World Music

Various: The Rough Guide to Latin-Arabia (Elite)

26 Jan 2007 | <1 min read

To be honest, I never knew of this musical style which is a meltdown of belly dance, salsa and flamenco. But apparently . . . According to the liner notes on this exotic and upbeat collection the link between Arabic and Latin music didn't begin with pop chanteuse Shakira's big hit Ojos Asi but started back in the 9th century on the Iberian Peninsula (which makes sense). Then it made... > Read more

Ishtar and Los Ninos de Sara: Alabina

Various: Best of Algerian Rai (Arc/Elite)

14 Jan 2007 | <1 min read

Experts in rai -- traditional Algerian popular music which has latterly incorporated rock and other Western styles -- may quibble about the title here, but certainly some of rai's most famous names are represented on this excellent introduction to this hypnotic, warm, vibrant and impassioned music. Here are Khaled (the acknowledged "King of Rai"); Bellemou Messaoud (with Gana el... > Read more

Khaled: Ya Taleb

Boom Pam, Boom Pam (Flavour)

14 Jan 2007 | <1 min read

I don't imagine Boom Pam have a lot of competition in their chosen genre. This four-piece from Tel Aviv -- two guitars, drums and tuba, and 70s moustaches -- have really cornered the Israeli surf rock market and this often hilarious and rather flashy outing tosses up dance floor disco-rock, wedding party songs, moody and exotic instrumentals, and a bit of snazzy jazzy sax. Oh, and... > Read more

Boom Pam: Ladji

POTTED PROFILE: Salif Keita

31 Oct 2006 | 1 min read

The man often referred to as "the Golden Voice of Africa" (and that doesn't mean he's that continent's John Farnham) has had quite an extraordinary career. He was born in Mali and was a direct descendant of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the nation. Which meant that as one of royal lineage he was well above being a griot (a court singer/conscience-cum-town crier to the royal... > Read more

POTTED PROFILE: Femi Kuti

30 Oct 2006 | <1 min read

As with any son of a legendary artist, Femi Kuti had large steps to follow in. His father Fela created and defined Nigerian Afrobeat in the 70s and was a political lightning rod in his country. He even tried to run for president -- but to be honest that would kinda be like James Brown going up against George W Bush. Your drug history, multiple marriages and outsider lifestyle rather counts... > Read more

Tagaq: Sinaa (Jericho Beach)

19 Oct 2006 | <1 min read

This remarkable Inuit throat singer and avant-vocalist came to my attention in Vancouver when I was reading a lengthy article about John Coltrane in a newspaper (my kinda paper) and she was profiled on the opposite page. The lines which leaped out were about her and her grandmother killing whales with their bare hands. At first I took her to be someone untutored from a remote community but... > Read more

Tagaq: Sila

Various, Urban Asian (Nascente/Triton)

15 Oct 2006 | <1 min read

Two of my sons live in Brixton and one of exciting things about walking the streets -- aside from being offered drugs every 10 paces -- is the soundtrack booming out of shops and cars: old reggae singles; Jamaican electronica; and most of all a mash-up of Indo pop and electronic hip-hop. This compilation takes me right back there: it is noisy and raw, vibrant and shouty; and is a meltdown... > Read more

Sonik Gurus featuring Rocky: Gypsy

Various Artists: Rough Guide to the Music of Malaysia (Rough Guide/Elite)

21 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

It would take someone more expert than me to tell you whether this is a fair or failed overview of Malay pop and roots music. All I know is that it's pretty cool. There is big band Bollywood stuff, beautifully exotic ballads, some Indopop and Arabic pop-rock, beguilingly romantic instrumentals -- and a 70s band called Fredo and the Flybaits who mixed Malay music with Beatles pop on cheap... > Read more

Nuru Kane: Sigil (Riverboat)

20 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

Raised in Dakar, Kane often sounds like a Mississippi bluesman in the solo tracks here. At other times with his small band he bridges North Africa with trancelike music not dissimilar to that of the Gnawa of Morocco then looping back to his birthplace and Senegalese music. Quite the world citizen, he lived in Paris in the late 90s, played at Mali's famous Festival in the Desert in 2004... > Read more

Nuru Kane: Colere

Various: Belly Dance (Think Global)

20 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

Okay, okay. A belly dance album doesn't quite shake my tree either -- but put aside your preconceptions and what's here is a very good sampler of Arabic music from big names like Hossan Ramzy, the Cairo Orchestra, the Sami Mossair Orchestra and others. It comes with good liner notes too: the name "belly dance" for raqs sharki (dance) was apparently coined by an American promoter at... > Read more

Smadar Levi: Ghali Ya Bouy

Didjitalis: Australian Trance Dance (Arc/Elite)

19 Sep 2006 | 1 min read

Many years ago (read: decades if you wish) I spent a little time studying and listening to didgeridoo music and the various cultural references it had: I thought it was a fascinating instrument, and figured it had some connection with drones which are in many musics, from Celtic bagpipes to Indian tamboura. Or something like that. Hey, I was studying and teaching meditation at the time,... > Read more

Didjitalis: Charlotte's Eulogy

Tcheka: Nu Monda (Harmonia)

12 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

One of the chief delights of being in Elsewhere is that music usually comes with no promotional blasts or advance reviews, so you make the discovery for yourself. It often comes from people you've never heard of before either. Like this guy from Cape Verde Island who plays driving and melodic acoustic guitar, and possesses a voice which can be feather-light or nail a note in from a great... > Read more

Tcheka: Djan Kre Bejabu

Barbara Carlotti: Les Lys Brises (4AD)

7 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

Sounding somewhere between a wide awake Claudine Longet (who was so whispery you often wondered if she was singing or snoozing) and the cool, indifferent tone of Nico, this 32-year old Parisian really makes an impact, albeit at a very low level. She grew up on Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and classical piano, but made the move into chanson in the manner of literate types like Serge... > Read more

Barbara Carlotti: Mon Corps Alangui

Various: Te Whaiao -- Te Ku Te Whe Remixed (Rattle)

7 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

In time to come the late Hirini Melbourne, who died in 2003, will get national recognition for what he did in reviving and revitalising interest in traditional Maori instruments, and -- with Richard Nunns -- making them come alive again in contemporary recordings. In one way this album -- remixes of the Melbourne/Nunns '93 album Te Ku Te Whe by the likes of Chris (Dubious Brothers) Macro,... > Read more

Poi whiowhio remixed by Sola Rosa

Debashish Bhattacharya: Calcutta Slide Guitar (Elite)

7 Sep 2006 | 1 min read

In 2003, I chose the Mahima album by Bhattacharya and American guitarist Bob Brozman (who played at Womad that year) as one of the best of the year in the Herald with the comment that their musical dialogues referred to Africa, Spain, simple pop and something which sounded like an arranged marriage between Waikiki and Varanasi. As a result, world music had seldom sounded so worldy.... > Read more

Debashish Bhattacharya: Prema Chakor

Geraldo Pino: Heavy Heavy Heavy (RetroAfrica/Southbound)

3 Sep 2006 | <1 min read

Some weeks ago I posted a track by the late and very great Fela Anikulapo Kuti from Nigeria who put James Brown funk, Black Power politics and African rhythms into the blender and created Afrobeat. More fool me, but I'd always thought Fela was way out on his own doing this -- until now. On the RetroAfrica reissue label comes this mid 60s album by Pino and his funky band the Heartbeats --... > Read more

Geraldo Pino: Let Them Talk

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