Mistakes on Purpose (Éthiopiques 30), Love Mirage
Girma Bèyènè & Akalé Wubé
Mistakes on Purpose (Éthiopiques 30)
(Buda Musique)
The two-decade-strong Éthiopiques series on the French label Buda Musique has shone a light on the fruitful output of Ethiopia in the ‘60s and ‘70s, with strikingly fresh amalgams of traditional flavors infused in Western-world genres including jazz (such as Mulatu Astatke’s “Ethio-jazz”), funk and soul.
Éthiopiques Volume 30, entitled Mistakes on Purpose, pairs pianist Girma Bèyènè—who can be heard on the very first Éthiopiques collection—with the Paris-based Ethio-revivalists Akalé Wubé. This isn’t the first time contemporary material has been released under the Éthiopiques banner—for example, there have been new collaborations between Ethiopian legends and the Boston jazz group Either/Orchestra—and it’s all in line with the series’ classic “Golden Years” aesthetic.
Mistakes on Purpose is a welcome return for Bèyènè, who has been out of the spotlight for 25 years, and with the exception of one Akalé Wubé original, the album features Bèyènè’s compositions arranged by Akalé Wubé.
Perhaps the best-known track is the oft-covered “Muziqawi Silt” that oozes funk, which was popularized by keyboardist Hailu Mergia and Walias Band, of which Bèyènè was a member; the rendition here is pretty irresistible, with a tight brass/sax riff, a slow-burn electric guitar and a flurry of percussion toward the end.
When Bèyènè sings, he does so gingerly, with the vocals up-front in the mix; his piano playing also can be tender, which contrasts with elements like Akalé Wubé’s brash and urgent brass and wah guitar on numbers such as “Ené Nègn Bay Manèsh.”
The multi-sectional funk-rock of “Mèlèwètesh Menèw” could be a street-wise ‘70s crime soundtrack, with a middle spoken-word cool-down segment that gradually ramps up in tempo and intensity. Though heavy on the funk, Mistakes on Purpose also offers the bouncy and sunny diversion “Tsegérèda” that—language aside—might be more at home in a ‘40s romantic comedy than an Ethio-funk album.
This writer can’t help but think that this is exactly what the Daptone Records group The Budos Band is trying to make (with all respect to them), and Mistakes on Purpose is a perfectly respectable addition to the Éthiopiques series and a boon for funk fans.
Fancey
Love Mirage
(Stoner Disco)
There’s an odd joke in the film The Squid and the Whale where Jeff Daniels’ professor character refers to things as “the filet of <fill in the blank>” in order to elevate them; in particular, he calls Elmore Leonard’s books “the filet of the crime genre” as if he feels like he has to defend the act of reading for pleasure rather than reading something more high-brow.
This writer can say, with a fair amount of conviction, that the new album Love Mirage from Fancey—the solo-career moniker of New Pornographers guitarist Todd Fancey—is the filet of fake ‘70s AM radio.
There is no logical reason that Love Mirage should even exist. If you want to hear ‘70s easy listening soft rock, there’s a whole decade of recordings from which to choose. But putting reason aside, Love Mirage is such a perfectly executed and painstakingly authentic-sounding album that uses vintage instruments and abstains from employing modern studio techniques.
This writer believes that there are no guilty pleasures (barring the cruel, disgusting and/or illegal), and if there’s an album that tests that assertion, Love Mirage is it. There’s an unrepentantly pleasant glow to it, as if it feels like it’s perhaps too easy of a joy to bear; it’s corn syrupy (if that means being simultaneously corny and syrupy) and disingenuously innocent with the slightest hints of turmoil underneath the surface.
In an interview with Blurt magazine, Fancey explained that he and producer Allan Rodger wanted to achieve “supermarket grade” by “keeping the sound friendly and warm at all times.” The dedication to detail here is remarkable, with convincing elements like harmonica solos, cheesy synth flourishes and vocal blends from faceless studio singers (pulled off by Fancey joined by vocalists Angela Kelman and 13-year-old Olivia Maye).
A million sources come to mind—the Bee Gees, Electric Light Orchestra, yacht rock, disco, TV show theme songs and so much more. This writer caught himself laughing out loud several times, with a strange combination of disbelief and amusement, and if you can make it through listening to Love Mirage without smiling, you’re probably an unfeeling robot.