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Oi Va Voi: Laughter Through Tears

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  • Oi Va Voi: Laughter Through Tears

    New Times Broward-Palm Beach (Florida)
    April 1, 2004 Thursday

    Oi Va Voi: Laughter Through Tears (Outcaste)

    By Scott Medvin


    It seems like every kind of traditional and ethnic music is ripe to
    be mixed with modern electronica to form some new genre-warping
    musical experiment. Oi Va Voi hopes that it can repeat Tabla Beat
    Science's success with Indian classical music and the Gotan Project's
    work with tango; the group wants to take klezmer, a traditionally
    Jewish form of folk music from Eastern Europe, and make it accessible
    to a new generation. The British group recently released Laughter
    Through Tears, its debut album. It is often haunting, though upbeat
    and danceable at times, full of the instruments -- clarinet, violin,
    accordion -- that klezmer is known for. But there also are
    Spanish-sounding classical guitar, steady funk bass grooves, and
    inventive percussive arrangements. The album's opening track,
    "Refugee," is based on a traditional Armenian folk melody and
    features duduk player Tigran Aleksanyan; it begins as a ballad with
    swelling, poignant lyrics by silky-voiced guest vocalist KT Tunstall.

    "Yesterday's Mistakes" sounds like a well-produced pop track but
    veers East with a Hebrew chorus. Surprisingly, the intricate beats
    fit perfectly with the bowed violin and the deep, melodic chants. "7
    Brothers" and "D'or Yikra" both supply doses of bar mitzvah breaks
    and other-worldly chanting. At times, the album veers into a bubbling
    stew of post rock-esque ambience much like the music of Godspeed You
    Black Emperor! but never for long, as Oi Va Voi evokes emotion
    through powerful melodies and mysterious lyrics rather than
    emotionally swirling compositions. Laughter Through Tears is worth
    checking out for its novelty and worth listening to a second time for
    its beauty.
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