[center][b](2014) Red Snapper - Hyena[/b][/center]


[b]Review:[/b]
Red Snapper’s seventh album, and the second since their reformation in 2007 after a five year hiatus, is a soundtrack of sorts. Its 12 tracks are developed from the soundtrack the band wrote for Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s 1973 road movie Touki Bouki. The record sleeve is taken from the film as well: it shows the hero riding his motorcycle with bull-horns mounted on the handlebars. The film’s title is Wolof for ‘The Journey of the Hyena,’ hence the album’s title, and in the song Walking Man the wild dog is referenced in some of the lyrics – “Walking tall […] with bootless feet” – while others – “Fingers scratch on broken glass” – present the travails of a human journey.
The occasional vocals of Ali Friend punctuate a primarily instrumental record, but his bass drives and leads it. It’s the defining sound that opens the album: first track Card Trick is dominated by a bassline that lopes along, unsure whether it’s speeding or stoned. Herder Can Ride is all about the interplay between bass and David Ayers’ guitar; while in Lassoo the opening guitar figure that might herald a soft ballad gives way to a booming bassline.
Given the origins of Hyena, it’s unsurprising that Red Snapper have looked to African music as inspiration. It’s there most noticeably in the percussion and the rhythms. Wonky Bikes is the most percussive track here, with clanking woodblocks and a jittering drumbeat, and interjections of whistle-like electronics. You might well see 1970s Dakar in this album: the African influences are present to about the same degree as in Damon Albarn’s recent music, but there’s plenty more to get wrapped up in