World Music
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Jordan Bell of Katchafire
8 Feb 2016 | 4 min read
The mighty roots reggae band Katchafire out of Hamilton have been taking their exciting show around the world for over two decades now and they never fail to ignite a crowd. As they've clocked up the air points they have also recorded continually, appeared at Elsewhere (which fell under their spell very early on as you may see) and take Bob Marley's messages of One Love and Get Up Stand Up... > Read more
Karavan Sarai: Woven Landscapes (karavansaraimusic.com)
8 Feb 2016 | 1 min read
Multi-instrumentalist Narayan Sijan grew up in the American Midwest but since the early Nineties has traveled constantly through India and Central Asia and to East Asia. Even very recently he was still moving through the Middle East and his recent Facebook postings came from Egypt where he was playing with gypsy musicians. He's a global citizen who lives on the road and picks up... > Read more
The Road to Hijaz
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Tiny Ruins
1 Feb 2016 | 3 min read
The New Zealand singer-songwriter Tiny Ruins – aka Holly Fullbrook – has appeared frequently at Elsewhere because her mature, thoughtful and folk-framed albums have always found favour . . . and increasingly so in the wider world we are pleased to report. At Elsewhere she has been interviewed and reviewed, but she has never answered our Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire. Not... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: St Germain
25 Jan 2016 | 2 min read
When Elsewhere first encountered Frenchman Ludovic Navarre (aka St Germain) some 20 years on the back of his breakthrough album Tourist, his English was virtually non-existent and the French at my command wouldn't allow for the nuances of questions about music. So we spoke through a translator, not that it mattered. My guess was few people cared what he had to say, they were just too... > Read more
THE TIMETABLE FOR WOMAD TARANAKI 2016
20 Jan 2016 | <1 min read
The annual Womad festival in New Plymouth is one of the high points in New Zealand's musical calendar because, if for no other reason, it brings musicians from all over the world into our sight lines and ears, most of them artists who couldn't support a show here under their own name. But add them all together, factor in a great site, good food, a friendly vibe and a bunch of local artists... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: John Psathas
18 Jan 2016 | 3 min read
New Zealand classical composer and musical everyman John Psathas should be well known, his work roams from the strictly classical worlds and across to electronic influenced sounds. He has appeared at Elsewhere a number of times, but a new project No Man's Land finds him in different territory yet again. This ambitious work is a ground breaking new cinematic performance in... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Wade Schuman of Hazmat Modine
11 Jan 2016 | 3 min read
Of their unusual name, lead singer Wade Schuman says “HAZMAT is an American English word for Hazardous Materials, AKA dangerous materials, you see it on the sides of trucks or special trashcans. "MODINE is the brand name for an industrial forced air heater unit, the kind that hangs down in garages and artists’ lofts … the company is in Muncie Indiana …... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: John Convertino of Calexico
4 Jan 2016 | 3 min read
Elsewhere has interviewed Joey Burns of Tucson's Calexico previously, but now with the band coming to this year's Womad (see dates below) we thought it timely to flick our Famous Elsewhere World Music Questionnaire to John Covertino, the other permanent member of this flexible ensemble. Calexico marry the sound of borderland Spanish horns with various kinds of pumped up folk and rock, a... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Tami Neilson
14 Dec 2015 | 2 min read
What can we say about the wonderful Tami Neilson – a longtime Elsewhere favourite – that we haven't said before? She turns in exceptional albums (her most recent Don't Be Afraid perhaps her best yet), has written about the making of one for Elsewhere and has even answered one of our Famous Elsewhere Questionnaires. But next year she is on the bill at the Taranaki Womad... > Read more
Khruangbin: The Universe Smiles Upon You (NightTimeStories/Southbound)
11 Dec 2015 | <1 min read
As summer arrives our attention turns to slower sounds, but if the thought of more barbecue reggae makes you queasy then this (mostly) instrumental trio originally out of Texas can oblige with something special and pleasingly unexpected. Owing a little to the slow end of surf instrumentals (think the theme to The Endless Summer), a bit to the romantic side of the Shadows and... > Read more
Two Fish and an Elephant
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Tulegur
4 Dec 2015 | 4 min read
They call their music “mongolian grunge” or “nomad rock”, and they seem fair description for a duo which brings together traditional Mongolian throat-singing (called khoomei) with elelctric guitar and thumping percussion. Tulegur are guitarist/singer Gangzi (who moved from Mongolia to Beijing then back) and percussionist/guitarist Zongcan. They have toured... > Read more
Shujaat Husain Khan and Katayoun Goudarzi: Ruby (khan)
30 Nov 2015 | <1 min read | 1
Just as Shakespeare will always be a bottomless well for interpretation, so too the hundreds of works by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi are constantly being explored by musicians and singers. Iran-born and New Jersey-based singer Goudarzi here, for the fifth time, teams up with sitar maestro Husain Khan (of the Northern Indian tradition, a son of Ustad Vilayat Khan) for this delicate... > Read more
El Naan: Codigo de Barros (ARC)
30 Nov 2015 | <1 min read
While the elements of melody and rhythm might be ancient, and the lyrics (outlined in English in the booklet) contain timeless stories of a world being rapidly left behind, this is no journey into the past. It may have old bones but the heart is strong and contemporary. With tough and passioned voices, traditional instruments in the same space as electric guitar and tenor sax, these... > Read more
La Atalaya/The Watchtower
GLOBAL RADIO: A round-up of recent world music releases
9 Nov 2015 | 3 min read
Because Elsewhere is one of the few mainstream websites which has no problem writing about world music in the same space as pop, rock, jazz, reggae and whatever, we have been increasingly inundated with world music albums for review. From "elsewhere" as you might expect. So this occasional column -- in the manner of Short Cuts about New Zealand pop/rock etc releases and In Brief... > Read more
Farinya Manji by Miria (from Lost in Mali)
TARANAKI WOMAD 2016: THE ARTISTS' LINE-UP
21 Oct 2015 | 1 min read
Regular Elsewhere followers will know how keen we are on world music -- we dedicate a whole area of the site to coverage -- which means Womad is always high on our agenda. In the past we have always given a very through overview of the acts coming to a Womad (and of course done interviews in advance and over the weekend of music, see here for past interviews) . . . but this year we... > Read more
Hymn to Saint Demitrios by Savina Yannatou (Greece)
Te Vaka: Amataga/The Beginning (Border)
12 Oct 2015 | 1 min read
Now billed in small print as Opetaia's Te Vaka – after their leader, singer and songwriter Opetaia Foa'i – this expat pan-Pacific group with roots in Tuvalu, Samoa, Tokelau and the Cook Islands emerged here 20 years ago. But for the past decade have been based in Australia while taking their gently hypnotic and often socially aware music to world music and cultural... > Read more
Tike Te Galu
Bayarbaatar Davaasuren: The Art of Mongolian Khoomii (Arc Music)
12 Oct 2015 | <1 min read
When I first witnessed a Mongolian throat singer some 30 years ago – and I did weirdly feel I was a witness at something beyond my comprehension – I asked someone where the feedback was coming from. Quite how a singer whose vocal range seemed to be in the lower register also managed that high whistling overtone sound remained a pleasant enigma. This unedited recording by... > Read more
Tungalag Buyant
GLOBAL RADIO: A round-up of recent world music releases
28 Sep 2015 | 3 min read
Because Elsewhere is one of the few mainstream websites which has no problem writing about world music in the same space as pop, rock, jazz, reggae and whatever, we have been increasingly inundated with world music albums for review. From "elsewhere" as you might expect. So this occasional column -- in the manner of Short Cuts about New Zealand pop/rock etc releases and In Brief... > Read more
Hayat by Kiran Ahluwalia
Terakaft: Alone (Out Here)
14 Sep 2015 | 1 min read
Old hands -- greybeards we might say -- in the genre that we loosely call "world music" have long ago given up trying to anticipate where the next great sounds might come from and, as we have mentioned previously, so should rock seers. Not one of them would have predicted Memphis, Liverpool or Trenchtown, to name just a few. And just when you think a genre might have run its... > Read more
Anabayou/Awkward (solo version)
GLOBAL RADIO: A round-up of recent world music releases
4 Sep 2015 | 2 min read
Because Elsewhere is one of the few mainstream websites which has no problem writing about world music in the same space as pop, rock, jazz, reggae and whatever, we have been increasingly inundated with world music albums for review. From "elsewhere" as you might expect. So this occasional column -- in the manner of Short Cuts about New Zealand pop/rock etc releases and In Brief... > Read more