JAH WOBBLE & EVAN PARKER PASSAGE TO HADES 30 HERTZ HZ14 CD (2001) REVIEWED BY DAVID TOOP

Reviewed by Tomafin Cirka

Toop's archival knowledge of the players, his opinions, and the inherent breadth of the world music genre conspire to produce an expansive review. The sentences linger on, like the dying echos of a sax sounding under a bridge, "There may be powerful echoes of John Coltrane and Giant Steps sounding throughout this CD, even Pharoah Sanders's "Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt" from Tauhid, but more strongly than those venerable inspirations I can hear the taquara clarinets of the Yawalapiti Indians of Upper Xingu, the free reed bamboo pipes of Cambodia, the giant nadhaswaram oboes of India, the tang-p'iri oboe of Korea, the hichiriki of Japanese gagaku, the sacred flutes of Papua New Guinea and the bagpipes of Eastern Europe." They leave me spent, but craving more--totally uninterested in actually hearing the album. I simply want to read on, and in this way Mr. Toop achieves a reviewer's Zen, originally proposed by Alan Merriweather in his 1963 article 'The Ultimate Review'. I didn't think it was possible, but may I congratulate you, Mr. Toop, your review invokes music so amazing that to listen would surely only disappoint.