Wide of range and stylistically diverse, the output of the Sublime Frequencies label is a vast repository of global revelations. The latest addition to the catalog exemplifies the sense of discovery that has become the undertaking’s norm. Himba Hymn: Ghosts Of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast sheds considerable light onto a style of music heretofore unheard beyond its country’s borders. Recorded and produced by esteemed and dogged musical researcher Ian Brennan, these wild sounds flower out there far beyond any reasonable expectations, available now on vinyl and digital.
For many, the persevering interest in global sounds stemmed from, if not boredom, then certainly sustained restlessness with an overabundance of variations on the same old thing. And that thing was a deluge of different sub-things: pop-rock, alt-rock, indie, punk, Americana, electronica, etc.
Often described as a musical boom period, the 1990s were also a time when interested listeners began seeking something other than the standard contemporary kicks. There was the impulse to give earlier eras and styles a deeper investigation, a curiosity that wasn’t anything particularly new, especially regarding the music of distant cultures.
The reason the Nonesuch Explorer Series released recordings from 1967 to 1984, with numerous reissues to follow, was clearly due to unflagging consumer interest. And Nonesuch Explorer wasn’t alone, as Folkways broadened outward from US shores, and the 1980s brought an influx of labels including World Circuit, Hannibal, Original Music, Shanachie, and more.
As interest in styles beyond traditional and ceremonial musics grew, the 1990s indeed boomed, with the Rough Guides emerging mid-decade alongside such unexpected deep-dives as the Ethiopiques series. Into the new century, Sublime Frequencies hit the scene, not necessarily making a big splash but carving out a spot in the enduring underground and specializing in what came to be described as Punk Ethnography (to directly reference the title of a book on the label published in 2016).
Nearly a quarter century later, Sublime Frequencies has become something of an institution without diluting the sheer range and potency of its output. Importantly, the label, founded by brothers Richard Bishop and Alan Bishop, both formerly of the essential punk-folk-avant-experimentalists Sun City Girls, was simply a subterranean alternative to, rather than a calculated, explicit reaction against, the perceived sophisto politeness of so much World Music, its listeners, and its attendant industry.
Himba Hymn: Ghosts Of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is illustrative of the label’s undiluted stature as it presents a true ethnological feat with nary a trace of the “First World” egotism that could accompany an international unveiling of this nature. This is quite impressive as it’s difficult to imagine any other label releasing a spotlight of such gripping, unpolished intensity.
The ESP-Disk label once upon a time utilized the slogan “You never heard such sounds in your life.” That’s exactly what we have here. Opener “Lion Attack, Cattle Massacre” is guttural, growly, cyclical, and as menacingly ominous as a spirit possession death scene in any horror flick, in large part because it’s clear the sounds are rendered with utter precision.
Short tracks like “Bless Your Ancestors for Being Born,” “Over There Is Me,” and “ Calling Our Ancestors from Across the Plains,” and the longer piece “Who Is Going to Welcome the White People?” get into the ballpark of the traditional, but that’s nothing close to a disappointment.
It’s the tracks that feature live looping (no overdubs) on the recording site through a battery-operated pedal board that solidifies the progressive nature of the whole endeavor. Furthermore, the horn sounds in “Friends Who’ve Passed” wouldn’t be out of place on an LP of Downtown NYC Minimalism cut in the mid-1970s for the Chatham Square Productions label. And that’s fucking sweet.
In the liner notes, Ian Brennan explains that a severe travel schedule brought him to his destination with just a few hours of recording time. Bottom line: Brennan is the farthest thing from a snatch-and-grab cultural tourist. Instead, he’s an active participant in a gloriously under-the-gun process of essential documentation that’s beautiful in its strangeness and uncompromising in its power, and will persist for generations to come.
Cherish Himba Hymn: Ghosts Of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast now and share it with as many good humans as possible.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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