Kip Hanrahan

At Home in Anger Yellow Bird***

Musician? Producer? Facilitator? Agent provocateur? It's hard to say exactly what Kip Hanrahan is, but one thing is certain – when he calls, many of New York's finest musicians pick up. Signing on for this weirdly wonderful collection of polemical musical collages are top Cuban drummers Dafnis Prieto and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, legendary percussionist Milton Cardona and bassist Steve Swallow, among others. The music is dominated by the intoxicating Latin grooves that Hanrahan grew up with in a Puerto Rican neighbourhood in New York. However, At Home in Angeris about more than just the music, and each track seems to melt into something darker and more enigmatic, like Charles Ives and Tom Waits had a left-wing love child. What the child is angry about is far from clear, and the album's subtitle – "which could also be called imperfect, happily" - doesn't exactly clarify matters. But its all strangely compelling nonetheless. See americanclave.com