I’ll admit there was a time when Montreal’s hip-hop klezmer virtuoso Socalled ‘s music really irked me. Maybe because I felt like the schmaltzy klez-hop schtick is simply that: schtick. As a lover of klezmer and assorted Jewish music, I am more drawn to the darker, more compelling side of the tradition and am more prone to enjoying harder crossovers like punks such as Jewdriver or Di Nigunum. I didn’t see the relevance of played out in-jokes and almost cliche-d self deprecatory humor. In fact I can get downright touchy and hostile about it, on account of I’m a Jew, too. However, The Season , Socalled’s newest work, which appears to be the soundtrack of a musical and packaged like those little “turn-the-page-at-the-sound-of-the-bell” books we had as kids. In fact, there’s a whole childlike vibe to the whole thing, coupled with the fact that it’s a musical I was prepared to be kind of underwhelmed. Wow, was I wrong! It’s a huge triumph.. a journey that starts with some fresh rap vibes, and pulls in instrumentation that’s all over the map, equal parts Gershwin , Danny Elfman and The Roots with adornments pulled from old and new klez groups like Psamim and Davka. Surprising at every turn, the interludes lull you pleasantly only to be roused by some beats and soulful vibes like the funky centre-piece “Work Hard”. The Season manages to blend some of the fun and humor but place it on a solid base of fantastically crafted music and veers everywhere in it’s short duration, even what sounds like Jackie Mason and The Chipmunks singing an ode to the northern Laurentian fishing reserve of Baskatong (wtf?). Ending with a poignant Weill – style waltz of “Together”. It’s hard, (divorced of the actual dramatic portions of the musical) to grasp the libretto, but the album is such a timeless sounding reverie it hardly matters. A very mature work from a serious talent.
