1 June 2016, World Cafe

1 My Bubba – Knitting (Fake Diamond)

Album: Goes Abroader

My Bubba are a duo from Sweden and Iceland: My Larsdotter Lucas and Bubba Tomasdottir.  Their fantastic brief little tune has been called gothic twee. 

2 Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop – Midas Tongue (Sub Pop)

Album: Love Letter for Fire

The duo of Sam Beam (he of Iron and Wine) and Jesca Hoop are first time collaborators on their album of spacey laments.  They’ve tested the water with guest spots on each others stuff before - things worked out well and got deep.  The lovely cello is courtesy of Edward Rankin-Parker. 

3 Bombino – Iyat Ninhay – Jaguar (A great desert I saw) (Partisan)

Album: Azel

On his new album Omara “Bombino” Moctar, from Niger, has come up with a sub-genre he calls “Tuareggae”.  It’s always been there inherent in the lope of Tuareg bands like Tinariwen and Tamikrest, probably, but he and producer Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors have accentuated it.  Bombino says he’s been experimenting with Tuareggae for the last couple years in his shows.   “Iyat Ninhay – Jaguar (A great desert I saw)” is a laidback multi-part epic.

4 Noura Mint Seymali – Soub Hanallah (Glitterbeat)

Album: Tzenni

Mauritania has a music scene all about transposing traditional Moorish music, with all its modes, for a rock format.  String instruments the tidinit and ardine collectively called azawan, become heavily phased guitar and, well, ardine kind of stays as it is.  Noura Mint Seymali is probably at the forefront, after the death of her step-mother, Dimi Mint Abba. “Tzenni” is another one of those under-sung gems. 

5 Aziza Brahim – Abbar el Hamada (Glitterbeat)

Album: Abbar el Hamada

Heading north to the disputed territory of Western Sahara governed by Morocco at the moment … Aziza Brahim, who has spent a bunch of time more or less in exile in various Spanish speaking countries in different corners of the World, has a new album out  which translates as “Across the Hamada”.  The Hamada is the rocky desert along the border of Algeria and Western Sahara, which is host to many refugee camps of the Saharawis. 

6 Sahra Halgan Trio – Matis (Buda Musique)

Album: Faransiskiyo Samaliland

Sahra Halgan is from Somiland, another disputed territory, and for 20 years she’s lived in France, after fleeing during Somalia’s civil war.  She formed a band there - Sahra Halgan Trio.  She’s back living in Somiland, by the way.

7 Qwanqwa  - Gorage (FPE)

Album: Volume 2

In April I was singing the praises of the Debo Band’s 2012 release.  Since then I came across a project that their 5-string electric violinist, Kaethe Hostetter’s involved in – Qwanqwa – with three wonderful Ethiopian musicians – 2 playing electric krars (which are harp like lyres) – Mesele Asmamaw and Dawit Seyoum, and percussionist Samson Senekou.  They’re a jazz fusion band I guess, but heavily informed by Ornette Coleman’s concepts of harmolodics. 

8 The Comet is Coming – Cosmic Dust (Leaf)

Album: Channel The Spirits

Some kind of dubbed up Afrofuturism.  Saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, who was recently in Cape Town, is in the band. 

By the way, here's an interview with him on SA jazz from BBC Radio 4: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03v70br

9 Tribilin Sound – Negroide (Tiger’s Milk Records)

Album: Peru Boom! Bass, bleeps and bumps

Peru has this totally fantastic underground dance scene which I guess can be called Peruvian tropical bass.  One of the great things is that pillages wholesale from old and and not so old Peruvian styles, like chicha.  “Peru Boom! Bass, bleeps and bumps” is a pretty nifty collection of the stuff. 

10 Konono No1 – Nlele Kalusimbiko (Crammed Discs)

Album: Konono No1 meets Batida

I’ve played a bunch of stuff by the Congotronics band Konono No 1 over the years here.  They’re from Kinshasa and have a wonderful back story involving the street, and traditional instruments modified with car parts and ancient electronics for purposes of amplification.  Anyway they’re teamed up with the Portuguese-Angolan DJ, Batida (we’ve listen to him here too in the past), and the results and predictably cool. 

11 Three Cane Whale – Moon in the bottle (Fieldnotes)

Album: Palimpsest

Three Cane Whale are a Bristol based trio playing 20 instruments amongst them and still managing to sound uncluttered.  I guess they’re not playing them all at the same time. 

12 Fay Hield – Jack Orion (Soundpost/Proper)

Album: Old Adam

Singer and folklorist, Fay Hield has a lovely version of the Child ballad Jack Orion on her new album. Sam Sweeney supplies at least some of the fiddle playing.

13 The Gloaming – The Pilgrim’s Song (Real World)

Album: 2

An incredible version of the Irish traditional song.  The Gloaming is a kind of Irish-American supergroup. You might know the fiddle-guitar duo of Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill.  Also in there are the singer Iarla O’Lionaird, hardanger fiddler Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh and pianist Thomas Bartlett.  Their second album is out, and following a fine tradition, is called 2.

14 Yorkston, Thorne, Khan – Sufi Song (Domino Records)

Album: Everything Sacred

Fife born Scottish guitarist and singer James Yorkston put out one his best earlier this year – kind of like a toned down Incredible String Band thing with New Dehli sangari player and singer Suhail Yusuf Khan and bassist Jon Thorne.  

15 Shye Ben Tzur, Johnny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express - Allah Elohim (Nonesuch)

Album: Junun

In 2015 Israeli singer and composer Shye Ben Tzur collaborated with the 19 piece Rajasthan Express and Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead to come up with a fabulous amalgam called “Junun”.  It’s a real grower.  From what I can make out “Allah Elohim” is sung in Hebrew and Hindi

16 Anoushka Shankar with MIA – Jump In (Cross The Line) (Deutsche Grammophon)

Album: Land of Gold

The lines they’re talking about here are national border lines.

17 Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – Meticulous Bird (Ribbon Music)

Album: A Man Alive

From San Francisco via a laundromat in Falls Church, Virginia, Thao Nguyen and her band.  Producer Merrill Garbus (aka tUnE-yArDs) is very much in evidence there. 

18 King Ayisoba – Akolbire (Makkum)

Album: Wicked Leaders

A small of wave of kologo music from the rural areas of north eastern Ghana has recently been breaking locally, well that happened 10 years ago, and over the world.  The kologo is a two string lute, and the star of the scene, King Ayisoba, learnt to play his from this grandfather.  Ayisoba recorded something fairly recently in the Netherlands with The Ex’s Arnold De Boer, who does some singing. 

19 Dillinger – Flat Foot Hustling (Blood & Fire)

Album: Microphone Attack 1974-78

Dillinger was part of the wave of deejay toasters that came to the fore in Jamaica in the mid 70s.  Produced by Niney, the Observer.

21 Khun Narin Electric Phin Band – Chakkim Kap Tokto (Innovatice Leisure Records)

Album: II

Khun Narin Electric Phin Band seemed to have been forever roving around Thailand with their custom speaker-cabinet plying their endless, cycling psychedelia on electrified phins, which are three-stringed lutes.  Some LA based producer latched onto them a couple of years ago. Anyway, here’s something from second album (another sophomore called II – they seem to be coming thick and fast in this show) which like their first was recorded at their outdoor concerts.

22 Maki Asakawa – Chicchana Toki Kar (Honest Jon’s)

Album: Maki Asakawa

Cult Japanese blues singer Maki Asakawa, deeply inspired by Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith, with something groovier and racier than usual.

23 Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea – Thevary My Love (Dust-to-Digital)

Album: Don’t think I’ve forgotten – Cambodia’ Lost Rock and Roll

Cambodia saw an upwelling of pop music in the 60 and 70 following independence from France and under art patron and music lover Prince Sihanouk.  Two of the greatest singers of love songs from that period in a duet. 

24 Cara Stacey – Dark Matter (Kit Records)

Album: Things that grow

Cara Stacey put together a great album last year sticking various kinds of Swazi musical bows into different contexts”.  Dark Matter has Ruth Goller is on bass sounding at lot like early Jah Wobble, and Shabaka Hutchings on clarinet.

25 Erlend Apneseth – Trollsuiten (Hubro)

Album: Det Andre Rommet

Erland Apneseth is an award winning traditional hardanger fiddler in Norway.  He has a wonderful trio – the other players are from the worlds of improv and rock. 

26 Rickie Lee Jones – Dark was the night, cold was the ground (Alligator Records)

God don’t never change: The songs of Blind Willie Johnson

Alligator Records recently put out a tribute to Blind Willie Johnson. In the original recordings Blind Willie Johnson wordlessly hums the 19^th century hymn “Dark was the night, cold was the ground”.  Rickie Lee Jones has dug up the words from old hymnals and sings or kind of slurs them on her pretty fantastic version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn_eMRHnBWo

http://pitchfork.com/features/greil-marcus-real-life-rock-top-10/9852-stolen-tributes/

27 My Bubba – Going home (Fake Diamond)

Album: Goes Abroad

Bubba Tomasdottir wrote the song and sings it in Icelandic.