Harry Manx
Album: Om Suite Ohm
Label: Dog My Cat
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.harrymanx.com

As implied by his name, Harry Manx, originally hails from the Isle Of Mann, but was moved to Canada by the time he was six and has long been a proponent of world blues, predominantly brought about by extensive travelling as a busking musician. I'm not quite sure where his love of puns comes from, his previous album was called "Bread And Buddah", but I'd like to think it relates to his earliest homeland.

It would be easy to describe "Om Suite Ohm" as an East meets West album, there are definite conjunctions of blues and ragas, but that would be to ignore the North South connotations and the more jazz elements of the album, Manx has played a number of jazz festivals over the year.

Experimentation and playing with influence is an important aspect to any Harry Manx album, even when he's playing with something that is on the surface quite familiar, such as the Coltrane standard, "A Love Supreme". Coltrane, himself, was influenced by Indian music, with Manx further studying those themes and also giving it a West Coast harmony in places, an extraordinary track.

Similarly there are other parts of the album where you can find more of an African vibe finding it's way through, such as on the opening, "Further Shore". Australia isn't missed out of the continental music influences with a collaboration from Gunjarra Waiterie, "Way Out Back" making a distinctive mark on the album.

If you think all that makes this album seem like a hotch potch of diverse ideas being thrown into a melting pot and you might also want to add a dash of gospel and dash of folk, you'ld be absolutely bang on the mark. The real genius of Manx is that he pulls it all into a cohesive and entertaining album.

To my mind there are a couple of points on the album where he doesn't quite get it right, there's a flavour clash, where the spices don't quite harmonise only adds to the value of the album, rather than detract from it as I've already had a couple of good conversations with friends I've played the album two who found those clashes in places where I didn't and vica versa and ultimately that's what music is all about.

Neil King