The Goo 1
Reviews Other Voices - Guinness Storehouse – Aaro
n Kavanagh This year, Other Voices returned to the Guinness Storehouse for its fifth edition. I could write about how impressed I was by how they arranged the storehouse to accommodate the running of the event, from general admission to VIP, but I’ll digress. Shoutout to the floor manager, though. This one was a good night for Dundalk representation. Opening the night up was returning guests The Mary Wallopers, who recently announced a string of major gigs for next year. When I think of the Wallopers, I think of the revisionist Western film genre, which took the iconography and settings of the Western film genre to depict more realistic and nuanced stories, often critiquing the American frontier compared to the “cowboys and Indians” stories the genre was known for. Similarly, The Wallopers take from trad, folk and sean-nós to deliver a serious and nuanced take on Irish history. Also from Dundalk was the noise rock outfit Just Mustard, whose harsh, droning music combined with singer Katie Ball’s beautiful melodies sounded absolutely transcending when bouncing on the walls of that little industrial room. The Galway singPAGE 34 er-songwriter Niamh Regan teamed up with Derry artist SOAK to perform a set of original tunes they’re working on together. It’s a collaboration that makes sense, and the result is very pleasing and sincere. Interluding the other acts was the Nigerian Irish artist Tolü Makay, who blends influences from West African music, art and expression with modern electropop, who performed “Atuwaba” and “Danny Boy,” and Pádraic Keane, a Uilleann piper who was performing on pipes crafted in The Liberties over 200 years ago. Les Amazones d’Afrique - Sugar Club - Brendan White Mark Murphy of Choice Cuts has curated the Cork Jazz Festival the last two years and has brought an incredible lineup of artists to the rebel city. A few of those acts have featured in the Sugar Club as part of their visit to these shores. One such group from the ‘24 festival line up, the all-female Malian vocal group, Les Amazones d’Afrique, brought the full force of that county’s awesome musical heritage with a modernist twist to Leeson Street. Over the course of three albums, a collective of younger and older established female artists have come together first with Irish born producer Liam Farrell and most recently with fellow Irishman Jacknife Lee providing electronic funk and folk fusion in the music. Their mission is to bring the message of female empowerment from the local to the global with dancing shoes on and soaring call and response harmonies. The current iteration is led by Mamani Keïta, flanked by two younger vocal powerhouses all dressed in glorious West African finery, singing songs of resistance to male power in a variety of languages from their rich cultural heritage. Instead of a backing of Ngoni or other traditional string instruments, these protest songs were slam bang up to date with live drums, keys, pre recorded beats and turntables. The results are both ancient sounding like the desert blues of Ali Farka Touré and as flashy and hooky as the latest afrobeats. This music has healing power, dealing with the pain of violence and subjugation but with a West African ability to allow, in the words of their singer Jemiriye Adeniji, the audience to leave with hearts full of love and minds filled with positivity.