XYLOURIS WHITE 2014 (Courtesy of the Cretan Association Designer) Called Mitsos Stavrakakis
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NEW ALBUMS made of a vulture’s feather – which can be fapped loosely to provide lightly strummed pattern, or held tightly to get an aggressive tone. The title track of the album opens with a sparkly, plucked rif, backed by pounding foor toms and a stentorian vocal. “Forging” is a powerful one-chord drone that mixes a proggy, chiming metal rif with some thunderous drum pattern and sees Xylouris forcing out a simple four-note melody at the upper end of his vocal register. A track entitled “Erotokritos” is based on the opening stanzas of an epic 17th- century poem that provides the basis for much Cretan music. “It is about the past and the future,” says Xylouris. “About how our feelings for time go deep into the earth and cry out into the sky.” He adopts White is the a terrifyingly low baritone rumble, while name: (l-r) Xylouris his pal Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy provides and Jim eerie vocal harmonies. Other lyrics, all sung in Greek, are bills for nearly a quarter of a century, written by a friend of Giorgos, a Cretan they fnally got together in Manhattan in farmer (and, apparently, jewellery XYLOURIS WHITE 2014 (courtesy of the Cretan Association designer) called Mitsos Stavrakakis. Of New York) to record the album Goats. The title track, for instance, is about a Black Peak The follow-up, started in New York and black mountain in Crete. “The lyric asks BELLA UNION completed in studios in Crete and, of all the mountain if he is lonely and needs places, Iceland, is a less subtle and more company,” says Giorgos. Other tracks 8/10 vividly defned cultural collision that is seem similarly rooted in the landscape, Cretan folk music meets Melbourne punk, heavier in every sense of the word. The or in traditional folk melodies: “Pretty punky tracks are very punky indeed; the Kondilies” is a jaunty, sailor’s hornpipe- in downtown New York City, on duo’s brooding ballads particularly broody. like instrumental that draws attention to second. By John Lewis The laouto is an eight-string traditional verse. instrument with moveable frets, sharing But most efective of all are the ballads, WITH so much of the same violin-like tuning (GDAE) which are weirdly aggressive afairs. what is labelled SLEEVE NOTES and paired strings as the mandolin. In Usually they stay on a single chord “world music”, the Recorded in: traditional Cretan music, its role was and see Xylouris playing tremolo style, appeal is not always New York, Crete that of “passadorikos”, playing chords strumming chords so quickly and so the lure of the Other. and Iceland and countermelodies to accompany the violently that his instrument sounds Produced by: In many cases bowed lyra. Giorgos Xylouris, however, like a giant, angry wasp. Throughout Guy Picciotto we are seeking Personnel is part of a generation of laouto players White plays with the inventiveness a twist on the familiar, be it Tuareg includes: Giorgos who have transformed the instrument of a free jazz improviser but uses the tom- musicians who sound like galloping Xylouris (laouto, from passadorikos to primadori – from toms rather than the cymbals to create heavy metal bands, Bollywood vocals), Jim rhythm to lead. And Black Peak sees highly textural accompaniment, while musicians making slightly wonky White (drums Xylouris moving freely between the Xylouris sings arhythmically, like a disco, or Nigerian dance bands and percussion), two modes, ofen within a fraction declamatory poet. making pulsating big-band funk. It Antonis of a second. When Giorgos’ father, Psarantonis, is the everyday being put through an “Psarantonis” Watch him in action and you’ll see arrives on the fnal track, “The Feast”, to Xylouris (lyra unfamiliar flter – like seeing ourselves him manipulate the instrument in a provide countermelodies on the bowed on “The Feast”), refected in a fairground mirror. Bonnie ‘Prince’ variety of ways. He strokes the strings lyra, it sounds like a circle has truly been This, in part, is the appeal of the Cretan Billy (backing with his fngers, or picks at them with his completed. This is Cretan folk music lute player Giorgos Xylouris. He is a vocals on thumb and fngernails, but usually uses played with a rock’n’roll intensity that is renowned exponent of traditional music “Erotokritos”) a long, foppy plectrum – historically truly immersive. from a noble family – his father and two of his uncles are celebrated exponents of the lyra, a bowed instrument with Q&A roots to the Byzantine Empire – and “I even How do you label this music? was on the radio, in a bar. But I liked his Xylouris Ensemble (featuring many Giorgos Xylouris: sleep with my instrument!” We’ve been called free jazz, post- lots of it – Hendrix, the Stones, Led of his friends and relatives, including punk, world, ethnic music. I think Zep, Dylan, Neil Young, Billie Holiday, some of his own children) play a lively How much of the music is we’re a mosaic of all these. My life Paco De Lucia. Later, in Melbourne, I ’d take on traditional Cretan music. But improvised? We have the basic since I was 12 was as a professional hear the Dirty Three [White’s group], put him and his Cretan lute, or laouto, song before we record. But each time musician. I’d play shows with my the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, Irish alongside the free-rock drummer Jim we play, it’s like we are teasing the father: we’d stay in the same room, music. I loved it. I am always open to White and his sound seems to transform. song to see what it will give back to wake up the next day and play new music – I loved The Cairo Gang Their thrashy drums/lute duels can have us. And we try to make more space another club. Even now, I play the lute when we supported them in the US. the free-swinging energy of The White every time to do a new thing. It’s like all the time. I worry that my friends IS we have a map of the song, and, as want me to shut up and stop playing. I How did you meet up with K Stripes or the herky-jerky of a post-punk we play, we discover more creeks, even sleep with my instrument! Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy? Oh, I wish I band, while other times they sound like more peaks, more roads, more could record more with Billy! When growling freak-folk balladeers. ATHIOUDA trees, more animals! Jim is an What are your influences he sings backing vocals, he gives a M The pair met in 1990 while Giorgos amazing, unique musician. I discover outside of traditional Greek spiritual, exotic feeling to the music. was living in White’s home city of myself with him every time we music? Initially, the only chance I got He gives me this feeling every time I ANOLIS M Melbourne. Afer playing on the same play together. to listen to other music was when it hear him sing. INTERVIEW: JOHN LEWIS 36 • UNCUT • NOVEMBER 2016.