Memory Drop

After losing such strong musical personalities as founding members Sophie Solomon and Lemez Lovas, a less dedicated and stubborn band than Oi Va Voi might have chucked it in. Instead, convinced that the group's founding vision of fusing dance grooves, singer-songwriter sensitivity and rock heft with the group's Jewish cultural heritage and a cosmopolitan rhythmic inspiration drawn from Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond, drummer Josh Breslaw and clarinettist/singer Steve Levi assumed leadership of the band and regrouped. Adding trumpet player David Orchant and guitarist Michael Winawer to the core line-up and violinist Anna Phoebe and trombonist Chris Fry to the looser collective, Memory Drop is Oi Va Voi's first album since 2009's Travelling the Face of the Globe. It's more than worth the wait, not least because the band have unearthed another startlingly fine guest vocalist in the Israeli singer Zohara Niddam. Richly textured, the album brims with beguiling melodies, insightful songcraft, rhythmic invention and fine musicianship, from the warmth of the swelling horns on the haunting opener ‘Arrival’ to the semi-classical violin, piano and clarinet and ethereal vocals of Niddam on ‘Through the Maze’. It's great to have them back.