pie-man.com - what's on the pie-man stereo?

what's on the pie-man stereo this month?

Ah, the clarinet. O sweet soother of the ears, o throaty tootler of a thousand trad jazz bands, o black wooden cylinder of aural comfort with your little silver key mechanisms of delight. Laughter Through Tears fills pie-man with regret over the way the clarinet has suffered of late by association with moustachioed master of the mediocre Acker Bilk. It's a shame you don't hear more clarinets on record, really.

Well, there are one or two here. There are also trumpets, violins, accordions and melodicas, plus drums, bass, keyboards, guitars and plenty of singing. Oi Va Voi mix traditional Jewish and Eastern European music with pop and dance influences, in much the same way Nitin Sawhney or Afro Celt Sound System fuse world music with the more domestic stuff. In pie terms Oi Va Voi are making a steak and kidney pie using pastrami and gherkins, although the end result is (happily) considerably tastier than that might imply.

There are some really beautiful songs here, like "Ladino Song" or "Yesterday's Mistakes". There is also blatant filler, like "A Csitari Hegyek Alatt". We at pie-man towers would have liked things a little less glossy, cos we've seen Oi Va Voi live and they kick ass. On record they sound a bit lame by comparison - the drums are looped, the bass is turned down, the vocals dominate, and it's all a bit coffee-table-friendly. It's produced by some people credited as Bacon & Quarmby, which as a pie filling sounds pretty damn wussy to us. Should have found a production team called Mince and Onion, or Chicken and Leek, to make it a bit sturdier.

But that doesn't stop it being a beautiful record, and it's been getting some heavy rotation on the pie-stereo this month.

Suggested pie accompaniment: haddock and potato, cooked with a bit of turmeric, served with a gherkin or two and some of that bobbly egg stuff.

Previously we listened to Goodbye Swingtime by the Matthew Herbert Big Band.