Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
2002 - Root Fire
2004 - Sounding a Mosaic
http://www.myspace.com/bedouin
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
On first hearing Sounding a Mosaic, Bedouin Soundclashs sophomore release and U.S. debut on SideOneDummy Records- Produced by Darryl Jenifer, the bassist for Bad Brains, youd be excused for thinking the trio met in Kingston, Jamaica, rather than Kingston, Ontario, about three hours outside of their hometown of Toronto.
But thats where vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Jay Malinowski, bassist Eon Sinclair and drummer Pat Pengelly first met, at University, where a shared love of reggae music in all its various forms brought them together to form a band in 2001.
We started trading records and realized we liked similar music, says Malinowski, a painter with a prestigious Toronto gallery whose oil and wax piece adorns the cover of the album. We never planned to play together.
Malinowski came to the music through a love of the Clash and 80s Two-Tone bands like the Specials and the English beat, while Sinclair, whose parents were from Guyana, brought a feel for soca, hip-hop and dancehall toasters such as Buju Banton.
But one listen to songs like the single, When the Night Feels my Song, which warmly evokes Toots and the Maytals classic Pressure Drop, and you know where Bedouin Soundclash is really coming from. Its a tribute to the original ska and reggae by way of The Harder They Come and the original Wailers music influenced by sweet American soul and R&B and made universal by the vision and songs of Bob Marley.
Were a bunch of Canadian kids making music that is really far from our homes, so we try to make it true to what we grew up with, explains Malinowski. We take it and do something to make it our own. Bob Marley was the first Third World pop star who proved, though coming from a small island, this music can speak to people around the world.
Taking their name from Israeli producer Badawis 1996 album, Bedouin Soundclash take the notion of culture clash to its music. The group mixes reggae, ska, dub and rock in a way that recalls not only blue-eyed predecessors like the Police and UB40, but Jamaican icons Desmond Dekker, Bob Andy, Ken Lazarus, Lee Scratch Perry and Junior Murvin. Produced by Darryl Jenifer, the bassist for Bad Brains, another groundbreaking band that fused hard core with reggae, Sounding a Mosaic lives up to its name.
Shelter has the classic, speeded-up ska sound of the Two-Tone bands, while the West Indian beat of Gyasi Went Home comes from a bass line Eon brought back after visiting his parents in their native Guyana, echoing Paul Simons African music excursion in Graceland. Living in Jungles has Buju Bantons dancehall sass, Criminal the spacious dub sound of Augustus Pablo, Immigrant Workforce the Polices trippy world beat and Nothing to Say the call-to-arms punk bravado of the Clashs Washington Bullets.
Their version of the Maytones Money Worries features guest vocals from that bands Vernon Buckley, now part of Montreals vibrant West Indian community, home of Bedouin Soundclashs Canadian label Stomp, which put out the groups debut, Root Fire, when the three were still college freshmen.
Where Americans talk about a melting pot, Canadians like to refer to a mosaic, explains Jay about the countrys multi-culturalism. A melting pot expresses the idea of assimilation, that no matter where you come from, youre an American. Here, we maintain our original ethnic identity while still mixing with others.
As chief songwriter, Malinowskis influences include the narrative bent of a Dylan and the social consciousness of a Joe Strummer. Jeb Rand was inspired by Raoul Walshs 1947 noir western Pursued, in which Robert Mitchum plays a man with amnesia whose father was murdered and cant figure out why people are trying to kill him.
With the release of Sounding A Mosaic the band will also be bring their live show to the U.S. as they are slated to play the entire Vans Warped Tour 05.
Thats an example of playing to an audience that might not know everything youre doing, says Jay. We look forward to turning them on to a kind of music they may not have been exposed to before.
He understands our sound and where were coming from, says Jay. This is more of a songwriters album, with more vocal harmonies, more cohesive songs. Ive been listening to a lot of old gospel and calypso music and I think that comes across, too. I really feel like were coming into our own sound, finding our voice and hitting our stride.
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