The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know

Full disclosure: your reviewer fully anticipated not raving about this album. While appreciating Rising Appalachia’s raison dêtre, my ears have been consistently put off by an aura of self-conscious zealotry in pursuit of hipness in the band’s product. Without doubting sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith’s sincere commitment to the cause, their music frequently sounded naive and compulsory. With The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know, those apprehensions have been dispelled. Across nine tracks culled from a one-day recording session after ten months of COVID-induced isolation, Rising Appalachia have delivered one of 2021’s sweetest world music albums. In support of the two, the band now features a compelling blend of acoustic instrumentation: Arouna Diarra on ngoni and talking drum, David Brown on stand-up bass and baritone guitar, Duncan Wickel on fiddle and cello, and Biko Casini on percussion.

Standout tracks include ‘Catalyst,’ with its deep bottom groove and mellifluous melody line, and ‘Ngoni,’ a righteously swinging conversation between kora, ngoni, beatbox and cello. ‘Silver’ sets the sisters’ silky vocals amid a gossamer soundscape, while they kick out their fiddle and banjo chops on ‘Lost Girl’. ‘Top Shelf’ throws back to the sisters’ early immersion in the Atlanta hip-hop scene. To a certain pair of sceptical ears, it’s all a welcome, redemptive listening experience.