World music
Track: Happening afro-soul fusionists Jembaa Groove present ‘Mokole’ ahead of debut album ‘Susuma’
A lot of bands get together from chance meetings in a bar, or a gig or knowing friends of friends but not usually after a chat in a Berlin kindergarten playground. Still that’s how Jembaa Groove got started, co-founding musicians Yannick Nolting and Eric Owusu on the school pick up run, bonding over the possibilities …
Album Review: Dowdelin – ‘Lanmou Lanmou’: Creole rhythms and a Soul-Jazz twist make for the sound of now.
It’s been over a couple of years since Lyon located fusionists Dowdelin were last seen bouncing across the WOMAD stage and pulling the horizontal sun soakers up onto their dancing feet. Now comes evidence of renewed activity with their latest album ‘Lanmou Lanmou’, available from 28th January from Underdog Records, and proof that the band …
Track: The Ano Nobo Quartet preview ‘The Strings of Sao Domingos’ album – guitar driven rhythms and sumptuous songs from Cabo Verde’s soul.
From the very noble Ostinato Records comes news of more discoveries as part of their enlightening exploration into the music of Cabo Verde. You may already have been knocked out by the label’s ground breaking trio of retrospective releases from the West African islands but now they are reaching out further to feature contemporary sounds …
Album Review: Vis-A-Vis – The Best Of Vis-A-Vis In Congo Style
Remember those stellar studio bands of the late sixties/early seventies – The Meters, The Section, The Wrecking Crew, Muscle Shoals – defining the sound of where a record was made and fuelling the hit factories. Switch over to West Africa and you find the same thing, the tightest groups of session players at the source …
Track: Zimbabwe’s Gonora Sounds preview their hot stepping ‘Mukoma Shadrek’ ahead of February debut album.
Ah, memories of the first time hearing early cuts from Staff Benda Bilili or Malawi Mouse Boys –eyes closed, the inner smile, that warmth of discovery….It all comes back with the chiming guitar of Gonora Sounds’ new release ‘Mukoma Shadrek’. Brought to you direct from the dusty avenues of Harare by New York label The …
Album Review: Amami- Soleil
‘Got to find a city, find myself a city to live in’ pleaded David Byrne a good while back- well if he’s still looking or fancies a change after his decades of globetrotting then Geneva may be worth a punt. There you will find Bongo Joe records, the forward thinking outer-national label headed up by …
Album Review: Youth Group’s Toby Martin’s solo album ‘I Felt the Valley Lifting’ is an uplifting amalgam of mystical realism and the minutiae of everyday life.
Toby Martin (Youth Group) has a distinctive angelic voice and astute ear for indelible melodies, but more than anything his new solo album ‘I Felt The Valley Lifting’ reveals in greater focus on his ability to weave vivid and fascinating tales: reaped from the ennui of everyday existence as well as drawing on folklore and …
Track: Rachel Singh’s dreamy single ‘Owl Eyes’ has an ethereal and haunting beauty.
‘Owl Eyes’ from Mumbai’s Rachel Singh is a gorgeously delicate track with Singh’s voice a deliciously soft and expressive veil over a muted instrumentation, punctuated by a wind instrument with wailing cry in the distance. She has the tone and range that remind me of The Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser: a floating ethereal aura that …
See: Zawraq – ‘Fate El Foute’: a little gem from Moroccan newcomers
EVERY once in a while at Backseat Mafia a little gem pops up from nowhere … cue the first single from the Moroccan newcomers Zawraq, “Fate El Foute”. Coming with a whisper of low-key publicity, the track is a collaboration between Zawraq and US instrumentalist/producer John Mock, who has country folk form playing and writing …
News: Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp are set for an album in July; hear ‘Beginning’
IS IT a band, is it a group, is it a collective or an ensemble? No it’s the one and only Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, the makers of the most essential music that may have passed you by. Revolving around the mercurial bassist/composer Vincent Bertholet and emerging from the Geneva avant music scene in …