Various Artists
Document Zimbabwe
Real World, 2001
Engineer and recordist Tchad Blake has produced albums for artists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, palm wine guitarist S.E. Rogie, and the Latin Playboys. But to create this one-of-a-kind disc, he put a pair of small microphones in his two ears and wandered around Zimbabwe for twelve days in 1994, collecting ambiance in a musical land. The technique is called "binaural recording," and the result here 19 tracks ranging from a boy playing a homemade "banjo" while a thunderstorm approaches, to a Harare horn band street parade, to an mbira pop group rehearsing, and four swinging acapella choirs that explode into song in echoey Bulawayo meeting halls.
The stereo imaging is killer with headphones. If you've been to Zimbabwe, Blake's taxi barkers advertising a ride to the Mbare ghetto, and his slice of Harare downtown with the guitar band Shona pop of Max Mapfumo intermingled from a lingering car radio are guaranteed to induce flashbacks. There's enough true grit in the more musical tracks--especially mbira veteran Sekuru Gora's band rehearsal, and Faces of Talent's reprieve of 1960s township jazz with just a snare drum and a tenor sax backing the singers--to transport any adventurous listener. There's just one live, electric--guitar, bar band-Mr Bulk and Bulk Spirits getting rowdy at the Earlside--although booming, overloaded bass and distorted vocals, and then sudden volume shifts and panning effects as Blake seems to lurch towards the bandstand, may frustrate listeners who just want to hear the music.
Contributed by: Banning Eyre
Originally published in: Songlines
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