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Written in fRoots issue 271/272, 2006
 

TARAF DE HAÏDOUKS
The Continuing Adventures Of Taraf De Haïdouks (DVD + CD)
Crammed Discs DVDTDH2 (2005)

This is exactly what DVD is perfect for. Not samey in-concert footage of pop bands and interviews with bunches of lads or ladies sprawled on a sofa, but getting to grips with the people and life that make the rich musics of the world. A CD is all very well, but it’s just audio, and there’s so much more to these musics than just the way they sound. A well-made film, with non-intrusive, hand-held camera work, takes you there as much as it’s possible without physically going (and of course going, as a tourist, can mean you possibly don’t really see the reality anyway, and almost certainly affect it by your presence).
      It’s a fascinating, rich compendium of fifteen years of Taraf de Haïdouks – an hour of the 2002 Union Chapel show (intercut with interviews with band friend Johnny Depp and manager Michel Winter), another fifty minute film, No Man Is A Prophet In His Own Land, about their life in Clejani and their first proper concerts in Bucharest after ten years on the road, a collection of revealing and amusing on-the-road material shot across the world by manager Michel Winter on their tours since they first emerged from Romania in 1990, twenty minutes of interviews with band members, an eight minute slice of Tony Gatlif’s film Latcho Drom, a still-photo gallery and a discography.
      And, since video’s all very well but you’ve got to sit down and watch it, whereas audio’s there in the air while you get on with something else, there’s a second disc, an audio CD recorded at the Union Chapel concert.
      The Taraf’s playing is extraordinary, and it’s all captured in great sound and vision, expertly edited (the Romanian and on the road films by Tony Gatlif’s daughter Elsa Dahmani, the British footage by Marc Allen) in a finely balanced way that shows the band’s brilliance, life, and humour without either being a puff or making fun. I was going to pick some choice moments to illustrate, but there are too many. Highly recommended, both for itself and as a shining example of what DVD can do.

www.crammed.be



© 2005 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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