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CD Review by Martin Kemp TELEK Serious Tam Realworld · From Peter Gabriel’s Realworld label. · Draws from the culture of Papua New Guinea’s Tolai people. The first thing that comes to mind after examining this and past Telek albums is that his CD art is very, very cool. Dangerous stuff for those who have the impulsive habit of buying CDs based on the covers. Happily, the depth of this CD goes beyond the artwork. George Telek Mamua comes from a Raluana village in Papua New Guinea. His sound is characterized in Nigel Williamson’s notes as "essentially acoustic, with gentle guitars underpinned by ancestral drums such as the kundu (with an hourglass shape) and the garamut (massive slit logs)." With lyrics sung in the Tolai language of Kuanuan and a Creole tongue called Took Pisin, Telek happily creates music that transcends classification. Jumping around the musical map, this recording features an unconventional yet intriguing mixt of instruments, including ukulele, bamboo flutes, conch shell, a variety of percussion and, according to the liner notes, "loops and stuff." And at least two of his songs feature cricket sounds – you can’t go wrong with crickets. With the addition of expertly mixed percussion, guitars, keyboards and rich harmony vocals, this album is definitely not acoustic in the traditional sense of the word. While it is subject to some of the overproduction characteristic of many releases on the Realworld label, the traditional roots of Telek’s music manage to sneak through. 3/5

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