I Heard a Rumor...

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Rumor mini-festivals that happen at random intervals here in Utrecht, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to see the 47^th edition thereof. There was a complication, though: the biggest band involved, Grizzly Bear, got robbed a few days before and cancelled their entire tour, so they failed to appear. However, there was an intriguing-sounding replacement, so I went without hesitation, and I was even more glad than usual that I went.

The night began at Theater Kikker with a pair of modern classical pieces performed by the LOOS ensemble. Now, I'm normally pretty ambivalent to modern classical, in that I appreciate the composition and musicianship, but it never really grabs me. This time was a bit different, though – the piece was more enjoyable to me than most, primarily because of the instrumentation involved. Both pieces included significant amounts of percussion, with the second involving drums, glockenspiel, and a wooden xylophone in addition to bells – and I, being a percussion junkie, loved it. It still didn't quite connect the way other types of music do, but it was a considerably more enjoyable modern classical performance than most I've seen.

Next up was a trip to Rasa for what turned out to be the most interesting act of the night. Susie Ibarra, a Filipino composer, played a number of pieces from her current project, Electric Kulingtang, which consists of a fusion of traditional Filipino music, led by the namesake instrument, which is a sort of xylophone-esque series of differently pitched cup-shaped cymbals, with funk-jazz drumming and trancey electronics. The result was an ethereal yet rhythmic, hypnotic yet funky soundscape made unique by the rather beautiful sounds of the kulingtang. She was joined by drummer Roberto Rodriguez, who played both a jazz drum kit and a gome-like frame drum, both in full funk-jazz style. There were a couple songs where Ibarra switched to a wood-block vibraphone, and a dreamy keyboard number, but those simply didn't stand up to the kulingtang pieces which were the mainstay of the set. The unique mix of sounds made for a very compelling listen, and I'm a bit sad I couldn't afford the associated CD.

Thirdly was the replacement for Grizzly Bear, over at EKKO. It turned out to be Mohammed “Jimmy” Mohammed, a blind Ethiopian jazz singer. He was joined by two fellow Ethiopians he was touring with, along with two locals. All in all, his ensemble consisted of a pair of clay Ethiopian drums with a rich, deep sound, a lyre-like instrument amplified so that it sounded oddly similar to an electric piano, an oddly set up drum set (with a leather-bound tom instead of a bass drum, and a very large drum hanging from the ceiling, plus a frame-based shaker next to it), and a horn player alternating between sax, melodica, and bass clarinet. Their style could best be described as avantgarde afrobeat – think Fela Kuti with random bursts of Thelonius Monk, all permeated by “Jimmy”'s oddly nasal voice. It was a very lively, exceedingly energetic performance, and certainly the most fun of the shows at this Rumor. They even played the first encore I've seen at a Rumor. I'm not too familiar with Grizzly Bear, but I doubt they would have been as good.

Last was the weirdest act of this Rumor. Sir Alice, a young French woman, put on a bizarre audio/visual cabaret at SJU, going through such a dizzying array of disjointed parts that it's really rather difficult to concretely describe her act. Basically, she put on a weird show with strange caricatured images and disjointed electronic music, all designed to be very provocative. It was intense; the sort of thing you have to witness to have any chance to understand – and it still left me befuddled, in a good way.

Overall, this was an extremely good Rumor; most that I've been to have had a couple decent acts and one incredible one, while this one had three very good acts and one good one. On average, this one probably has the best overall quality, and there wasn't a single relatively weak act. That's how such things should be.