Musty But Not Dusty
Meathook Williams | Warwick, Massachusetts | 09/04/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"World Music? I've never quite warmed to this now hackneyed moniker. Does it mean accordians? Anything not sung in English? To me, it intones music that is an amalgam of several different ethnic styles. Whatever your verdict, none have ever encapsulated the term better than the raucus, beautiful 3 Mustaphas 3. Only Ry Cooder brought unlikely combinations together to such a wide audience earlier with his groundbreaking Hawaiian and Tex-Mex visions in the early seventies. 3M3 were the vanguard of the second phase, influencing Gabriel, Byrne, Simon, et al.
At their inception, the Mustaphas centered themselves around the Arabic and Balkan sound, but, as time marched on, so did they. and one would be hard-pressed indeed to think of many styles they didn't embrace. And these guys could play it all! Each member an ace multi-instrumentalist, they were the most engaging performing ensemble I've ever seen as well. Oft compared with the Marx Brothers on stage, my opinion is that this sells them far short of the mark. Let's just say that when you weren't on the dancefloor you were most likely in stitches. Ostensibly from the distant, obscure village of Szegerely, they never broke character, carrying on with the audience in flawless, yet unidentifiable accents. This is not to say that their accents while singing weren't spot on as well. Very little of their vast repertoire was in English. Musical omnivores.
"Musty " is the long awaited missing link in the puzzle, gathering obscurities from their checkered past. Live tracks, some from now revered radio performances are juxtaposed with rarities like their tribute to Bahamian guitar enigma Joseph Spence. A chilling tale indeed! Beloved Uncle Patrel slugs his way through a one-of-a-kind rendition of "Perfidia ". Imponderable pairings like the funky "Szegerely Soul Stew " and " Maramures Zydeco " come off without a hitch. Niaveti 3's whistful piping on "Urbas Voda " is truly gorgeous. Slipping down Lagos way via Jakarta, Sabah Habas croons the endering "Nylon Dress ", demonstrating that African High-Life and Indonesian Dangdut needn't be mutually exclusive. Snippits of banter sounding at times like the dialogue from a grade C Indian film (those who've seen Indian cinema will knowthat this is truly saying something) help to hold it all together, as does frontman Hijaz, absolute master of the pun and double entendre. This will suffice to round out things untill the box set is released.
Scads of Mustaphawannabes have come and gone in the last (creeping towards) two decades, but none come close to the real deal. And Hijaz and Saba Habas have outdone themselves with the sound quality. Shiny! Inexpensive! Unavoidable!"
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1
