World Music

Anoushka Shankar: Traces of You (Universal)

28 Oct 2013 | 1 min read

Although nominally here under "World Music in Elsewhere", this emotionally charged album by the daughter of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar is her most cohesively interesting and engaging album yet in that bridge between her father's generation and her own. And until she does an album of classical ragas expressing the loss of her father -- as this one does in places, in miniatures --... > Read more

Unsaid

Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO)

18 Oct 2013 | <1 min read | 2

Given their background, you're allowed to be cynical about this Gypsy-punk band from New York. However on the noisy evidence of this – their most concise and fist-hard album and the one least trying for Gypsy-punk – you might just break out a bottle of the hard stuff and get into an enjoyably rowdy party-party album. Like a Eurocentric Clash slugging it out with the... > Read more

We Rise Again

Amparo Sanchez: Alma de Cantaora (Wrasse)

14 Oct 2013 | <1 min read

Although some may prefer her previous and more volatile incarnation when she fronted the band Amparanoia, this politicized post-punk folk-rock singer here -- on her second solo album -- steps back from the often incendiary nature of her earlier work. These passionate songs – English translations are in the booklet – look to the universal feminine songstress (the title... > Read more

Free Day

TARANAKI WOMAD 2014: The first acts announced

10 Oct 2013 | 2 min read

As their website says today, perhaps half joking, "only 155 days till WOMAD 2014". And we too are counting down to the annual multi-culti music, arts and what-have-you festival which draws performers from all over the world. As residents of Elsewhere know, this website has a long history of writing about and interviewing artists who fall under that broad category know as... > Read more

Monoswezi: The Village (Riverboat/Southbound)

11 Aug 2013 | <1 min read | 1

Further evidence as to why, especially in the area of world music, you should never judge an album by its cover. As Elsewhere has said previously, exceptional and exciting bellydance albums usually come in covers which have photos of the kind you might see on a mechanic's garage in a Cairo suburb. And this cover -- and the band name and album title - might suggest some African folk singer.... > Read more

Kalahari

Yasmine Hamdan: Ya Nass (Crammed Discs/Southbound)

1 Aug 2013 | <1 min read

Out of the Lebanon -- where she co-founded an electronica duo Soapkills -- and now based in Paris, this striking singer-writer and counterculture figure in the Arab world really hits her straps here on an album which is at a point between sensual electronica, downbeat chill-out, generic pan-Middle Eastern slo-mo pop and cocktail lounge slinkiness. That it comes in (mostly) Arabic adds... > Read more

La Mouche

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Bollywood (Rough Guide/Southbound)

29 Jul 2013 | 1 min read

We've made the point previously with The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Africa -- and ignored The Rough Guide to Latin Psychedelia on these grounds -- that this usually reliable label is a bit too liberal with the "P" word. A few wobbly and weird songs do not for psychedelic make. So for those of us whose reference points in this matter include the Grateful Dead,... > Read more

Cabaret Dance Music

Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti: Rakshasa (slapthemoon)

15 Jul 2013 | 1 min read

Elsewhere is always pleased to introduce interesting music from elsewhere . . . and this exceptional album is about as elsewhere as it gets. British classical guitarist Simon Thacker is one of those well-traveled world citizens who has performed across Europe with various world music artists, leads his own ensembles which bridge the East/West divide, is passionate about Segovia, knows his... > Read more

Main Tenu Yaad Aavanga

Etran Finatawa: The Sahara Sessions (Riverboat/Southbound)

27 May 2013 | <1 min read

Since the emergence of desert blues from the sub-Sahara regions a decade ago through Etran Finatawa, Tinariwen and the often overlooked Malouma (a woman who really rocks), the genre has seen a new generation come through (Tamikrest, the singer-songwriter Bombino), artists going solo (Alhousseini Anivolla of Etran Finatawa with the excellent Anewal/Walking Man), offshoots (Terakaft) and... > Read more

Matinfa

Alhousseini Anivolla: Anewal/The Walking Man (World Music Network/Southbound)

26 May 2013 | <1 min read

With a terrific new album from Etran Finatawa out (The Sahara Sessions), Anivolla -- one of their key guitarists -- deserves serious attention for this solo collection on which, aside from a guest singer and a percussion player on one song, he plays everything. The result won't surprise those who follow Sahara blues, because this is typically mesmerising, but his brusque vocals... > Read more

Attarech

Debashish Bhattacharya and Friends: Beyond the Ragasphere (Riverboat/Southbound)

20 May 2013 | <1 min read

The great Indian slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya has appeared at Elsewhere before because he not only makes hypnotic music, but that he also connects with an interesting tradition which goes back many deacdes . . . and to Hawaii. Here -- in a disheartingly dull cover which gives no hint of its exotic contents -- he invites in some of his many international friends and fellow... > Read more

Reflections Remain

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Senegal (Rough Guide/Southbund)

7 May 2013 | <1 min read

When the Rough Guide series started there were some rather uneven, not so say dodgy, collections released but -- perhaps as the series gained traction and licensing became easier and more attractive to labels given RG's reach -- the quality has improved considerably. The series is considerably more consistent that the Putamayo version which too frequenrtly errs to the lightweight (and the... > Read more

Sister Fa

Maria Ana Bobone: Fado and Piano (Arc Music)

4 Apr 2013 | <1 min read

Quite why this fado singer and pianist would break the elegant and stately mood of her otherwise acoustic album with a live electronica piece which seems to channel the spirit of Clannad/Enya is beyond comprehension. Just to prove she could do it? To show she is also "contemporary"? The track -- the traditional Senhora do Almorto -- is a rude intrusion on an otherwise... > Read more

Melancholia

Custodio Castelo: InVentus (Arc Music)

31 Mar 2013 | <1 min read

Custodio Castelo offers romantic guitars from Portugal . . . but on this outing is heading elsewhere. His 2011 album The Art of Portuguese Fado Guitar was a delight by this master of the instrument (and lute-like 12-string) because he also stretched into stately tango. Longtime accompanist to fado singer Cristina Branco, Castelo here again takes inspiration from places (Paris),... > Read more

In-quietude

Various Artists: Saoco! (Vampi Soul/Southbound)

28 Mar 2013 | <1 min read

Subtitled “The bomba and plena explosion in Puerto Rico 1954-66”, this double disc ensures your library of bomba and plena just got a shelf-filler. For most of us, myself included, this was not an explosion heard round the world but the excellent liner notes – with terrific reproductions of album covers and band shots – fill in the technical details while neatly... > Read more

Sacude Zapato Viejo

WOMAD TARANAKI CONSIDERED (2013): Some thoughts from the frontline

19 Mar 2013 | 5 min read

Although no one doubted the need for rain . . . but on the final day of Womad? And just two days after a drought has been declared? This rare occurrence – only the second in the festival's local history – hardly dampened Womad spirits although there was a small attrition of audience numbers. Few festivals – of whatever musical persuasion – could claim an... > Read more

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni ba: Jama ko (Out Here/Southbound)

14 Mar 2013 | 1 min read

It has been five years since this superb ngoni player (a lute/banjo-like instrument) from Mali delivered his beautiful Segu Blue album. Formerly a member of the late Ali Farka Toure's inner circle, Kouyate has continued to deliver beguiling albums in recent years, but few were made under circumstances as tough as those for this one. On their first day in the studio in Bamako, Mali's... > Read more

Poye 2

Salif Keita: Tale (Carte!l)

13 Mar 2013 | <1 min read

The great Salif Keita has explored just about every kind of musical association but this one seems an interesting, if not always succesful, swerve. Producer Philippe Cohen Solal of Gotan Project has matched him with Roots Manuva, Bobby McFerrin and Esperanza Spalding for an album which is a high-tech production (with strings in a couple of places) aimed at dancefloors. Now,... > Read more

Samfi

Nidi D'Arac: Taranta Container (Galileo/Southbound)

12 Mar 2013 | <1 min read

The bio of this Italian group who appeared at Womad says they come from "the beautiful city of Lecce" in the far south. Well, as one who has been to Lecce I might debate some of its particular charms (the suburbs are awful, the churches without peer however) but let's leave that aside. What Nidi D'Arac do is an enjoyable implosion of traditional music and acoustic... > Read more

Ipocharia (DJ Click remix)

ELSEWHERE'S FAMOUS WOMAD QUESTIONNAIRE: Nicky Bomba of the Melbourne Ska Orcheatra (Aust)

10 Mar 2013 | 2 min read

The goodtime sound of ska got a whole lot stranger when the Melbourne Ska Orchestra formed after a one-off event in 2003. The idea was to get a world-record number of horn players together in St Kilda's Gershwin Room and from that event the MSO was formed by bandleader Nicky Bomba. "I’ve always thought ska was one of the most universal forms of music,” says Bomba,... > Read more