Springing from the hot, dead-yet-fertile, vast farming region known as California’s Central Valley, El Olio Wolof writes songs about wizards, dragons, alienated childhoods and, not surprisingly, farmers.
This year marked the group’s debut LP, “A Tedious Task.” Small tours around the West have brought the group to Tucson twice, although the majority of their live shows focus around their hometown of Merced and the surrounding region, so it’s unlikely that many of them have had the chance to see them.
What strikes me so much about this group is simply the song arrangements. In addition to having a wide variety of instrumentation including a flute, an accordion (on almost every track, nonetheless), keyboards and, of course, a gong, El Olio Wolof has a very unique and unpredictable song structure, driving through various time signatures while maintaining a sort of laid-back, lazy Sunday sort of groove. And that’s my favorite time to listen to them: Sundays just sitting around the house.
Although the album falters in a couple of places, there are several stand-out tracks. “Apathetic Apple” tells the story of the life of an apple tree from the tree’s perspective, and ends up being incredibly poetic yet, at the same time, moody and dark. The track also features some of the best use of the group’s instrumentation, complementing the mood and structure perfectly.
I had the chance to see El Olio Wolof in one of their few ventures out of the Central Valley at a show opening for Point Juncture, WA in Portland. The live show impressed me especially in that the band was able to pull off their arrangements and performance in a manner that rivaled if not surpassed the quality of the recorded material. I also had the pleasure of briefly speaking with one of the members, the flutist/keyboardist who has, unfortunately, since left the group. I was especially curious about the songwriting and was told that it begins with two of the members writing stories, which then are turned into songs and music is added. It seems traditional, but, in reality, nothing is traditional about El Olio Wolof.
Tags: 2008 music, el olio wolof
