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Farewell Ferengistan is an album about humanity's global predicament. After a decade and a half of music making it is great to see that Banco de Gaia remains as brave, experimental and willfully on his own path as ever. Toby Marks is someone who has influenced many musicians. In the U.S. particularly and across Europe, Banco de Gaia is respected for the innovator that he is for making records of consistent beauty and quality. The music on Farewell Ferengistan is the mixture of exotic and urbane we have come to expect from Banco de Gaia. Opening with the down-tempo title track, featuring Indian vocals and haunting treated piano, Toby then nearly heads into rock territory with "Ynys Elen" until the Indonesian flutes remind us whose record this is. "Chingiz" presents an uptempo ska-fuelled workout followed by a slightly slower but no less insistent "Kara Kum," with its repeating guitar motif and overwhelming bhangra percussion. The heart of the album is "The Harmonious G8." The 8 improvised vocals here are overlayed and entwined in such a way that surely it can't be a purely accidental beauty which results. The tone of Farewell Ferengistan turns mellow and reflective. "Saturn Return" takes the listener on a widescreen space shuttle launch to the outer planets in the company of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, then deposits us on the set of a spaghetti western version of 2001-esque "Flow My Tears, The Android Wept" where a lonesome computer sings a 17th century ballad to a flamenco dub accompaniment. The mood remains ambient as an English pastoral landscape merges with Himalayan melodies in"White Man's Burden" until submitting to the relentless march of progress and percussion. The hint of menace brings listeners back down to earth in time to be washed clean by the sublime vocal harmonies and timeless truth of "We All Know The Truth (You Have God)," the perfect exit music for this movie.

Track Listing