Album Notes

Review from www.earbuzz.com

Australian guitar artists, Bernhard Huber and John Laidler have formed Okapi Guitars - and released the 1999, 'Señor Goat' - a rich ethnic mix of reggae to Indian compositions, with an acoustic finger picking and African tribal sound. Mostly instrumental, with the occasional vocal such as in song, 'Desperate Sea' - a guitar rich fast paced traditional dance sounding tune, accompanied by horns on keys. The fifth track, 'Hiari Yako', has about four or five guitars playing within the mix at the same time - with accompanying drum machine - moving bass lines - and chant like lyrical vocal - cool tune. The tribal dance groove explodes with the opening track, 'Bad Wawatu', as the guitars become like keyboards amid multi part vocals. In track 4, 'Zanzibar', the music flows like a river with a vocal line that is more a radio announcement about Zanzibar than it is singing - pizzicato strings announce the infectious melody, again, mp3'd here. Track 6 is a guitar beauty - with an unusual and rolling picking style that begins the track, 'Jaliman'. The vocal part sounds as if it's a looped sample of a tribal chant, and it may well be. Overall this is entirely original sounding music to most of the western world, performed sincerely and precisely by Huber and Laidler - Okapi Guitars.