Vigil "China Soul" 06.01.06 (Siesta) Keith Boyd
One of the many great things about this wired and interconnected world we stumble around in is having access to art and music from other countries. Once upon a time say, in any decade before the nineties, your average American music fan would have been hard-pressed to find almost anything that wasn't a. being played on the radio and b. made in one the "big two" music countries (U.S. & U.K.). Sure there were a few specialty shops and a handful of mail-order houses but unless one was in the know you were pretty much out of luck. The recordings that one could find were presented to the public as either audio anthropology or kitschy exotica. This isn't to cast dispersions. On the contrary, an album series like Smithsonian's "Folkways Recordings" helped preserve sound treasures from Bali to the Mississippi Delta that informed and inspired generations. These types of records are however, doomed to be confined to the realm of folklore. They are often representations of a particular tradition from a particular tribe or ethnic group. Consequently they convey a sense of anonymity in regards to the artist and artistry. Don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The everyday and embedded music of the world is one of the things that give life meaning. People singing work songs, drumming to accompany marriages and funerals, fiddle playing from the pub, all of it, all of it is vital. Our age however is another matter. We mix and match styles and sounds the way another era's musicians switched chords and tempos. You've got hybrids like the punk/gypsy/ska/folk of Gogol Bordello and the psychedelic/freak-out/drone/troubadourisms of Acid Mother's Temple . It turns out that location actually isn't everything. One way or another music finds its' way to the right listener. In this case the right music found the right listener in Pedro Vigil . Vigil's new CD "China Soul" (Siesta Records) is a charmer. From the first note you are transplanted to a clean and refreshing audio heaven that while referencing various musical styles from around the globe, manages to sound original and unique.