World Music

Various: Planet Rock (Rough Guide/Elite)

27 Aug 2006 | <1 min read

World Music compilations are often pretty dodgy affairs and this one is no exception. So I'm not really suggesting you might want an album that starts in a place where Cambodia psychedelic rock meets America, then heads off to Algeria, the Sahara and Niger (the great Tinariwen and Etran Finatawa respectively however, see tags), the States for some Latino-Jewish hip-hop from New York then... > Read more

Hip Hop Hoodios: Kike on the Mike

Cheikh Lo: Lamp Fall (World Circuit/Elite)

19 Aug 2006 | <1 min read

Singer-guitarist Lo from Senegal is a man whose music observes no boundaries: on previous albums he's brought a warm Cuban sound into the context of African juju guitars, had Pee Wee Ellis of James Brown's band arrange the horns, and he seems to like a jazzy saxophone alongside talking drum. It's an intoxicating tropical cocktail and for this outing he again gets the Cubans in -- Ellis is... > Read more

Cheikh Lo: Xale

Emmanuel Jal & Abdel Gadir Salim: Ceasefire (World Network/Elite)

28 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

This charismatic meltdown of sounds from the Sudan (an area the size of Western Europe) involves softly-sung rap, a yearning for peace and freedom by these two vocalists who come from different areas and political sides of the divided country, traditional instruments such as nay (flute) along with saxophone and electric guitars, and is suffused in the suffering that years of civil war have... > Read more

Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim: Ya Salam

Djelimady Tounkara: Solon Kono (Harmonia Mundi)

28 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

Guitarist Tounkara sometimes spins off notes like an avant-garde guitarist (he is admired by New York's Bill Frisell who has performed with him) but for this album he gets back onto acoustic guitar to work within the tradition of his homeland Mali on a set of songs which invite in the family and longtime friends. There are a couple of songs where he pulls out the electric guitar, but even... > Read more

Djelimady Tounkara: Solon Kono

Fantazia: Mul Sheshe (Harmonia Mundi)

23 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

More music from an unexpected source, in this instance North East London where this group formed around oud player/songwriter Yazid Fentazi to play the music of the Algerian Berbers -- with a jazzy Western spin courtesy of saxophones, trumpet, flute and keyboards. Stupid band name unfortunately, but I guess that's what happens when you look at the mainman's surname. But the music --... > Read more

Fantazia: Jawlina

Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra: Boulevard de l'Independence (/Elite)

23 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

Copies of this uplifting album by Diabate from Mali come with an intelligent and interesting DVD-doco which shines a light on the culture of the griot -- a caste of hereditary musicians-cum-storytellers and counsellors to the influential -- and also explains that unusual band name: Diabate wanted to bring together the traditions of the griot (and the old instruments like balafon) with the... > Read more

Toumani Diabate: Ya Fama

Ali Farka Toure: Savane (World Circuit/Elite)

23 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

The late Toure was one of the greatest singer-songwriters to emerge out of the musically fertile region around Mali in the last century. The area -- from which numerous slaves were taken to the United States -- was the crucible for music which, after the Middle Passage, became the blues. Much of Toure's music invited comparisons with John Lee Hooker (his commanding, dark vocals, his... > Read more

Ali Farka Toure: Savane

Various Artists: Turkish Groove (Putumayo/Elite)

16 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

The Putumayo label pumps out the compilations and some of them, most actually, are pretty indifferent. But the likeable generic packaging has captured the imagination so some people just get into that "buy the series" thing -- and get stuck with uninteresting Asian Lounge, various albums of kiddie folk, and disappointing collections of B-grade Cuban or Brazilian artists. But... > Read more

Mustafa Sandal: Kalmadi

Katia Guerreiro; Tudo ou Nada (Le Chant du Monde) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2006

16 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

World music purists -- those who think listening to international music is morally empowering, as opposed to just plain enjoyable -- don't like to admit that there are waves of fashion in world music just like in Western pop. The juju of King Sunny Ade gave way to South African music (thank you Paul Simon), and the Cajun/zydeco years which followed were in turn swept aside by the Cuban... > Read more

Katia Guerreiro: Despedida

Various Artists, Congotronics 2 (Crammed Discs)

9 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

The first volume of this impossible-to-have-anticipated meltdown of cheap electronica, traditional instruments like thumb piano, vibrant percussion, ropey production and chant-sing vocals from the suburban dance clubs around Kinshasa was picked as one of his 10 best albums to get you through winter by Jim Pickney (DJ Stinky Jim, who has excellent taste) in a recent Listener. This follow-up... > Read more

Sobanza Mimanisa: Kiwembo

Etran Finatawa: Introducing Etran Finatawa (World Music Network) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2006

9 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

From the same emotional source and geographical location -- the sub-Sahara around Niger -- as the thrilling and now well-known Tinariwen comes this equally extraordinary band. Their mesmerising guitars have no exact counterpart in Western blues, folk or rock (although every now and again something eerily familiar pops out) and that alone -- along with just about everything else about them --... > Read more

Etran Finatawa: Iledeman

Tinariwen: Amassakoul (Wrasse/Shock): BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2006

15 Jun 2006 | <1 min read

Tinariwen were from a group of stateless wanderers who lived at the whim of weather and changing political climates in the greater Sahara, and were educated in the language of armed struggle. In the 80s they developed their music of exile. But just as blues singers from America's south found acoustic guitars didn't cut it in the hard-edged cities like Chicago, Tinariwen needed a tougher form... > Read more

Tinariwen: Amassakoul'N'Tenere

Ishta: Ishta (Monkey)

2 Jan 2006 | <1 min read

Listening to this multiculti outfit from Auckland qualifies you for frequent flyer points: the line-up has musicians from Dutch, Kiwi, Israeli, Indian and French backgrounds; and the instrumental artillery on display includes sitar, saxophone, didgeridoo, guitar, flute and double bass. All of which could make for an unworkable implosion of world fusion, if it weren't for the keen... > Read more

Drop the Soap

Ali Farka Toure/Toumani Diabate: In the Heart of the Moon (Elite)

15 Dec 2005 | <1 min read

In world music circles Malian guitarist Toure and kora player Diabate, are acknowledged geniuses, and Toure’s playing and sandpaper vocal style have drawn comparisons with Delta blues musicians. He almost leapt to greater recognition with Talking Timbuktu a few years ago (with Buena Vista Social Club prime-mover Ry Cooder, in the background here with his percussionist son Joachim).... > Read more

Natacha Atlas: The Best of Natacha Atlas (Mantra)

1 Jun 2005 | <1 min read

Atlas -- born in Belgium but with family links to Egyptian, Palestinian and Moroccan cultures -- is one the most thrilling contemporary voices of the Middle East crescent. She came to attention in the early 90s with Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart then the dance-electronica outfit TransGlobal Underground out of London. Her solo career began with the Diaspora album in 95 and since... > Read more

BAABA MAAL INTERVIEWED (1999): The soul of Senegal

10 Jul 2000 | 3 min read

It opens with a hush of Celtic-sounding voices, all that airy, Eirey ambience so familiar from Enya and the like. But then something peculiar happens. That isn't a guitar coming in there, but something more primitive sounding. Something more ... African? Then a penetrating voice slices across the top, a wail from some place more primal and universal. When Senegalese singer... > Read more