"I was born when you kissed me, I died when you left." So begins the new album from Anna Kashfi, the Manchester based band named after Marlon Brando's first wife. She was presumed to be an exotic Indian beauty who was later revealed as the daughter of a Welsh steelworker and the duality and tragedy of the real life Anna Kashfi is a recurring feature of "Survival". The sense of characters being vulnerable to the whims of the world and circumstance, of the thin-line between existing and being wiped out forever. Sian Webley is the voice behind these characters and she gives them life, a sadness and a wit that speaks volumes. Theres also a duet of sorts with Robert Fisher of kindred spirits WIllard Grant Conspiracy, a song relating a story of how the townsfolk of a Tuscan town tricked the Devil into building their bridge for free. Musically "Survival" is Anna Kashfi in widescreen, where their previous album "Procurement" moved in slow motion through late night laments and droning psychedelic folk, on "Survival" you can really feel prodcuer / arranger James Younjohns testing how far he can push Webley's vocals. So, yes, for fans of Alt Country, fans of Willard Grant Conspiracy etc, the Bad Seeds, strong songsmithery, this could almost sound track Steinbeck.
MP3 $9.90
01/18/2010
Anna Kashfi take their name from Marlon Brando's tragic wife from 1957, they also play dreamy, melancholic music that crackles with memomries of past mistakes, missed oppurtunities and the emotional games played by lovers in battle. "Procurement" is a stunning album that moves from stately ballads through late-night laments to droning psychedelic folk is eerie and gentle in equal measure: This is the point at which English folk, modern Americana, and Klezmer traditions come together to create a sound that is familiar and comforting yet opaque and elusive. Contains a simply killer version of the Bad Seeds' "The Mercy Seat". For fans of Sparklehorse, Mazzy Star, Giant Sand, Tarnation etc... Central to the bands sound are the vocals of Sian Webley which capture the fragility and poise of a modern day Beth Gibbons and Hope Sandoval. The songs are underpinned by elegant and textural arrangements by co-writer James Younjohns, shunning modern isntrumentation in favour of an array of the antique, unusual and just plain bizarre. Violins rest against washes of feedback, peda lsteel wraps itself around mellotron tape loops, a baroque viola d'amore floats alongside sampled electric guitar sounds.
MP3 $9.90
09/01/2008