A MULTICULTURAL explosion of West African, French and Brighton sounds. Stranded Horse is a touring machine centred around composer, songwriter and instrument maker Yann Tambour.
His weapon of choice is the kora, or a lute-bridge-harp thing with 21 strings to you and me. While this warm, finger-picked sound provides the rhythmic heart of the record, it is very much an ensemble piece.The honeyed vocal of EloÏse Decazes on the opening Monde strikes just the right tone.
Luxe is part French and part English. There is an interesting cover of Jackson C Frank’s My Name Is Carnival, the joyous starkness of the original replaced with a bustling urgency of Tambour’s Marseille home. His mannered delivery is reminiscent of Herman Dune, and Ode To Scabies is the closest to radio friendly.
The collision of styles is cleverly controlled, imbued in but not overly ‘world music’ in style, and the songwriting a leap forward from 2012’s Humbling Strides. Left field, and just tuneful enough, Luxe is a clever concoction whose cosmopolitan tastes should continue to expand.
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