From time to time you come across a band that has been around for awhile, is even from your home country, and you have never even heard of before. Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra is such a band for me. To describe their music as world music would be too easy. A better description of the music on Our Tin Tribe is that of weird mechanical circus music built on folkloristic and oriental sounds.
The five musicians (from Dutch, Hungarian and (I read this somewhere) Egyptian background) play a total of twenty-five different instruments, among which lots of percussion and woodwind instruments. Our Tin Tribe is according to the liner notes a remix album from the cd Iron Shoes. What remix means in this case is a mystery to me. The music doesn’t sound electronic (reworked). It does however sound mechanical. A comparison with Muslimgauze might be in place, although as said Our Tin Tribe is not as overtly electronic.
This is not a record that will bore the listener quickly. After many plays there are still new elements to discover to this music. Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra is also playing live sometimes. Judging on the music and the few photographs I found on the Internet these performances must be very special. Certainly something to watch out for this year…
