World Music
Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates.
Various: The Rough Guide to Bollywood Gold (Rough Guide/Elite)
29 Apr 2007 | <1 min read
More scholarly heads than mine would able to discuss whether this 15-track collection is a fair reflection of the Bollywood scene: but it certainly contains the big names like Asha Bhosle (two tracks) and Lata Mangeshkar (two also) who have probably recorded over 50,000 songs between them, Mukesh ("The Man With The Golden Voice") and Mohammed Rafi. So the name players are all... > Read more
Asha Bhosle: In Aankhon Ki Masti
Vieux Farka Toure; Vieux Farka Toure (World Village) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
22 Apr 2007 | 1 min read
In the Western world the offspring of famous musicians often have a hard time if they choose to follow in the footsteps of their parents: witness the case of Julian and Sean Lennon. But in other cultures, notably in India and parts of the African continent, there is not only an acceptance but an expectation that children will take up the same calling as their parent. Oddly enough this... > Read more
Vieux Farka Toure: Diabateli Farka Toure)
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007: Ibrahim Ferrer: Mi Sueno (World Circuit)
15 Apr 2007 | 1 min read
Knowing that these were the final sessions by the late Buena Vista Social Club's star singer means that perhaps many will cast a more sympathetic ear over them than they might have otherwise. And let's be honest the other "final session" thing -- his duet with Omara Portuondo on As Time Goes By which appeared on the Rhythms Del Mundo album recently -- was dodgy if not downright... > Read more
Ibrahim Ferrer: Deuda
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007: Tinariwen: Aman Iman/Water is Life (Filter)
26 Mar 2007 | <1 min read
The previous album Amassakoul by these extraordinary musicians and desert tribesmen from the southern Sahara was one of the Best of Elsewhere 2006 and turned up in quite a few critics picks of last year. If anything, this album -- dense, driving, intense, poetic and shot through with mercurial, stinging guitar work -- is superior to Amassakoul. Those mesmerisingly repetitive rhythms are... > Read more
Tinariwen: Soixante Trois
Laura Riz: Gypsy Soul (Arc/Elite)
18 Mar 2007 | <1 min read
Look, I have absoluely no doubt that singer Riz -- who was previously a fashion choreographer and director who sang light jazz and bossa nova -- makes music as authentically "Gypsy" as Enya makes authentically "Irish" music. And she doesn't help her case by the dreadfully cheap cover on this album, nor by liner notes in which she talks about her "research"... > Read more
Laura Riz: Yo me Quedo en Sevilla (I Will Stay in Sevilla)
Oliver Mtukudzi: Wonai (Elite)
24 Feb 2007 | <1 min read
Known as "Tuku" after the style of music he created, singer-guitarist Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe battles the usual problem that musicians from Africa face: if Peter Gabriel isn't behind you or you don't have a Womad slot then basically nobody gives a shit. Ah well, here he is for a discerning Elsewhere audience. Mtukudzi has recorded about 50 albums (which places him in the Bob... > Read more
Oliver Mtukudzi: Chara Chimwe
Yasmin Levy: La Juderia (Southbound)
4 Feb 2007 | <1 min read
Levy from Israel has one of those exceptional voices which could be as at home singing emotionally dramatic Spanish ballads or Middle Eastern songs: and to some extent she does both. Levy is an academic who has studied the Judeo-Spanish music: the Jews arrived in Spain around the same time as the peninsula was conquered by Muslims from North Africa -- and for seven centuries the music of... > Read more
Yasmin Levy: Intentalo encontrar
The Mamaku Project: Karekare (Mamaku)
4 Feb 2007 | <1 min read
Part French chanson, part dub-influenced reggae pop, and fronted by the gorgeous vocals of Tui Mamaki, this one invents a genre of its own. It is jazzy but not jazz, there's not enough dub to make it chill-out music, and the lyrics which shuffle French and English effortless make it slightly exotic and mysterious. Oh, and there is a pleasant evocation of the Middle East (which harks back... > Read more
Mamaku Project: Colours
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