Keeping to the purely factual is not easy when an act - which Rolling Stone magazine tipped as the "Godfathers of World-Beat" on World Music's genealogical tree - is swamping the senses with something as seductive and sensual as "Instinctive Traveler".
Dissidenten have been on their zigzag worrld voyage for some seventeen years now. Along the way, whether in Spain, Italy, North America, North Africa or Brazil, they have brought millions of people to their feet. and that is not some idly concocted statistic. Brazil alone bought over 1,5 million copies of "Fata Morgana". In North Africa reputedly millions of people cut a rug to pirate copies of Dissidenten's "Sahara Elektrik" - it swamped the market in the Eighties. Along the way Dissidenten enthralled David Byrne and Brian Eno at their New Music Seminar show - frozen sound on 1991's "Live in New York".Four years ago Dissidenten took Kipling's "Jungle Book" into new realms without Disneyfying their inspiration. And their "Jungle Book" in turn kindled the remix fire under the Pope of Techno-Trance, Sven Väth, and the legion of cheeky little remixers. Four years on, "Instinctive Traveler" is a giant step for Dissidentenkind on several counts.
"Instinctive Traveler" is an exploration of hot and humid terra incognito. This time the core trio of Friedo Josch, Marlon Klein and Uve Müllrich is surrounded by many new colleagues. This time the caravanserai include North Indian, Tamil, Native American, Arabic, Hawaiian and blues voices. Explosions of ululation - Ojibwa and Islamic Style - punctuate the music. Funk laces the air. Hindu and Muslim sing a blues together. It is a heady combination.
Meanwhile, amid the clamorous tongues is the voice of Bajka, the 18 year old daughter of Uve Müllrich, the group's bassist. Bajka, as befits a Dissident, as befits a woman born to Dissidentenhood, was born in a maharajah's palace - Maharajah Bhalkrishna Bharti, since you ask - and grew up in India, Morocco and South Africa. No wonder that she brings her mother tongue, English, to "Instinctive Traveler".
Key works which unlock doors to reveal unsuspected vistas were always in precious short supply. But above all else, regardless of its multicultural influences, "Instinctive Traveler" is a popular album in the most real sense. What Dissidenten have managed is a sonic coupling. By uniting cultures and traditions galore what emerges is music targeted at the world. "Instinctive Traveler" could do no less.
"Instinctive Traveler" is not cultural tourism but Dissidenten still require your ticket and yours, estimated traveler, is a copy of ypur review, good or bad, or playlist. A small price to pay for such a deady ride, we feel. but then we are blased
Ken Hunt
