Bedouin Soundclash

Bedouin Soundclash hail from Ontario, Canada. Singer Jay Malinowski, basist Eon Sinclair, and drummer Par Pengelly met at Kingston College in Ontario, Canada. When I first heard Bedouin Soundclash on the radio and heard they went to a school called Kingston College, I thought they must have been from Kingston, Jamaica because of their reggae-inflected, tropical-sounding style of music. Jay Malinowski's voice also sounded authentically Jamaican, adding to my confusion.

But still the music was like nothing I had listened to before-at least in the popular music realm. I later found out to my surprise that Kingston College was in Canada and that the band, in fact, was Canadian.

Bedouin Soundclash's music is a mesh of ska/reggae, rock, pop, and even soul. There really is no exact classification for the type of music they play. One thing is true though: their music sounds good. And people with all kinds of musical tastes can get into this music. You can dance to it, relax to it, or put the CD in your car and let it play in the background over and over again while you are driving to and from the places you need to be.

Listening to Bedouin Soundclash takes me out of where I am, which is generally in my car on my way to and from work where I have this CD, and puts my mind in a different place.

Singer Jay Malinowski at times conjures up - or at least sounds strikingly like - Bob Marley. His vocals ride over simple reggae and ska chords and changes as Eon Sinclair's steady minimalist bass and Pat Pengelly's impressive eclectic drumming give solid structure to the music.

Bedouin Soundclash's latest album is Sounding a Mosaic, which contains their single "When the Night Feels my Song," which gained massive radio airplay in Canada and propelled the band to success. On the strength of their first single, Sounding a Mosaic reached number one on the BBC 6 music charts in Great Britain. Standout tracks on this album are "Gyasi Went Home," "Shelter," and "Living in Jungles." This is one of those albums that can be listened to straight through and many times over.

Bedouin Soundclash blend a myriad of musical influences to create their unique soulful style. The immediate feel is reggae, ska, and some pop elements. There is also a universal global music feel.

The name Bedouin Soundclash was taken from an album of the same name by an artist named Badawi. While the band was in its early days working on some new material, Jay mentioned to the rest of the band that what they were playing sounded sort of like Badawi's dub album titled Bedouin Sound Clash. The name stuck.

Root Fire was Bedouin Soundclash's first album. Members of the band were still in college at Queen's University at that point. That album is a good listen especially if you are a fan of their music.

The next Bedouin Soundclash album is Street Gospels slated for 2007. This is a highly anticipated album.

Bedouin's style is kick-back, mellow, easy-going, yet somehow revolutionary. Sure the music they make is an original mesh of many different types of influences, but they also have a political message and a general concern for the less fortunate in the world, carrying on in the tradition of reggae and ska music.

When I saw Bedouin Soundclash in concert, they played a really good set of songs and finished with an excellent cover of the U2 song, "New Year's Day" and mixed it in with a cover of The Clash's "Guns of Brixton." This was a really good cover. They really created an interesting atmosphere with that song. They brought down the house at the Bren Events Center on the UCI campus in Irvine, California. Oddly enough, Bedouin were opening up for Irish punk band Flogging Molly, who are on the same record label.

If you like music at all, this band is worth listening to. Check out Bedouin's current album, Sounding a Mosaic, and look for their new album, Street Gospels, sometime next year.