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| This strange and wonderful CD, recorded and performed by a Belgian musician who calls himself "The Flying Snowman" (a.k.a. Eric Geurtz), may be a tad too exotic for North American audiophiles, but there's no doubting its penchant for originality, coupled with the brilliant use of script sampling from films such as Der Himmel Uber Berlin, The Emerald Forest and Where the River Runs Black. Using a piece of equipment known as an Ensoniq Mirage, The Flying Snowman blends various samples of Ethnic music and lyrics (Arabic, French, German, but heavily spiced with an Oriental sensibility), with Jeff Beck or Robin Trower-like rock guitar contrasting with a beat-box rhythm to create a musical melting pot. There are, however, the occasional bits of irritation, especially on the overly-long and repetitious opening track, "answering machine", but they are minimal on this 20-track opus. If you can get past that first one, the remaining tracks are generally enjoyable in their poetic weirdness, haunting keyboard melodies and intriguing instrumentation, including a flute and saxophone or synthesized versions of same. There's a heavy sense of romantic imagery contained in what I like to refer to as the "nature trilogy" - "leeping in heaven's garden", followed by "before the rain" and "after the rain". If you are a movie buff at all, or even an avid reader, you will recognize the Uncle Sam campaign motto, "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" in "the yuppie beat", which features the requisite disco beat and sexy moaning, ingeniously mixed with belching noises! As well, "mr fisher's story" features the famous line "...water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink". There's a bit of a family vignette interlaced throughout the CD, with conversational songs like "tell me a story, daddy", and "pourquoi les petites cellules de la maman et du papa ne se rencontrent pas toujours?" "postal cards from outer space" is a modernized version of John Mayall's "Television Eye" blasting the social inundation of commercial advertising. Although both of my copies of Umgawa contain playback flaws that prevent me from hearing more than 13 of the 20 tracks without technical difficulties, I would recommend this CD for bizarreness alone. |
| UMGAWA (A PORTION OF THE FLIPSIDE) - THE FLYING SNOWMAN |
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