Čankišou
Supay
Indies Scope, 2015

While it’s difficult to comment on lyrics sung in a language I don’t speak or understand (as it will be over the next few albums from a favorite European label, Indies Scope), I can comment on the melodies and the vocal impressions upon the musical moods and mine.  The band and the album are new to me, but Čankišou’s Supay is evolutionary in ways that attract me to World Music and Rromani-influenced music in particular. While this isn’t Rromani specifically, the band and the label are Eastern European-based so the influence is probably there, and it is a nice and chaotic, musically cacophonic interlude.

Frankly, if anyone is familiar with one of my favorite filmmakers, Tony Gatlif, the French Rromani director/producer/writer/composer/creative activist, Čankišou’s music would meld nicely into one of his newer films. Perhaps Transylvania or a newer one that I have not yet seen.  Ye,s the music here is evocative of travel and the filmic imagery that make its home in my fertile imagination.

The vocals are powerful, thrusting ideas, desire, and activism into the atmosphere, daring the listener to raise a fist, raise a pint, or raise a voice at a rally or a protest for the rights of the oppressed, but that may be my imaginative reading into the music.  Their bio indicates that the album’s, “distinctive rock rhythms are perfumed with exotic world adventure.” “The dark riffs and motifs are accompanied by light and hope,” though I see the melodies with the vocals full of light, hope, and determination more than anything.

While I wish I could speak and understand every language, especially this one at the moment, I cannot, but I could listen to this for hours watching Tony Gatlif films silently on repeat.  Trust me, that as soon as I can, the music from this album will find it’s way into new shows at RadioCasbah.com.

RadioMike
7 March 2016

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