OI VA VOI – TRAVELLING THE FACE OF THE GLOBE

“Oi va voi!” apparently means “Oh, dear!” in Hebrew (thanks, Wiki!), which is perhaps an unfortunate name for a band. You don’t want to set yourself up for any jokes, is all I’m saying. Oi Va Voi are based in Britain, and they do a kind of next-gen world music, mixing alternative, sometimes progressive, influences with motifs and forms drawn from Jewish and Eastern European folk music – it’s an ambitious project, with the potential to be mind blowing, and the ever-present possibility of being so much less. Musically, it’s a treat if you don’t mind a bit of clarinet, violin, trumpet rocking those diminished scales (take note Beirut fans), and there are grooves here with a filmic dynamic (the track is Magic Carpet, not the subtlest film reference). Every Time actually recalls something like Stars, a straightforward alt-pop song with guitars and piano, a male-female vocal dynamic, and it’s nice stuff. What really isn’t compelling about this record is Bridgette Amofah’s vocals: she sounds as if she’s straight out of the school of British Idol, a bland pop sensibility over the top of some really interesting instrumental material. There’s something interesting happening on this record, but it’s often just out of reach, buried under elements far less interesting. Oh dear.

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