Whilst many bands see the way forward as trying to create totally new musical platforms, they look ahead only seeking to creating something cutting edge, to use technology to invent the future, others know that in the cyclical nature of things there really is very little new to be had. Nothing of any real worth or longevity anyway. These are the ones who realise that musical beach-combing is just as valid a path, that the building blocks are all already out there and that everything you need can be found by searching out sonic gems between the tides of the musical shore line of musical history.
Edinburgh’s Baba Yaga does just that finding Balkan vibes and old world folk, emotive gypsy violins and rootsy traditions and weaving them together in new but very familiar ways. This isn’t folk music re-worked or re-imagined, there isn’t any real need to take that route anyway, they understand that there is still plenty of milage in the old tunes. The Sandman runs on a slow and smokey groove, part east European instrumentalism, part bucolic traditional British folk harmonies and part homemade musical glue to bring it all together.
Normally when you hear of a new outfit dipping their toes into such waters it is normally to punk things up, to turn it into a frenzied and frantic make over, as if the current climate couldn’t cope with something as rooted in the past as this. Well, thankfully Baba Yaga don’t fall for such gimmicks and instead give us the best of both worlds, traditional music with just the deftest of modern sheens. Sassy, sultry, seductive and splendid!
