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ALBUM REVIEW
I am enthralled by PNG stringband music - vibrant, powerful local
traditions that have taken the guitar and ukulele and turned them
towards creating unique vernacular musics. The night before I travelled to Port Moresby to teach music there, my brother gave me a copy of Not Drowning, waving's Tabaran album, and I was entranced by the song Abebe, performed by the Moab Boys and Telek. Fifteen years later, I have numerous field recordings of stringbands from various parts of PNG, but I am always left feeling they have failed to capture the resonant power of voices, guitars and ukuleles in chorus. There are some great local studio recordings thanks to the forward thinking of Greg Seeto and Pacific Gold Studios, but again, I am left feeling something about the village is not quite there. There are examples of collaborations and
fusions, but often I'd rather just hear stringband speaking alone. Enter Matogo - this is stringband recorded as it should be. Spoken Tok Pisin introductions, wonderful performances recorded, mixed and mastered professionally by people who clearly love the genre, and enough village ambience to capture the magic of location (listen to Maima and how the rooster adds a perfectly placed call!). The magic has been captured - and what more can you ask of a recording?
Denis Crowdy
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