MIRIAM LIEBERMAN – WAKELI
Miriam Lieberman is something of a renaissance woman in the world of ethnic music in Australia; somehow she achieves the almost impossible in blending patterned western-ed pop writing with the earthy mystique of African rhythms and freaky world instruments. Well, Paul Simon did it to some commercial acclaim with Graceland, but Miriam Lieberman shoots at something a little different, less elegiac and knowing. Her songs are a bit weird, but there is an innocence at play in her heart-on-sleeve meditations that is actually rather beguiling. Her sing-song voice is something akin to Joan Baez’ schoolroom warble, which lends a tenderness to the proceedings. The title track Wakeli is a joyous exploration of rhythms and West African soul singing; sung in Miriam’s native English yet imbued with a charming sense of the ancient and tribal. She has her share of more traditional pop ballads here also, such as Deep Blue Sky, yet to keep the music above the line of the ordinary Miriam is always trying something unusual with her voice, her Moroccan yelps intertwining with distinctly RnB inflections. This record could be seen as a kind of soundtrack to personal travel, both in the outer and inner sense. Not a startlingly exciting journey, but a pleasant one in any case.
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