By the way, Afropop Worldwide are now putting out podcasts. Check them out here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/afropop/podcast
1 Quantic and Pongo Love – Duvido (Tru Thoughts)
1 Quantic and Pongo Love – Duvido (Tru Thoughts)
Album: Magnetica
Quantic always
seems to take the music of his adopted home country, Colombia
2 David Ze – Rumba Zatukine
Album: Angola
David Ze aka David
Gabriel Jose Ferreira was an avid member of the MPLA and the musical director
of a group called Alliance Fapla-PEOPLE who ending writing a bunch of
independence celebration music for Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and Guinea
Bissau. He died pretty young at the age
of 32 in 1977 in the “fraccionista” when a MPLA turned on itself and a lot of
people got killed. “Rumba Zatukine” is
from around 1973.
3 Jorge Ben – Ponta de Lanca Africano (Umbabarauma)
(Phillips)
Album: Africa Brazil
David Ze for some
reason reminds me of Brazillian music from 70s – maybe it’s that mass-based
sing-along chorus. Ponta de lanca,
africano (Umbabarauma) is the opening track from one of my favorite Brazilian
albums from the same period.
4 Ile Aiye – Civilizacao Docongo (Interra)
Album: Black Chant
And while on the
subject of Afro-Brazillian, Ile Aiye are a bunch from Salvador Bahia who started a kind of black consciousness carnival
association or bloco in the mid 70s. There
are quite a few of these blocos in Salvador
5 Orquestra Imperial – Cair na Folia (iZem Remix)
(Mais Um Discos)
Single
Album: Fazendo
as pazes com o swing
French producer iZem’s
tremendous remix of 16 piece Orquestra Imperial who specialize in exploring
gafieira samba sometimes called “old-school samba”. In their ranks is Morena Veloso, Cataeno Veloso’s
son.
6 Mayra Andrade – Dispidida (RCA Victor/Sony Music)
Album: Studio 105
Mayra Andrade is
not Brazillian, but her music is definitely has some roots there. She’s considered Capo Verdean, if there’s
such a word, but she was born in Cuba Paris
7 Bixiga 70 – Deixa a Gira Gira (Mais Um Discos
Album: Ocupai
Bixiga 70 have
named themselves after their home neighbourhood in Sao Paulo Africa 70) and so you’ll expect some brassy
Afrobeat and you wouldn’t be wrong. “Ocupai”
is their brand new release on Mais Um Discos – a great label by the way, and a
story for another show.
8 Ibibio Sound Machine – Prodigal Son (Ayen Ake
Feheke) (Soundway)
Album: Ibibio Sound Machine
Ibibio Sound
Machine are British-based and led by Eno Williams, whose mother is an Ibibio
from the Southeastern
Nigeria . Love the
stripped down afro-beat electro-funk feel to this record, and those Grace Jones
vocals.
9 Femi Kuti – Politics na big business
Album: No place for my dream
Last month there
was something off Seun Kuti’s latest.
Here’s something from Fula Kuti’s other band leading son, Femi Kuti, off
his latest.
10 William Onyeabor – Atomic Bomb (Luaka Bop)
Album: World Psychedelic Classic 5: Who is William
Onyeabor
11 Hot Chip vs William Onyeabor – Atomic Bomb (Luaka Bop)
Album: What?!
The very cultish
Nigerian musician, William Onyeabor, with his biggest hit “Atomic Bomb”
released in 1978 – well half of it, anyway, and then picked up by British electronic
band, Hot Chip.
William Onyeabor
self-released 8 albums between 1977 and 1985
on his own label, recorded in own studio in Enugu, the capital of former
Biafra, and then basically vanished to be rediscovered by collectors and various
hipsters who were mad for his sound – produced largely by banks of analog
synths. Re-issueing a collection of his
stuff with the requisite permissions took the label Luaka Bop five years, and
they didn’t manage to get much info despite visiting the guy. Legends abound though – a Russian trained
film maker, preacher and gospel star, and semolina factory owner
12 Habib Koite – Drapeau (Contre-Jour)
Album: Soo
The often
pleasantly folky and magnanimous Malian musician, Habib Koite. “Soo” is his latest.
13 David Doucet – J’ai Marie Un Ouvrier (Traditional)
(Rounder)
Album: 1957 Solo Cajun Guitar
14 Bois Sec Ardoin & Canray Fontenot – Jug Au
Plombeau (Rounder)
Album: Louisiana
One of the all
time great duos of cajun and zydeco music.
This is something in the mid 60’s.
15 Wayne Toups, Steve Riley, Wilson Savoy – La Vie
Malheureuse (Lawrence Walker
Album: The Band Courtbouillon
A fabulous group
of three great band leading cajun accordionists, Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and
Wilson Savoy, with a Lawrence Walker song.
Walker
16 John Stickle – King Orfeo (Rounder)
Album: Classic Ballads of Britain Ireland
King Orfeo is a
Middle English poem based on mix of Greek and Celtic myth that entered England
17 Emily Smith – King Orfeo (White Fall)
Album: Echoes
Scottish
singer-songwriter Emily Smith’s current version with dobro uber whiz kid Jerry
Douglas.
18 9bach – Lliwiau (Real World)
Album: Tincian
9bach are
originally from Gerlan in north Wales
19 The Rails – Borstal (Island )
Album: Fair Warning
Kami Thompson, the
daughter of Richard and Linda Thompson, and her husband, guitarist James
Walbourne, have just put out an album of traditional and self-penned stuff as
The Rails. They’re a lot like Richard
and Linda Thompson, which is a good thing, and Island Records, who originally
brought the Richard & Linda, on their pink label have revived it especially
for this release. “Borstal” is
self-penned. Eliza Carthy is on fiddle
20 Linda Thompson – As fast as my feet (Topic)
Album: Won’t be long now
A 2013 version of an
Anne McGarrigle song.
21 Janet Kay – Silly Games (Arawak)
Album: Massive Reggae
Thought it’s about
time we have specific focus on British Reggae.
An obvious place to start is “Lovers Rock” – a softened, soul-based,
smoothed out reggae often with strong female vocals and dealing with romance
that started in mid 70s. Janet Kay’s 1979
smash hit “Silly Games” is probably from the height of Lovers Rocker. Dennis Bovell produced and wrote the song.
22 Elizabeth Archer & The Equators – Feel like
makin’ love (Lightning Records)
Album: Trojan Presents Lovers Rock – 40 Romantic
Reggae Classics
Something gutsier
and rootsier from the 1977. A kind of
blueprint for the Slits punky reggae.
23 The Slits – I heard it through the grapevine (Island )
Album: Cut (Deluxe Edition)
A unique version
of a soul classic “I heard it through the grapevine” from 1980 produced by none
other than Dennis Bovell. Singer Ari Up
taking a feather from the Elizabeth Archer’s cap
24 Hollie Cook – Ari Up (Mr Bongo)
Album: Twice
Hollie Cook’s
tribute to Ari Up, whose full name was Ariane Forster. Hollie Cook, Sex Pistols Paul Cook’s
daughter, actually played with The Slits just before Ari died, and that tune is
from her great new album “Twice”, which is produced by Prince Fatty, a fabulous
British producer in the tradition of King Tubby.
25 Adrian Sherwood – J’Ai Dubee (Real World Records)
Album: Becoming a Cliché/Dub Cliché
Another great
British producer is Adrian Sherwood, who worked with Ari Up as part of the New
Age Steppers. Here something from the
dub version of a solo record he put out in 2006.
26 Ros Sereysothea – Shave your beard (Minky Records)
Album: Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia Cambodia
The legendary
Cambodian singer, Ros Sereysothea, did not endear herself to the Khemer Rouge
with her potent mix of Cambodian folk and rock’n’roll. She died at their hands, like a bunch of
other Cambodian musicians.
27 Angkanang Kunchai – Teoy Salap Pamaa (Soundway)
Album: The Sound of Siam 2: Molam & Luk Thung Isan
from North-East Thailand
Heading north to Thailand
28 Ding Chengyun – A Conversation between God and Man
(Guang Ling San)
Album: A Conversation between God and Man
Ding Chengyun is
one of the greatest current players of the qin or gugin, the ancient Chinese
zither. This version of the tune dates
from 1549, while the original tune apparently goes back to 2800 BC.
