The Sway Machinery

Hidden Melodies Revealed

2009-05-11

A New York collective (supergroup? Jew-pergroup?), The Sway Machinery is lead by Jeremiah Lockwood of Balkan Beat Box, Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean from the Antibalas horn section, Colin Stetson (Arcade Fire, Tom Waits) holding it down on bass sax and Brian Chase of Yeah Yeah Yeahs on drums. Colliding the tradional with the non-traditional, Lockwood sings Jewish cantorial lyrics over lush Afro-beat accompaniment, creating some sort of new mystical experience. Bluesy Malian-influenced guitar lines snake around deep horns (check out #5 Tell It All To Me) which blurt out over complex polyrhythms and even if you don't know what Lockwood is singing about (most of the album is sung in Hebrew), you can't help but be moved by it in some way. 3, 10 and 13 are spoken word pieces