Digdig
Bob Brozmanis a  true ambassador of the Hawaiian slide guitar, island hopping from Martinique to  Okinawa to collaborate with other top musicians little known outside their own  countries. His fluid and occasionally witty steel guitar finds its perfect foil  in the hyperactive rhythms of René Lacaille, a guitarist, accordionist,  singer, and composer from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. Lacaille  alternates between tropical Gallic pop suggestive of a steamy cabaret and  fiercely energetic homegrown dances that percolate with African influences.  Among the liveliest pieces are the instrumentals that comprise about half of the  disc, and these mingle the inevitable island-trader-route cross currents as  suggested by the high-speed, high-octane mix of Arabic modalities and homegrown  sega rhythms on "An Dio." Brozman and Lacaille exchange and mingle licks as  briskly as the beat of a hummingbird's wings. The rhythms rise from a  lickety-split local 12-beat foundation, which Brozman says alters the hearing of  a song depending on your count--either via two-pulse or three-pulse units. Good  luck keeping track, but in the gleeful delirium you probably won't bother  counting. Lacaille plays South American charango guitar on some of the tracks,  while a backing acoustic band adds furious percussion. As Brozman proved on two  collaborations with Okinawan singerTakashi Hirayasu, his  lush slide guitar sounds perfect in any milieu, and once again he and his  collaborator have carved out a brave new genre.--Bob Tarte