3 April 2013, World Cafe

1 Lucas Santtana – Musico (Mais Um Discos)Album: O Deus Que Devasta Mas Tambem Cura

Lucas Santtana, third generation post-Tropicalia Brazillian musical renaissance man, draws heavily on the legacy of the greats like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.  In fact he’s played in both of their bands at some point.  He started life as a flautist, but rapidly moved in composition, production and singing bringing all kinds funk, trip-hop and African influences to the already overflowing Tropicalia kitchen sink. 

 

2 Criolo – Linha De Frente (Sterns)

Album: No Na Orelha (Knot in the ear)

Some one else who’s played with Caetano Veloso is the latest Brazillian flavour of month, the rapper Criolo, who’s built an international name for himself last year during his world tour.  Criolo is far more than rapper – like Lucas Santtana, he takes in more or less the whole of Brazillian pop music.  His roots in the favelas of Sao Paulo give his music a gritty edge, but as Veloso say “He has not turned himself into a bullet-proof tank to answer injustice.  On the contrary, he exposes his sensibilities”. 

3 Marcos Valle – Garra (Light in the Attic)

Album: Garra

The wacky music of Marcos Valle, with the title track from a 1971 album - a tune he wrote with his brother, Paulo Sergio Valle.  Like nearly all this stuff, it follows closely in the tradition of Tropicalia, especially in its coded critique of the political situation in Brazil at the time – a military dictatorship.  “Garra” is apparently about urban alienation and ambition. Valle calls his music “samba-pop-bossa-jazz” and bunch of his albums have just been re-issued on Light in the Attic.

4 Wganda Kenya – Shakolaode (Analog Africa)

Diablos del Ritmo 1960-1985: The Colombian Melting Pot

Heading north to that other great Latin American melting pop: Columbia.  Afro-Caribbean Afrobeat anyone? 

5 Meridian Brothers – Guaracha UFO (No Estamos Solos …) (Soundway)

Album: Desesperanza

The Meridian Brothers hailing from Bogota are basically one guy, Eblis Alvarez, who does everything. He’s also part of the 50 person strong mega-collective we’ve listened to quite a few times here, “Ondatropica”. “Desesperanza” means “hopelessness”.

6 Atoms for Peace – Stuck together pieces (XL)

Album: Amok

Didn’t think Thom Yorke would get a look in on this show, but here he is with Brazillian percussionist Mauro Refosco, bassist Flea, drummer Joey Waronker and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich playing some kind of post-everything genre. 

7 Abdou Diop – Maaja (Sterns)

Album: Nootee

Abdou Diop is from the Casamance region in the south of Senegal, a far more rural area than the north around Dakar.  His music is pretty different from the predominant Mbalax.  For one thing Diop sings in Pulaar, rather than Wolof.

8 Royal Band de Thies – Righie Righie (Teranga Beat)

Album: Kadior Demb

Speaking of Mbalax, here’s something from close to its dawning.  From 2012 re-issue of 1979 album in its full double gatefold glory. 

9 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Gendamou Na Wili We Gnannin (Strut)

Album: The Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972-80

Sticking in the vein of heavily latin influenced African sounds, the totally wonderful Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou with their amalgam of Afro-cuban and afrobeat from sometime in the mid-70s.  We’re honouring Orchestre Poly-Rythmo’s long time leader, saxophonist Melome Clement who died at the age of 67 in December 2012. 

10 Alhousseini Anivolla – Attarech (Riverboat)

Album: Anewal/The Walking Man

You might have seen the guitarist from Niger band Etran Finatawa, Alhousseini Anivolla, play in Cape Town a few years ago.  He released a solo album in 2012. Attarech is a stripped down piece he wrote as soundtrack for doccie about a road trip around remote parts of Niger he took with two of his fellow band members to play music to school pupils. 

11 Mariem Hassan – Addumua (Nubenegra)
Album: El Aaiun Egdat

Mariem Hassan off her 2012 album, “El Aaiun Egdat” – El Aaiun is Western Sahara’s largest city and egdat means “on fire”.  The title neatly captures the tenor of most of the album.  Hassan spent much of her life in a Saharawi refugee camp in the Algerian desert.  She now lives in Spain, and she’s touring recent to support the development of a music industry in those refugee camps.

12 Fotheringay – Gypsy Davy (Universal)
Album: Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music

The distinctive voice of Sandy Denny is at the centre of Fotheringay’s version of this trad tune.  It’s culled from a collection called “Electric Eden:  Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music” which is a CD tie with Rob Young’s book of the same title which came out in 2010 – a bulky meditation on the possible meanings of the English folk revival in its various guises.

13 Carthy Hardy Farrell Young – 100 years (HEM)

Album: Laylam

A supergroup of sorts, four fiddler-vocalists in their own rights: Eliza Carthy, Bella Hardy, Lucy Farrell and Kate Young.  They’re playing mostly traditional tunes. 

14 Richard Thompson – The Snow Goose (Proper)

Album: Electric

From his 22^nd release, not counting the records he made with Fairport Convention.  The only acoustic tune on the album with guitar and touch of hurdy-gurdy and backing singing of Alison Krause: “The Snow Goose”.

15 Martha Tilston – Let Them Glow (Squiggly)

Album: Machines of Love and Grace

I don’t really know the music of Martha Tiltson, but liked this dub infused closer to her latest album called “Machines of Love and Grace”.  The tune is called “Let them glow.”

16 Page One – Nuff bread on our table (Carib Gems Music)

Album: Observation of Life Dub

I’ve been featuring the music of veteran dub producer Niney over the last few month.  That was him again in the guise of Page One & the Observers, with a lovely crisp tune he calls “Nuff bread on our table” from the LP “Observation of Life Dub”.

17 The Heptones – Party Time (Extended Jamaican Mix) (Trojan)

Disco Devil: The Jamaican Discomixes

Another mainstay of this show is Lee Perry.  Last year Trojan put out a collection of his extended disco mixes from the late 70s called “Disco Devil: The Jamaican Discomixes”.  A classic tune from the Heptones.

18 La Caravane Passe – Rom A Babylone (XIII Bis Records)

Album: Gypsy for a day

Parisian group La Caravane Passe with “Rom A Babylone”  more a trashy Balkanology type thing than reggae, I’ll give you, but the lyrics tie in.  La Caravane Passe was formed by Toma Feterman, about 12 years ago.  He sings and plays banjo and trumpet.

19 Lo’Jo – Zetwal (World Village)

Album: Cinema el Mundo

Having a similar kind of feel to La Caravane Passe, but with a much wider palette and membership, are veterans of the French scene.  Their 2012 album is a wonderful thing. Some of the things I really like about it are the layered production and arrangements.

20 Molla Mamad Jan – Pouran (Pharaway Sounds)

Album: Zendooni: Funk, Psychedelia & Pop from the Iranian Pre-Revolution Generation

Poppy psychedelia, or perhaps its more Bollywood, filtered through traditional Khorasan and Turkmen music. 

21 Erkin Koray – Dusunus (Sublime Frequencies)

Album: Mechul: Singles & Rarities

Erkin Koray is one of the greats of Turkish rock music.  He’s been going from a pretty long time – since the 50s – often not exactly with the approval of authorities or even the public.  “Dusunus” was reissued on a collection of his singles and rarities by Sublime Frequencies.

22 Bimbo – Borondong Garing (Sham Palace)
Album: Indonesia Pop Nostalgia: Pan-Indonesian Pop, Folk, Instrumentals and Children’s Songs 1970s-1980s

From Indonesia, the tune is from a collection sourced from cassette recordings of 70s and 80s.  

23 Nicolas Rapac – La Fuerza Del Sentimiento (No Format)
Album: Black Box

Nicolas Rapac is a French jazz guitarist known for taking rootsy vocal tracks, often by well known singers, and slicing and dicing them and adding exotic fusionist, often trip-hoppy settings. This is one with Peruvian Guillermo Arevalo Valera on vocals.  .

24 Monoswezi – Kalahari (Riverboat)

Album: The Village

A Zimbabwean, Mozambiquan and Norwegian collaboration.  Key players are Hope Masike sings and who plays the mbira, and reeds player Hallvard Godal often writes the tune as on “Kalahari”.