World Music

The Baboons: Spanglish (Global Gumbo)

13 Jun 2016 | <1 min read

In a cover designed to catch attention, this Miami band fronted by husband and wife Mano and Majica Pila toss a stylistic salad together almost as if they hope something is to your taste. So in the first third of these 15 tracks you get Balkan beats (with a jazz flute solo and Santana-styled guitar), samba, rap-lite, Afro-Cuban sounds, hard rock, Miami pop and more. The final third... > Read more

Balkan Thang

Various Artists: Soul Sok Sega (Strut/Southbound)

23 May 2016 | 1 min read

A couple of weeks ago we pulled a track from this thoroughly enjoyable (and not a little confusing) compilation to post at From the Vaults. But this double vinyl (with a CD disc and useful liner notes in the gatefold) is so good we just want to bring it to attention again. We could have dropped this into our catholic-taste Music From Elsewhere pages but it is kind of world... > Read more

Eliza by Georgie Joe

Zusha, Kavana (iTunes)

16 Apr 2016 | <1 min read

This Jewish trio from New York (and a number of guests) explore and interesting, if sometimes familiar, thread within Jewish music. But in their hands this is where tradition meets Downtown. Think the Violent Femmes rockin' the kibbutz. Their twist is that deeply soulful singer Shlomo Gaisin explores a tradition of wordless vocals which suggests language, so this invokes and evokes... > Read more

East Shtetl

Rokia Traore, Ne So (Nonesuch)

7 Apr 2016 | 1 min read

As Elsewhere has previously noted, the nation of Mali which was a hotbed for talent two decades ago has fallen into harder, political times in recent years. There has been a military coup, the incursion of Islamic fundamentalists in the North (who destroy musical instruments and have killed musicians) and Tuareg rebels declaring an independent state . . . among other things. One... > Read more

Ile

Reem Kelani: Live at the Tabernacle (Fuse/Southbound)

4 Apr 2016 | 1 min read

It has been a decade since Manchester-born Palestinian singer Reem Kelani announced herself with her exceptional debut album Sprinting Gazelle, which earlier this year Elsewhere entered into its Essential Elsewhere pages. Since then she has been exceptionally busy -- performing in jazz and orchestral contexts, recording for radio and touring -- but a new album seemed long overdue. This... > Read more

1932

Arsen Petrosyan: Charentsavan; Music for Armenian Duduk

21 Mar 2016 | 1 min read

The acknowledged master of the Armenian duduk — a double-reed flute capable of deep emotional expression in the right hands — is Djivan Gasparian, but already the young Petrosyan is spoken of as being in the same league. He is already acknowledged as a prodigy in Armenia and this deep, resonant and moving album of traditional music is the soulful evidence. Somewhat oddly the... > Read more

Havik

Zedashe: Our Earth and Water (Living Roots)

4 Mar 2016 | <1 min read

Okay, we're not gonna lie to you . . . this is highly demanding if authentic folk from this vocal ensemble out of the Georgian Caucasus. These 26 polyphonic secular and sacred songs -- which date back centuries and are here rendered as authentically as possible -- only come with minimal instrumental support (drums, lutes and the local bagpipes). So your enjoyment, not to... > Read more

Dzveli Abadelia

Various Artists: Womad, Australia and New Zealand 2016 (Cartell/Border)

3 Mar 2016 | <1 min read

Just a quick heads-up on this 16-track compilation in advance of the Taranaki Womad which opens in a fortnight. This is one of those pleasurable homework assignments for the car if you are driving there. It kicks off in fine fashion (wait until you are out of city traffic to push play) with the vibrant and percussive sound of 47Soul from Palestine, Jordan and Syria who deliver an... > Read more

Golden Straws of Wheat (by Mahsa Vahdat)

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to the Best Arabic Music You've Never Heard (Rough Guide/Southbound)

2 Mar 2016 | <1 min read

Here at Elsewhere we are suckers for such Rough Guide compilations as this, because -- if nothing else -- the title doesn't lie. Although we've explored as much Arabic music (and that is a very broad definition) as comes our way, only three of the 12 artists featured here have been on our radar . . . and even then these -- Groupe Mazagan, Hijaz and Simo Lagnawi -- were faint blips. We... > Read more

Blessed for Making Me a Woman

Various Artists: So Frenchy So Chic 2016 (Cartell/Border)

2 Mar 2016 | 1 min read

For many decades the punchline was,"French pop" . . . because when it came to pop music it seemed the French -- stuck somewhere between cool chanson and fashion chic -- didn't quite "get" it. That changed some time back (the European Union perhaps?) and these days the polyglot of cultures in France has produced sterling and distinctive hip-hop, their own brand of... > Read more

Paradis Perdus (by Christine and the Queens)

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Jane Harbour of Spiro

22 Feb 2016 | 2 min read

The English folk group Spiro have been credited with redefining the genre by deftly incorporating contemporary elements from Steve Reich and Philip Glass, according to Peter Gabriel who has signed them to his Real World label. Guitarist in the band Jon Hunt agrees: "We've got more to do minimalist classical and dance music than we have with folk. Even though we use folk tunes they're... > Read more

Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express: Junun (Nonesuch/Warners)

8 Feb 2016 | 1 min read

In a cover which recalls the Seventies albums Shankar, Family and Friends and Music Festival From India (see below, both produced by George Harrison for his Dark Horse label) comes this exciting double disc which brings together the Israeli-American composer/singer Ben Tzur, Britain's multi-instrumentalist Greenwood from Radiohead and a large ensemble of horns and Sufi qawwali singers.... > Read more

Junun

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

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