|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
| |
|
| |
Matthew Bayot
Circling Buzzards
Fire Records
|
Article
written by Lauren M
Jun 21, 2005.
|
For every uber-cool successful nu-hippy such as Devendra Banhart, there is a Matthew Bayot waiting in the wings. That’s not to detract from the St. Louis born multi-instrumentalist, as there are genuine moments of originality on his debut Circling Buzzards. A student of Indian music, Bayot features sitar and tabla heavily throughout this short collection of songs, and while it is largely genial background music, his lyrics leaves a lot to be desired, e.g. I'm only saying something just to have something to say - err, what?
Up until second track Beauty Myth, Bayot's style is misleading; sparse, repetitive, often grating and bores after about ten seconds. Thankfully, it’'s uphill from here; though all songs here are sitar-based, Bayot incorporates elements of rock, dance and quirky folk to his songs. Winterpollen is a groovy rock number, probably as close to the genre as eastern music will get, while the atmospheric Sore Thumb could be from the Bollywood version of Trainspotting. His wide-eyed vocals sit well for 80% of the album, but by track 6 of 9, it gets more than a tad repetitive. In fact, the instrumental tracks provide a more chilled-out mood and are preferable to the poor lyrical content of the album. Of course, there's also the danger that Bayot could pull a 'Kula Shaker' but thankfully, nothing here alludes to 'Tattva' or the like.
Though Matthew Bayot must be applauded for his intermittent creative vision, the album feels half-done; there's a definite feeling of an opportunity lost. While ,Circling Buzzards is an adequate exploration of Indian music, it never quite fully ventures outside the boundaries of that genre; with a little more flair, it could have had been a lot more appealing.
Link:
Untitled Document
What's your view?
Comment on the Forum
Other
discussions on the SoundsXP forums right now...
Spread the word: Email this article
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
RSS |
Calling
all music fans based in the UK... Do you want your views to be read
by 5000 people a day? Contact 
