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Album Review
by SashaS
11-2-2002
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| One giant leap |
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1 Giant Leap: '1 Giant Leap'
(Palm Pictures)
Robbie Williams, Michael Stipe and a host of world musicians on one CD
Despite globalisation of culture we appear to be getting more specialized in our tastes, by liking kitsch. There is such assault on our senses that we often can’t hear anything further than the charts. Cultures are getting overcrowded with mediocre ‘talent’ and there are so many sub-genres that only an obsessive, or a professional hack, can keep track of it. And yet, a great chunk of music remains untapped… For instance, the majority and the industry are ignoring cross-pollination because it is not specialized genre for easy targeting.
Top marks to Palm Pictures (well, its founder is the man, Chris Blackwell, who enriched Britain with reggae via his Island label that gave us the only Caribbean superstar in Bob Marley), for letting two relative unknowns, Jamie Catto (ex-Faithless musician, film director, editor, photographer and creative catalyst) and Duncan Bridgeman (artist, original producer of Take That and multi-instrumentalist), to go around the world and assemble this extraordinary artefact.
In the words of their record company, it is “a unique DVD/CD project for the 21st Century which fuses spoken word, sounds, rhythms and images from across the globe to celebrate the creative diversity of a number of musicians, storytellers, authors, film-makers, artists and thinkers from different cultures. … To illustrate breathtaking artistic and cultural diversity with a clear message of unity running throughout.”
The results are often staggering with Michael Stipe being simply at his most tender on the eight-minute epic of ‘The Way You Dream’ with India’s Asha Bhosle and New Zealand’s Whiri Mako Black; ‘My Culture’ unites Maxi Jazz and Robbie Williams, ‘Braided Hair’ has Speech (formerly of Arrested Development) sharing vocals with Neneh Cherry, ‘Racing Away’ groups Kaolin Thompson of South Africa with Grant Lee Phillips (US) and Horace Andy (UK)…
The theory goes – it is only music, whatever its origin, the only natural Esperanto, as it were, but the one you don’t need to learn. The 1GL’s praiseworthy approach is great basis for creating something special, the United Nations of Arts!
For whatever record company reasons this album’s been out in Europe for a number of months and I’ve had a copy for even longer. After all this time, it is still fascinating throughout.
8/10
SashaS
17-1-2002
‘1 Giant Leap’ by 1 Giant Leap is released 11 February 2002 by Palm Pictures
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