Rolling World Music 2006 Thread

I also like the *Congotronics 2* comp of suburban-Kinshasha Konono-style distortion drone music on Crammed Disc; best cuts, I think are by Kusai Allstars featuring Muambuyi, Kisanzi Congo, Basokin featuring Mi Amor, and, yep, Konono No. 1; actually, it seems they saved the two best for the end of the CD, which is a little annoying, but if there are great ones I've missed, somebody please let me know. Also, I haven't been able to get my copy of the DVD to work, for some reason. Bob Xgau, who knows a million times more about African music than I do, has told me that he thinks the Konono No. 1 album from last year was African music for people who don't like African music. I liked it okay (though not nearly enough to put it in my top ten - -actually, I liked both Konono CDs I heard okay), and admittedly, I'm not somebody who listens to African music much. I'd like to hear whether Konono fans and/or non-fans feel Bob's off base about that. For whatever it's worth, he's never been much of a Kraut-rock fan, and it''s probably not a stretch to say what's good about Konono might have more in common with what's good about Kraut-rock (when it's good) than what's more typically good about African music when ditto.

"More heavily-distorted sounds, more DIY amplification... but also a whole array of different rhythms, buzzing drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons."

it's easy to see why people who don't listen to a lot of african music might want to hear it. i mean, duh.

um, that was in response to chuck's xgau line about people who don't listen to african music. i still haven't heard this stuff yet. i'm sure i would love it.

this might be true but only up to a certain point. as was pointed out on the konono thread, abd by scott above, the reason for this has to do w/ how it was marketed (i.e. it was sort of marketed as just that; african music for people who don't normally listen to it). still ... quite a few people on ilm who loved it also love african music in general, not to mention african music fans i know liked it. so there you go, the difference between how it was presented and reality.

yeah, the new congotronics 2 is pretty great though.

i still haven't picked up 'golden afrique' 2 - i think it was released elsewhere a few months ago but doesn't come out in the states until sometime this month. it looks just as good as the first.

is there a new Tom Zé record called something like "Estudando o Pagoda"? new stuff, old stuff reissued? I sure love Zé.

So, I'm now being mistaken for a hipster, am I? Anyhow, this is what I posted on the Pazz and double-p Jopp thread (album is called 1. Guitars of the Golden Triangle: Raw, Rare & Forgotten Archival Recordings from 1970's Shan State. Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar (Burma) Vol. 2

"I'm listening to this right now and it's achingly gorgeous and energetically ratty at the same time. If I'd been able to give it more than a cursory listen before the deadline it would have been a strong candidate. The title grabs your attention but is a bit misleading, since this is voice and song music at least as much as it's guitar music. The tracks were recorded in the '70s, but as far as the electric American influence, no one seems to have heard anything recorded later than 1967. No power chords and no sustain. A fellow named Saing Saing Maw, who's got a whole bunch of tracks, sings in a relaxed almost rockabilly style, somewhat reminiscent of Ricky Nelson, and like Nelson he has an intense band and a guitarist slinging ice pellets at us. He also - I'm serious - seems to have heard the Seeds' 'Pushin' Too Hard,' hence chords are played with a similar push. Other performers do tunes with an early '60s lilt. Not that my listing these influences gives much of an idea what the record sounds like. It's fundamentally Asian, with vocals that rise to a ringing high-pitch, and sad little descents. From a part of Myanmar [Burma] that's reputed to be lawless and to be inaccessible to outsiders."

So, "achingly gorgeous": I'm still in need of adjectival help, if Haikunym or someone else can give me any more suggestions.

(Guitars of the Golden Triangle would have made my P&J ballot for sure, were I voting today, and I did manage to sneak it onto my Nashville Scene Country Critics ballot as a reissue.)

I think the point I'm trying to make is that Eurodisco and World music are tied at the hip.

I definitely hear more Kraut-rock (obsessive repetitive clatter unto noisy guitar buildup) than punk in Konono and the Congotronics 2 comp. I like them fine. But yeah, not nearly as great as so many people say (or as noisy, or as avant-garde as far as I can tell.) (And I'm not saying they were *influenced* by Kraut-rock, which they may never have heard. Though I'd be surprised if they haven't heard certain techno etc that Kraut-rock spawned.)

Rockist, what is it that *Songlines* does better or different than *Global Rhythm*? (Just curious; I've never seen or read either magazine myself, at least not knowingly.)

So what have you cooked lately? (Year two.)

Your "Top 10 Albums of All Time" List

but it's really random. the numbers don't mean much. someday, i will do a real list.

-- edd s hurt (eddshur...), January 8th, 2006. (later)

Yes, it came out in August 2005 on Trama, and I picked it up at Dusty Groove. It has gorgeous booklet, but unfortunately all the liner notes are in Portuguese. Where is my ex-Brazilian gf when I need her? The back of the CD makes a reference to his 1976 album, Estudando o Samba which means this might be some sort of sequel. From the lyrics, it seems to be laid out as a sort of three act opera.

The Global Rhythm mag used to be, I haven't seen it in awhile, real fluffy in its stylistic approach to "world music." I prefer to just read The Beat magazine, which is unfortunately cutting back on the number of issues per year it puts out.

Well, I only arrived in November, so wait a couple of months and give it another shot. I'm busily beating my head against the wall trying to fix all the things I think need improvement. (Including the inclusion of Norwegian black metal and Japanese noise, but I have dim hopes at best.)

Gecko Turner, *Guapapasea!* on Quango (Spanish, apparently; "former frontman for Perroflauta and the Reverendoes," whoever they are or were. Includes Dylan and soul music references, and allegedly Monk and Marley ones as well).

(Incidentally, just saw your question this morning.)

The difficulty here is that I've mostly just stopped bothering to look at Global Rhythm, so it's hard to make my complaints concrete at this point. Some of the reviews I've read in Global Rhythm didn't make any reference to what seemed like really stand-out features of the CD being reviewed. (For instance, the brief review of Marcel Khalife's Caress wasted time providing background on some past controversies, while not bothering to mention than unexpected instrumentation on the CD under review. I'm not sure it even mentioned the mixing of trad. Arabic with jazz elements.) I think the writing is generally bad. Not that many CDs are reviewed--the whole publication is pretty skimpy. Some of the editorials at the front of the magazine (written by a woman whose name I forgot) are really dopey. I don't have as strong an impression of the lengthier articles, except they haven't really left much impression.

Songlines is by no means flawless, but the reviewers generally seem pretty informed, and a lot of releases get covered. I don't necessarily read many of the articles. Recently, I liked the fact that they wrote up the Sense World label for Indian classical music (not that that's really my thing, but it's an interesting label).

Ah, I didn't think I'd noticed your name (not that I was looking that closely).

http://www.afropop.org/explore/album_review/ID/1558/Soul%20of%20Angola

http://www.sternsmusic.com/disk_info.php?id=wcd073

Dude, my grandfather's Mexican. I've been listening to LTDN for years, off and on. I just happened to get this one from their publicist yesterday - they share a publicity firm with Calle 13, who I was interviewing - so I've been playing it and the office copy of 20 Corridos Inolvidables all day.

This is great! I finally got a chance to really listen to it. It's got a great joyful anything-goes vibe to it.

Extra Golden - meeting of two members of the Kenyan band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa (awesome name, never heard of them, have you?) and two members of the Washington, DC band Golden. Reminds me of the Roswell Rudd/Toumani Diabate record from a few years back, where you see these collaborations and think it might be a rote overslick exercise in 'world beat' genre mashing, turns out to be a very sympathic and effusive meeting where the sum is greater than the parts.

http://www.dubmc.com/dubmc/2006/09/palm_pictures_d.html

Palm Pictures Downsized with No New World Music Releases In Sight
Sources have reported to DubMC that Palm Pictures has let go of most of their remaining staff today with "only a few accountants still walking around the office" and a couple of marketing staff. Approximately fifty staff members have been let go in the past month or so. This is not a total surprise since Palm has not released much if any physical product in several months. This follows on the heels of Triloka Records getting absorbed by Artemis and Narada getting fully absorbed by its parent company Virgin/EMI, with neither label continuing to release product under their world music imprints, and neither of Triloka's and Narada's founders still with the companies.

September 29, 2006 at 03:27 PM in Music Biz | Permalink

By Jessica Hopper
Special to the Tribune
Published October 10, 2006

excerpt---

"This fall, Molina will be one of a handful of independent South American artists touring America; Jose Gonzalez from Argentina, CSS, Tetine and Bondo De Role from Brazil have all made recent Chicago stops. Though some are ex-pats, South American artists are being embraced by the American underground. Amy Phillips, news editor at Pitchfork Media, says several things have helped open the door and generate interest.

"It's not just one factor -- these artists are filtering through in a context that indie rockers are comfortable with -- the right people and labels are saying it's cool," Phillips says. "Juana Molina is on Domino, CSS is on Sub Pop, Diplo is deejaying a lot of Brazilian music.

"Secondly, right now, a lot of hipster types are going down to Buenos Aires and spending a lot of time there, because it's inexpensive and has a lot going on -- it's like Prague was in the '90s. Also, indie rock always needs another culture to exoticize -- it's their turn."

The American underground's embrace of South America's latest crop of artists as good news for Molina, though she admits she's conflicted about it. "This is the good part of globalization; it works out for bands," she says. "But, I know, with globalization and the Internet, with people having access to all kinds of information -- I do not like the idea of every place being the same place. It can be interesting, cultures mixing, but people are losing distinct identity and place."

That is funny. Thanks Amy.

I'm listening to Brazilian Chico Buarque right now. He's ok.

Currently enjoying Golden Afrique 3: Disc 1 is South Africa, and Disc 2 is Zambia/Zimbabwe. However, the cumulative sweetness gets a bit cloying over the course of a full length disc, particularly with the samey chord progressions on the South African disc.

The new World Circuit compilation is a better bet: it's particularly good at emphasising the connections between West African and Cuban musics.

2. Molina's Son is my favorite record so far this year. The central track, "Mikael", is three minutes of stunning. The whole thing is more accessible and less wifty than Tres Cosas, her previous record, and a lot more confident and sophisticated than Segundo (which was pretty fine). She deserves the attention she's getting.

3. To change the topic, Nuevo Leon's ragacumbiamuffin anti-Kinky El Gran Silencio has a new record out, Communicaflow Underground. (Roughly three years after the missed release date for what was SUPPOSED to be their next record.) It's great! Somewhat more organic and less varied than previous EGS offerings, more hip-hoppy, but with live drums and acoustic guitar on almost every track (and still lots of accordion). Haikunym, where are you? (Things that suck about it: crappy booklet with no credits, no lyrics, and no good art.)

4. Also, apparently my very favorite artist Rachid Taha released a new record, Divan 2 (Divan was 10 years ago), in France and England last week. Canada next week, U.S. in three. Has anyone heard it?

5. What good does it do to register on these people's websites, and they don't even bother to send you an e-mail when they release an album that you are willing actually to buy without question?

Henry Kaiser / Charles K. Noyes / Sang Won Park: Invite the Spirit 2006 [#7617]

One of the most evocative and successful meetings of East and West reunites to weave their magic spell via kayagum, electric guitar and percussion. Invite the Spirit was a sensation when it was first released in 1983 and now over twenty years later they are sounding better than ever. Joined by two scintillating Korean P’ansori vocalists on several tracks this is a whole new take on the Korean shamanistic tradition. Over seventy minutes of timeless, ecstatic, magical music unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=3127#

(For the anti-purists: I am such a purist about this because, at its best (which it rarely is), oud taksim hits me emotionally in a very particular way that I almost never get from other types of oud performances.)

http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/sgs_live.aspx#Mideast

Well, that and Los Burbanks and Gomez and Itibirê Familia Orquetra and OOIOO and Tanya Stephens and um some other stuff.

xpost2: My partner heard some of the new Rachid Taha on the radio, and said it was more rai and less rock... well, good.

N.A.D.M.A.?

I'm loving Paura.

In other news, It would have nice to have to the WOMEX festival/conference in Sevilla--

http://www.womex.com/realwomex/main.php?id_headings=28&id_realwomex=8&subheading=29

Akli D. (Algeria / France)
Kabylian Berber singer´s avant-Afro/Algerian/Blues/world mix with Manu Chao producing his latest.

Eskorzo (Spain)
Una mezcla fantástica! From Adalusia to Bulgary, from Uruguayan ´Canbombe´to the funk of New Orleans, from reggae to rock and hip-hop comes this home grown, high energy group of musical revolutionaries from Granada.

Afel Bocoum & Alkibar (Mali)
Mali's messenger of desert blues tends musical and agricultural roots

El Tanbura (Egypt)
Egyptian collective wants to invite you to a party

you can see some of the performances here http://www.mondomix.com/event/womex2006/

Momo's actually has a free world music show every Tuesday so folx hld check whats coming up

The Kemia Bar at Momo presents BRASIL DO FUTURO Party - featuring Cibelle (LIVE) + SPECIAL GUEST DJ : RKK from Radio Nova (Paris) on TUESDAY 28th NOVEMBER – 8pm – Free admission !!! 25 Heddon street, London W1

Click on http://ecard.atnetplanet.com/rkk/en/ to launch the ecard

Despite it being a Putamayo acoustic event marketed mostly to American-born NPR listeners, a number of DC based folks from various African countries plus locals got onstage and danced and showered performers with dollars African-style.

Also, from the rolling country thread (interesting that this has inspired no talk here, being from the #1 movie in the U.S. and A.):

the Borat, which I think is actually very good (being quasi-Asian it has twice the twang of new country);
-- Frank Kogan (edcasua...), October 31st, 2006.

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That's a good band on Stereophonic Musical Listenings That Have Been Origin In Moving Film Borat; not clear to me how literal their ripoff/appropriations of Middle Eastern European (or whatever) pop are (for all I know it could just secretly be like one of those Sublime Frequencies albums where the music is all stolen from found cassette tapes) (the "credits" on the CD cover are in real or fake Kazakh, ha ha), but the actual music balances out "In My Country There Is a Problem (Throw The Jew Down The Well)" and "You Be My Wife" (rhymes with "we'll make love whenever I like") appropriately.

"O Kazakhastan" on Borat's album is on now. It'd fit right in on the new Laibach album Volk, which is their renditions of national anthems from the world over. Maybe they read what Frank wrote about Rammstein making a folk move upthread, and decided to one-up them?

-- xhuxk (fakemai...), November 4th, 2006.

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Borat (just saw the movie, which was slightly disappointing though still frequently hilarious but maybe the disappointment was just that it had been built up so much by so many people, but at any rate i also just realized today that the soundtrack is a compilation, and track #7 is beautiful, and i think it's by o.m.f.o. but it's hard to tell because there are not the same number of titles on the cover as tracks on the cd, since some of the tracks are just snippets of dialouge and stuff, so you can't just count down to the seventh title, which is "grooming pubis", and also "o kazakhastan" which ends the movie sounds more like laibach than most of the national anthems on laibach's own new album) -- xhuxk (fakemai...), November 19th, 2006.

So I figured out with 95 percent certainty the track #7, my favorite (and probably the most pop, thanks to the sweet-voiced lady singer) track on the Borat soundtrack, is "Eu Vin Acasa Cu Drag" by Stefan De La Barbuletsi, which originally supposedly appeared on AMMRA Records S.R.I. The other legit/non-Borat-sung tracks (apparently middle eastern and or eastern European, though maybe or I assume not usually Kazakh per se) are consistently really good, too, and first came out on labels like Piranha, Essay, Crammed Discs, World Connection, etc. O.M.F.O., who made an album I liked a couple years ago, have two tracks, which I'm pretty sure are tracks # 10 and 12. The only really confusing thing if you sit down with a pen and paper is that there seem to be three "real songs" between Borat's "You Be My Life" at # 13 and his "O Kazazhstan" at # 18, but only two titles between them. Which makes tracks #14 throuh #16 somewhat mysterious (since #17 is Borat high-fiving a gay-bashing redneck of some sort).
(Hey Frank brought the album up! I guess I should put all this on the world music thread too. I'm not sure what it has to do with country, though yeah, there's a twang in the music now and then, and didn't one of you guys vote for Gogol Bordello in a Nashville Scene poll once? This CD belongs on a shelf near them, Kultur Shock, Balkan Beatbox, etc, unless like me you file in alphabetical order.)

-- xhuxk (fakemai...), November 19th, 2006.

it's interesting to compare pitbull's el mariel with tego calderon's el subestimado as world music albums as opposed to hip-hop or reggaeton (esp because pitbull has NO reggaeton to it). both are great, love them very much.

http://laondatropical.blogspot.com/

!

Anyhow, I know I mentioned this elsewhere but there's a reissue of a record by Marconi Notaro from the early '70s (Brazilian psych tropicalia thing) that I just love. It's sort of what I expected Os Mutantes to sound like before I ever heard them.

Just got it from dustygroove. It is amazing; by far my favorite Ze since Fabrication Defect. Definitely more over-the-top experimental/hi-energy than his past few. As usual, there is a clear overarching conceptual hook that I am once again way not fluent enough in portuguese to get.

Listening to Toumani Diabete - Boulevard de l'Independance, after hearing about it on a podcast (Tape Op does one where engineers & musicians talk about a favorite record).

It's a great record, sort of a pan-African fusion concept with Senegalese drummers, horns arranged by Pee Wee Ellis, a salsa track, etc. The sabar drums sound amazing, even if they're kept pretty reined in rhythmically.

Oh I had forgotten about that album and just listened to it again. I like the way the softer sounds of Toumani Diabete's harp-like kora and the yearning vocals of Kasse Mady Diabate interact with the punchier sabar drums.