice produces a little quiver. It's the kind of vocal phrasing that can easily end up sounding affected, but in this case it hits the spot perfectly. Such understated touches are what gives Raman's music its appeal The little embellishments, the quiet passion, the whole 'Billie Holiday sings South Indian classical music' shtick. Yet Love Trap opens with a bold move. An earthy version of a song by Ethiopiques series stalwart Mahmoud Ahmed, which has Raman belting out her sensual new English lyrics like the funky diva she could easily have become (given that she started out singing in soul bands.) Everything that follows is far more restrained, but this is still an album of many moods. There's really too much here to absorb straight off. Raman and co-producer/ guitarist Sam Mills have taken their time (it's been two years since the last album), bringing in all kinds of people a couple of members of Yat Kha, saxophonist Iain Ballamy, Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen and (the all but ubiquitous) Ben Mandelson all make notable contributions. There's a lot to like here and even the Joan Armatrading cover is beginning to grow on me (what is it with these new generation world singing women and their Armatrading/ Tracy Chapman fixation?). Current favourites include the lovely, lilting Sakhi Moro featuring Tama's Tom Diakite on kora and the poised and slinky Ye Meera Divanapan Hai. So many recent albums have striven for pan-globalism only to end up sounding contrived. Love Trap works because it places all of its varied elements (Tuvan throat singing, Greek clarinet, jazzy sax etc.) around Raman's distinctive reinterpretation of Southern Indian Karnatic song. Whatever else is going on, her musical personality is always centre stage. - Jamie Renton, fRoots |
Press release info:
After her stunning debut SALT RAIN (which, in 2001, grabbed a Mercury Award nomination, one of the U.K.'s bigger musical honors), Susheela Raman decides to kick things up a few notches on her second album LOVE TRAP. This time around, the sound is funkier, bluesier and more experimental, proof that Raman is not afraid to really blur the east/west boundary. The album opens with the title track, a mysterious, sensual song in which the full-bodied vocals of Raman slink through a seductive Indian/rock backdrop. Indian instrumentation mixes with African influences on "Ye Meera Divanapan Hai" and "Sakhimaro" while "Bliss" throws a little light, nightclub-style jazz into the mix. Includes guest Tony Allen.
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