1 December 2010, World Cafe

1 Ozlem Ozil and Guler Duman – Bir olursak hur oluruz (Duygu Muzik)

Ozlem Ozil and Guler Duman are both saz players. There’s nothing I can find on the web about these musicians, but their 2008 “Yollarina kar mi yagdi” is a terrific affair, if you can overlook some production overkill here and there. It’s a fine example of Turkish folk music built on Ottoman court music. There’s a vast scene of this sort of stuff in Turkey, and a tiny sample of it on this playlist.


2 Orchestre National de Barbes – Jarahtini-Marhba-Jibouhali (Le Chant du monde)

Orchestre National de Barbes take their name from the “Barbes” neighbourhood in Paris, near the Sacre Coeur – a sort of African enclave, which they imply is almost its own country. The members of the band are Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian, Portuguese, and French. From their latest album, “Rendez-vous”.

3 Cheikka Remitti – Annaini annaini (MLP)

Barbes was the home to many African exiles, including famously Cheikka Remitti, the grande dame of rai, who started her career during WW2, but only really became famous in the 50s. Although rai is often associated with a kind of fast hip-hop rock fusion-type sound, this sound only emerged in the 80s and 90s. It was the subject matter and language that really defined rai – it focused on taboos like the pleasure of sex, love, alcohol, friendship, and the hardships of war - in a slangy creole language, much to the annoyance of orthodox religious authorities in Algeria.

4 Hasna el Becharia – Rabi lik (Lusafrica)

Hasna el Becharia is another taboo breaker from Algeria, but from a different background to Cheikka Remitti. El Becharia comes from a Berber community in the south of Algeria, where she started playing wedding music, but broke out in the early 70s with a solo career. She started writing her own songs and playing in public, string instruments only usually played by men. “Rabi lik” comes from her 2010 CD “Smaa Smaa” (which means “Listen Listen”). Some of the singers and players on this album she started out with in the beginning of her career.

5 Saadoun Al-Bayati - Gypsy II (Songs of Iraq) (Samar Industries)

Saadoun Al-Bayati was born in Iraq, but has been living in the US for a long time, where he studied acting. He has had a successful movie and stage career – he wound up in the movie “Passage to India”. But he is also an incredible musician, who had a good dose of Sufi music in his childhood in Iraq, sang in the mosque, and, much later in his life he also trained under the oud player Hamza El-Din. Here he is with something off an LP he put together in 1973, “Songs of Iraq”, playing all the instruments and singing. This is called “Gypsy II”, and is his take on ghajar music (or Iraqi gypsy music).

6 Hanggai – Xig Xile (World Connection)

The leader of Hanggai, the Beijing-based inner Mongolia inspired folk band, started his music career in a punk band – and I guess his origins shine through on the tune “Xig Xile”. A bit like the Tuvan band, Yat Kha. The tune comes from “He who travels far”, Hanggai’s new CD, just out.

7 Jah Wobble and the Nippon Dub Ensemble – K Dub (30 Hertz Records)

From Chinese folk-rock, to Japanese folk-dub.

8 Keith Hudson – Satta (Blood and Fire)

Utterly bleak, stripped dub from Keith Hudson in 1974: one of the earliest examples of dub being developed and released as a stand alone form, not linked to sound systems, deejaying or toasting. Remarkably, it’s a dub version of the Abbyssians-penned classic reggae tune, “Satta Amassagana” - the original version as released 2 years after this one, and recorded in 1969 for Studio One, but not released by Clement Dodd at the time for some reason. For those who’ve been wondering, “Satta Amassagana” is mispronounced and misspelled Amharic, meaning something along the lines of "Give thanks to God continually".

9 Junior Murvin – Roots Train (Island Music)

10 Junior Murvin – Roots Train Number Two (Pressure Sounds)

Junior Murvin and Lee Perry worked together on the LP “Police and Thieves” released in 1977. “Roots Train” is the opening track. The “Number Two” version is a dubplate version culled from the thoroughly wonderful collection of Lee Perry dubplates, “Sound System Scratch”, that’s just come out.

11 Baba Zula – Sevsem Oldururler Sevmezsem Oldum (Doublemoon)

Baba Zula are from Istanbul and have been going since the mid 90s. They are into all kinds of things – dub, folk, bellydancing music, rock and psychedelia. This is a slow dubby lope shot through with shards of electric saz.

12 Cengiz Ozkan – Feraye (Kalan)

Cengiz Ozkan is another famous Turkish folk musician with a serious pedigree, and years of teaching and performing experience. The tune comes from a nice collection of various Turkish folk music called “Remains of Anatolia” out on the Kalan label.

13 Syriana – The Great Game (Real World)

Nick Page or Dubalah, the driving force behind the Ethio-jazz-dub project, Dub Colossus, has a new project – this time with English bass player, Bernard O’Neill and Syrian qanun (81 string Arabic dulcimer) player, Abdullah Chhaden, and a bunch of London-based musicians from the Middle Eastern diaspora.

14 Hosam Hayek – Samaee in Maqam Huzam (Doublemoon)

Palestinian oud maestro, Hosam Hayek, plays here with Istanbul’s Taksim Trio and other musicians. Hayek teaches Arabic music in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a fabulous composer.

15 Asmara All Stars – Ykre Belni (Outhere)

The Asmara All Stars are Eritrea’s answer to Dub Colossus, with Paris-based producer, Bruno Blum, taking the part of Nick Page. There are some differences: their entire LP “Eritrea’s Got Soul” was recorded on site, in the Admas Studio in Asmara with no post recording additions. Although even more dormant than the current scene in Ethiopia, the Eritrean one turns out to still have some major talent brewing – in fact, many of the musicians from the 70s Addis scene were Eritrean.

16 Getatchew Mekurya – Gedamay (Ethiopiques)

A recording from the early 70s channeling Albert Ayler, the 60s American free jazz sax player. Mekurya says he had never heard the free American players at the time of making this music. If you’re a regular listener (and reader), you will know that Mekurya is still going strong.

17 Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Cotonou – Malin Kpon O (Analog Africa)

From the Analog Africa collection of Poly Rythmo, “Echos Hypotiques”.

17 De Frank Professionals – Afe Ato Yen Bio (Analog Africa)

Analog Africa released a new collection of 70s obscurities a few months ago, this time from Togo and Ghana called “Afro-Beat Airways”. From Accra here are De Frank Professionals. The track is basically a pretty obscure one-off – a session drummer playing with a session backing band – the kind of nugget we’ve become reliant on Samy Ben Redjeb to dig up. And appropriately for this time of the year, the song’s title translates as “We lived through another year”.

18 Samy Izy – Maro (Network)

Samy Andriamalalaharijaona’s first band was Tarika Samy, from the 80s, when he was in his 20s. “Maro” is from his new band, Samy Izy (pronounced “easy”) – in which he explores the music he’s always been into – vintage rural music from the remote reaches of Madagascar. He is aided by a great of band of youngsters, although he does have some veterans guesting. On “Maro” it’s Rageorge (or Ranaivoson Georges, more fully), a lovely flute player who’s never recorded before, despite his iconic status in Madagascar.

19 Inzintombi Zasi Manje Manje – Awufuni Ukulandela Na (Strut)

20 Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens – Umkhova (Strut)

A pair of tunes by two rival groups off Volume 1 of Strut’s 3 volume collection of SA music, “Next stop .. Soweto”, which deals with mbaqanga and mqashiyo.


21 Emily Portman – Bones and Feathers (Furrow Records)

Concertina player and singer, Emily Portman from Newcastle, mostly writes her own songs on the first album under her own name, “The Glamoury”, which came out earlier this year. Her songs are largely inspired by the darker, more mysterious side of the English and Scottish traditional canon. “Bones and Feathers” is a fine example. In the song, a woman at a busstop suddenly turns herself into a bird type creature. Christi Andropolis, who plays with Portman in the band, Rebus, supplies some stunning viola playing on the track.

22 Justin Townes Earle – Halfway to Jackson (Bloodshot Records)

Justin Townes Earle, Steve Earle’s son, has been building up a solid profile over the last few years. “Halfway to Jackson”, some kind of a theme song for him and the name of a website dedicated to him, comes from his 2009 LP, “Midnight at the Movies”.

23 CW Stoneking – Brave son of America (King Hokum Records)

CW Stoneking comes from the town of Katherine, in the Northern Territory, Australia. “Brave son of America” is a wonderful old timey jazzy take on an old calypso tune by Wilmoth Houdini. CW Stoneking actually spent some time bumming around the Caribbean.

24 Cath and Phil Tyler – Long Time Travelling (No-Fi Recordings)

Cath and Phil Tyler are an American-Anglo, wife and husband group, who seem to be based in Newcastle upon Tyne at the moment. “Long Time Travelling” is a song they cobbled together from various sources. Cath Tyler puts it this way: “Phil Tyler wrote the tune, the verses are by Isaac Watts and the chorus is from possibly an 1810 book called Dobell's Selection, but its has been folked around with for ages...” By the way, Dobell’s Selection can be found on Google Books, if you simply Google it.

25 Taksim Trio – Ussak Oyun Havasi (Doublemoon)

The extremely competent Taksim Trio plays a composition by Skru Tunar, which they’ve arranged. This has an incredible interplay between saz and qanun, the likes of which I’ve never heard before.