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Written in fRoots issue 247/248, 2004


MERCEDES PEÓN
Ajrú
Discmedi DM 838-02 (2003)

Mercedes Peón’s magnificent and radical first album, Isué, will probably be seen as a turning point in Galician music, particularly in the re-emergence of the traditional female voice, the voice of the villages, in all its passionate, bold, grainy glory. It also made abundantly clear that the music of Galicia, despite its contacts recently and to some extent historically with the musics of Scotland and Ireland, is actually profoundly different from them. Full of energy, subtlety, warmth and startlingly creative arranging and production, it has a permanent place among those favourite albums I play to friends that always causes them to go in search of a copy. And the gig I saw in Vigo while writing the cover piece on her for fR 214 was absolutely no disappointment.
      Now, three years later, out bursts the new one. It’s so crammed with striking events and twists that it’s a monster to review, each listen revealing more. Compared to its predecessor there’s a higher proportion of the wild scampering rhythms akin to Isué’s title track, such as the driving muiñeira pulse of the opener Neniñué, the massive gaita-skirling, pandeireta-rattling, drum-thundering rumba beat of Maria 1, the fuzz surges and throbbing bass of Maria 2 or the shifting sound-chunks of the two-part title track. But each of these morphs into other rhythms, other subtleties, such as the light waltz bass clarinet led rhythm and delicate vocals of E Xera (She’s A Genius), the loping pandeireta and accordion subverted reggae pulse of Nanareggae or the simple quiet happiness of Ese Es Ti.
      Peón’s not one to join the rock nor worldbeat mainstream, nor any other received style; in a rich intertwining of contrasts, in her songs she makes direct and verbally unpretentious new expressions of old meaning – love, wild passion, fun, friendship - from her re-ordering of fragments, melodic shapes and rhythms of traditional music. Her voice, flying free through the ever-changing instrumentation, is by turns wildly strident, whispering, and warmly intimate, steeped in the character of the older singers and pandeireteras she’s spent so much time with, yet far more relevant, powerful and modern than the weedy drabness of most of present-day global pop.
      Heart-liftingly exciting, and a great inspiration.


© 2003 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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