New PNG Music from David Bridie
For those keen PNG music followers who haven’t realised yet, David Bridie released his latest album called Succumb on August 9th and not surprisingly, the album has been heavily influenced by Papua New Guinea and consequently Melanesia.
There are two tracks on the album, Raskol Dusty and Too Much Superstition (Devil Will Take Your Soul) that boast Tok Pisin (Pidgin English) lyrics while a third track The Foreign Correspondent based on a traditional West Papuan Song from Manokwari.
Raskol Dusty was actually one of the first songs written for the album and brings a new sound to the otherwise quite rocky sounding album – here are the lyrics:
Raskol Dusty (by David Bridie)
They go this way, they go that way first
They leave you in their wake, they shout, they curse
They’re lightning quick
Kick up the dirt
Raskol Dusty
Yeah these be highwaymen, rough adventure boys
They got their hands on these old wartime toys
You can hear them by the trail of noise
Raskol Dusty
They blacken their face with sweat coal and grease
Got names like Nightfox, Rambo, Sleaze
You can’t see the boys for the mist in the trees
Raskol Dusty
And I….Raskol Dusty
Ghosts in the mountains, the ancestral caves
Police can’t find them in their hideaway
Taim before masta in Tumbuna days
Raskol Dusty
Vanilla cash crop, coffee and graft
Been taught by experts the ones who left last
Never a dull moment see through their façade
Raskol dusty
The leaders name is Baby Stephen
He says ‘Nightfox you’re on operation’
The SDAs think he’s a heathen
Raskol Dusty
They hoist the flag in the name of god
The polis are storming in
The govmen is cracking down
Their patience wearing thin
Olgeta man I save long yu
Shorty shorty I no meri
Olgeta man I save long yu
Shorty shorty I no meri
I’m looking forward to getting my hands onto this album just to check out how this song sounds – both musically and lyrically.
David Bridie describes Succumb as being “born out of creative searches and fear, and the grouping together of a wonderful bunch of musicians who interpreted my songs with soul and empathy and occasional gusto. It reflects my interests of late – in texture and sound, drums and guitars, rhythm and epic chords, analogue keyboards, groove and Melanesian feels, lyrical concerns of 12 years under the social conservatives, relationships strained and joyous, living in the Pacific, first person and third person concerns”.
Succumb is the latest of more than 35 albums featuring David Bridie’s music through the last 25 years, during which he has been involved with the bands Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake, a number of movie sound tracks, and other collaborative and solo albums.
When Not Drowning Waving was in PNG they were introduced to George Telek who later helped the band produce their fifth album Tabaran (1990) which was re-released in 2005.
You can order a copy of Succumb from David Bridie’s website.
NOTE:
I thought I might just add in the original video clip of Not Drowning Waving’s 1991 single, the Kiap Song:
The Garamut 
boina tuna.It means a lot to me to be acknowledged by the PNG music media.I hope the album makes some inroads in PNG.I am looking forward to the Australasian World Music Expo in two weeks time (www.awme.com.au) where George Telek,Airi Ingram,Richard Mogu,Hein Arumisore and Ben Hakalitz will represent PNG in front of international music delegates.The Expo showcases some of the most important musical artists in teh whole Pacific region and there will be artists from PNG,The Torres Strait Islands,West Papua,the Solomon Islands,Vanuatu,New Caledonia,Aotearoa and indigenous Australians.We will be putting on our SIng SIng concert which will then next year open the Auckland Festival and then tour the USA with the support of the World Music Institute.Yu stap isi.Lukim yu bihain.David bridie.ps in december together with World Vision we start our HIV music workshops in Madang Province,whereby we shall be working with PNG musicians in communicating to grass roots young men and using spngwriting to disseminate information about harm minimisation and HIV
Hi David,
Thanks for your comment!
You just gave me my next topic for my Blog: the Australasian World Music Expo. I look forward to hopefully catching a glimpse of the performances – wether in person or via the media.
Thank you for supporting PNG music and for being a great ambassador for our musicians and for our country. I think your HIV Music campaign with World Vision is AWESOME! 🙂
I’d never heard about till now. I will be keeping tabs on it! I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavours.
You know you have one fan here!
Stap gut, lukautim yu yet, na tenkyu tru long olgeta wok bilong yu insait long PNG.
Thanks T and David,
Its always refreshing to see new and varied forms of PNG related music getting out there on the world scene. It really is a shame that we do not get to see enough live acts in PNG.
As a great lover of music, I’ve noticed the different branches that PNG music is now endeavoring on, in the sense that we are moving beyond just string band music etc. But I think our musicians still have a long way to go in terms of the quality of their instrument playing and live playing before we can start to see true uniqueness shining out from all the studio bands that we are seeing.
Obviously on a financial level it is hard to be doing live acts all the time, but we have to push that and we need to see more international or regional acts in PNG for us to grow and learn as well.
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