In the tiny Central American country of Belize, the pounding drums of the Garifuna people, also known as The Black Caribs, have been a-rumbling for hundreds of years. Played on humble handmade drums, tortoise shells and conches, traditional Garifuna music (or punta) is so unique that in 2001 UNESCO named it a Masterpiece Of The Oral And Intangible Heritage Of Humanity. What a mouthful – we at RC will carry on rating our records out of five if you don’t mind.
The lofty commendation above might not prepare you for the actual experience of listening to this collection. On first listen its throbbing low end, moaned vocals and relentless pounding could be mistaken for the unforgiving noise-rock of the likes of Liars or Boredoms, rather than a sacred music born of mixing West African, Carib and Arawak traditions. The expertly handled recording, made in Belize by Soul Jazz, captures the resonance of the bass drums as well as the crisp, lightning-fast interplay of the tenor drums.
The five groups featured here serve up percussive tracks both with and without call-and-response vocals, but it’s the instrumentals that steal the show, each containing more complex polyrhythms than a woodpecker trapped in a pinball machine. On headphones it’s a head-spinning listen.
