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Three worlds equal one >> Afro Celt Sound System buck the green gator syndrome
by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
At that point Emmerson was cheerful and enthusiastic, itching to get on the road. Talking from his NYC hotel room this last week, Emmerson was still cheerful, if a bit worn out. He is, after all, 60 gigs/grey hairs on--that includes a headlining appearance on the World Jazz stage at Glastonbury (England's Woodstock, minus the Limp Bizkit and mob mayhem). Exhausting as it was, Emmerson says this summer was a good one. "One of the biggest surprises has been how the record's broken here in America. The record company here has really gone for it. They've managed to get us on mainstream rock radio--'triple A,' I believe that's the term that's used. I think that's just great." That it is, considering that rock doesn't even factor into ACSS's complex musical equation. Fusing folk music and electronica is one thing--synths and sequencers being more the canvas than the paintbox--but Celtic and West African folk? They're closer, and paradoxically more difficult to integrate. But then ACSS are hardly by-the-book purists, blending balafons, bodhrans and breakbeats with impunity. "The difficulty lies in fusing the three, actually--getting the right balance. We just do it intuitively--there's no secret formula or recipe. We could make an acoustic Afro Celt album, without the beats and grooves, and it wouldn't be too difficult. That's something I'd really like to do." Now here's the tough one: when ACSS roll into town, do they head for the Irish pub or the African café? "We don't really go to the pubs, unless we know the people involved. They tend to be run by fairly strangulated people trying to buy into the Irish thing. But, to make a more general statement, the band isn't trying to sell a clichéd image of Ireland back to the Irish community abroad. We're trying to show that Irish music has moved on from the leprechaun stereotype--what they call the 'green alligator syndrome.'" Emmerson notes that McNally, whose pedigree includes stints with the Pogues and Marxman, has done enough St. Patrick's Day gigs to leave anyone green at the gills. "Interestingly, he went to Kenya last year for St. Patrick's Day, and played at the Irish embassy for a load of Africans. "So I think we'd be more likely to go to the African café. There aren't a lot around, but those that are tend to be really cool. But you know, we've been labeled 'cyber-folk,' so you're most likely to find me at an Internet café."
At the Spectrum on Saturday, October 2, 8:30pm, $29+taxes |
This writer's first talk with Simon Emmerson, who handles keys and guitar duties in Afro Celt Sound System, was early last spring. He was in town with bandmates James McNally and N'Faly Kouyate, drumming up attention for their then-new second disc, Volume 2.