Goat music of a different kind (Ilgi - Kaza Kepa Debesis)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Ilgi - Kaza Kepa Debesis
Date:	13/07/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite good vocals

Disadvantages: Too slow

Translated to "The Goat Goes Up Into the Sky", it's fair enough to say that this album was going to be one of those dreamy folk albums that sing about nature.

Whilst I have a place for a bit of Russian pagan music if it's nicely blended in to another genre, I generally find that you have to be folk music mad to enjoy the music of the majority of Northern European folk artists. In the same way that English folk music doesn't really stand strong against Irish, Baltic folk doesn't hold a torch to Balkan. It was due to that, that I approached this 2004 album by Latvian folk artists Ilgi with extreme caution. Ilgi have a medieval sound but a lot of the songs sound the same, likewise they aren't the best lookers - a group of middle-aged artists labelling themselves post-folk and trying to put Latvian folk music back on the map is an admirable quest but their image does nothing to popularise it, somewhere between trying to hard to be trendy and anorachs.

It's been a rather negative review so far but it does have some good aspects, I highly enjoyed "ozolins sadega". In fact throughout the album, I enjoy the baritone vocals which are complimented by high and chirpy backing vocals, unfortunately the speed of the songs is usually a bit slow but you do sense they want to rock out on their harps a bit occasionally. This is definitely a bit different but even for someone who listens to a lot of world music, it just seems a bit too tricky to get into.

1. Nesmejieti jus lautini
2. Rita rasa krita
3. Skersu dienu saule teka
4. Kaza kapa debesis
5. Ozoliņs sadega
6. Tiem bus sargat pavardinu
7. Es ar sauli sadereju
8. Tumsa nakte, zala zale
9. Ozoliti zemzariti
10. Runa laudis ko runa
11. Kas tur naca par jurinu
12. Es guleju maigu miegu
13. Jura gaju naudu seti

Summary: Couldn't get into it