Sxip Shirey is a sonic curator; Sombule is his eclectic new release.  And I do mean eclectic: instrumentation ranges from “solo marble and glass bowl” to “industrial flute” and “secret circus organ” and the style of the songs stretch from the initial bohemian blues of “All Babies Must Cry” to the psychotic circus freak-outs of “Philomena’s Waltz” and “Istanbul” to the oddly-placed, but fairly traditional country balladeering of “The Train.”  Though all the tracks have their own unique flavors, my pick for a stand-out is “My Own Dirge,” a ramshackle combustion of multi-vocal harmonica and beat-boxing that ends in alarm-like seizures of breath.  Sombule is one of those rare efforts that manages to evade description.  Perhaps we just don’t yet have the vocabulary to depict exactly what Sxip Shirey is up to…in less jaded times we simply would have called this art.

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