Peltonen, Aki - Radio Banana
SKU
RERAP1
Pretty heavily left-field album of music mostly for brass and reeds, bass, drums and accordion, with medium wave radio broadcasts somehow filtered in on 3 of the five tracks. I don't know what to say and what do you say about a release as quietly and defiantly outside of today’s mainstream as this?; this sounds like my parent's Xavier Cugat album broadcast to Mars and back again. Meant completely in a good way.
"Just when you think it’s all over, along comes something completely unpredictable – in this case, a modest but uncompromisingly original confection that mixes Latin brass arrangements (sort of), with great drumming, medium wave radio and the many characters of the accordion.
Simplicity, complexity, surprise, familiarity – and all without undue fuss. The result seems exotic and new. It is also one of those releases that just fell through the door in an unassuming package and an absolute minimum of explanation. So there’s not a lot more to say: Radio Banana is a record that wears its heart plainly on its sleeve. There’s nothing hidden. It doesn’t play by any genre rules, or fashion rules; it’s just someone’s idea of music. It’s not sampled or assembled out of parts; it’s just played, the old way, by human beings.
The combination of elements may be inscrutable, but it was this combination, Aki says, that he wanted to hear. Me too."-Chris Cutler