Dan Raza is one of those artists seem to arrive on the scene fully formed. His debut album exudes assurance and maturity with simple yet effective songs enhanced by beautifully judged arrangements.
These gentle songs could easily be performed with a simple voice and acoustic guitar and they would have sounded just fine like this. But what gives them a further dimension, and makes them truly special, is the broad range of instrumental accompaniment.
This is doubtless due in no small part to having Charlie Hart as his producer. Hart has an impressive CV, having worked with prestigious names like Ronnie Lane, Eric Clapton, Ian Dury and Alexis Korner. His producing skills, and knowledge of go to musicians, means he must take a lot of credit for bringing out the full potential of these lyrical songs.
The flute and piano backing on the opening track, 40 Miles, has an obvious affinity with Nick Drake's wistful melancholy and introduces the themes of displacement and a quest for belonging that runs through all ten songs.
This is most evident on Home,Again, a song specifically about adjusting to the city life of London after growing up in the countryside of Bedfordshire. Since Raza has mixed Indian and British roots, a line musing "how a man must wander from the one place that he's known"could also be taken as a meditation on his bloodline.
Dark Side Of The Road, with accordion and fiddle, makes some Celtic connections and Raza's voice on this could easily be mistaken for an Irishman. Perhaps this is why I thought of Van Morrison's Bright Side Of The Road as I listened (although the jauntier Cool Dark Night is actually closer in upbeat mood to that track).
Morrison, it turns out, is one of Raza's musical heroes, and he has spoken of the thrill of having Van The Man's organist Geraint Watkins guest on a couple of the other tracks on this album.
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The one track that didn't work for me was Leaving, Without You where the accordion and sax don't combine so well and the lyrics seem a little confused - "I catch a glimpse of their conversation"?!
Also, No-One Shed A Tear, tells a dramatic song of murder and revenge but would benefit from some liner notes to establish the context.
However, there's plenty of fine music here and the two really outstanding tracks are On We Go and Can't Go Back both of which feature Mosi Conte a kora player from Guinea who is related to Toumani Diabate.
Conte's graceful backing perfectly in tune with Raza's mellow voice to bring out the poetry of these songs. On the former he sings of travelling "like two blind mules far from home" while the latter is addressed by the memory of a former love and ends with the question "Do you sometimes dream of home?"
Having already won support slots to artists of the calibre of Joan Armatrading, Mary Gautier and Slaid Cleaves it seems that Raza's star is in the ascendant and having the looks to go with his obvious talent makes me think that this fine album could just be the start of something big.
Dan Raza's Website
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