Album Review

Bedouin Soundclash – Light The Horizon

• 20th Oct 2010

Bedouin Soundclash, the punk-reggae band from Toronto Canada, have made some inspiring records in their time, you only have to look back to Street Gospel and Sounding A Mosaic can be put up with the likes of The Specials, The Clash and numerous other giants and still look tall and confident. Their most recent offering Light The Horizon is the same as their previous work, kinetic whilst being soulful with a spirit that some will only match with liquor.

The record starts out optimistically enough, with the skanking stomper ‘Mountain Top’ and clearing space in the jungle of music “call it what you want/call it old punk rock/Up on the mountain top”. The bass is thankfully mudier than a swamp to drown anything from sorrows to lesser mortals whilst the echoes are the playful dubs forming the icing on the spongy yet biting guitar stabs. This is something which harks back to the immeasurable anthem, ‘When The Night Feels My Song’. All the tracks from now on will do their best to counter this feeling, but take this idea of mountain climbing to its explorational limits.

As if this was not enough already, there are power ballads with orchestral movements painting the atmosphere with all the colours of the rainbow. A tune named after a boy Jay met in Sri Lanka, ‘Elongo’ is this the physical result of these crescendos with the aggression and provides the counterpoint to ‘May You Be The Road’ which is bluesy in feeling of lost love. This might not sound like the optimism of the opener, but works in the path being spread out, “travelled before” as ‘Fool’s Tattoo’ demonstrates with its forlorn saxophone heralding deeper reflection.

‘No One Moves, Nobody Gets Hurt’ is a dark brooding track about the grief of loss and the realities of news reportage. The realisation that the voice has hurt while “I’ve hurt/The stormy skies as we struggle to the top” this is pain and the background sounds of gentle water like dream sounds and the haunting string arrangement with the chorus like vocals it is a little like a medieval ballad of religious imagery and learning. More like a long stare back in to the depths of time.

This is a real journey, one which will take you from the heights of optimism and brashness to the slums of near morbid depression, pain and suffering. You can almost imagine the awe inspiring landscapes of East Africa with the colourful atmosphere of the dark sandy brown mountains to the dense Caribbean forests. These are not tunes for T-Mobile, but something altogether more meaningful and charismatic. There is no need to worry about oxygen tanks, there is an energy burning somewhere which gives them light, warmth and does will make sure they do not suffocate or fade out.