Expand your taste in music. Based in Beijing, China.
Galicia is a land of gaiteros and gaiteras, bagpipers of fine quality. Susana Seivane is one of the best of the newer generation, and she brings a raw, almost punk-like power to her performances. This album is a more subdued affair, but she plays so well that the more controlled atmosphere does her music a service.
Homero “Hommy” Sanz was a percussionist and bandleader from Puerto Rico who produced albums full of guaguancó, bolero and boogaloo. The album is a fine example of what was tearing up Puerto Rican airwaves during the 1960s and 1970s. A killer set.
There aren’t too many releases that seamlessly blend electroacoustic music, post-Industrial and noise-rock, but to their credit, EYRYX seem to have straddled this very thin line perfectly. The release features friend of our blog, Philippe Gerber, who not only performs on the album, but who released it on his Alreon Musique.
Our friends at the ever-brilliant Russian record label, internet radio station and magazine Meticulous Midgets continue to work with interesting bands within the country and (now) internationally.
Ясный — Svetly are a Moscow-based band which has a very forward-looking sound, yet the music they produce sound incredibly nostalgic, with wisps of Berlin School electronics, NDW industrial elements and post-punk beats which makes this sound like a marriage between Suicide and Tangerine Dream. A brilliant release.
I can’t say I’ve heard of post-country music until today, but as it reminds me of post-rock, this is a genre that will definitely be worth exploring. Rivers Of Glass offer an instrumental album of shimmering guitar playing, sounding like an ambient music version of rain. It’s a sublime listening experience.
From the Bandcamp site of our friends at Bongo Joe Records:
Léve-Léve is the first ever compilation devoted to music from São Tome and Principe, two small islands situated off the coast of Gabon in central Africa. The album unravels a story of liberation where the music of Africa, Europe and the Americas unify with a carefree spirit personified by a phrase the islanders use all the time: “léve, léve” (“take it easy”). With echoes of Angolan semba and merengue, of Brazilian afoxê, of coladeira from Cape Verde and dance music from the Caribbean, it is a sound fiercely proud of its island heritage, sung in local dialects and using distinctive local rhythms.
On October 13th,the African music world world lost an absolute demigod in the form of Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta. How important was he? Well, going by Wikipedia, he, “was a Congolese saxophonist, composer, bandleader, producer, record label founder, and music-business executive. He was renowned as a talented and prolific musician, and was the first indigenous African to own a record label, through which he introduced many major Congolese artists to the world.”
Analog Africa introduced this giant to the greater music world in 2014, and he was the first Congolese artist I was introduced to before TPOK Jazz (which featured Franco Luambo). We owe a lot to a verckys for his launching the careers of so many artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo to a wider audience. Rest in peace.
This collaboration between Augustus Pablo and the legendary King Tubby is considered a masterpiece of dub. It’s a purely instrumental affair, and truly mellow listening.
There is no doubt who the reigning queen of Arab music is. Fairuz, once and always a beautiful songstress from Lebanon, has had this legendary cult album reissued by our dear friends at Wewantsounds, and it will be arriving on November 4, 2022. Unfortunately, there may not be a digital release, but you vinyl hounds have your chance to order a gem. From Wewantsounds Bandcamp site:
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Fairuz’s classic album ‘Kifak Inta’ produced by her son Ziad Rahbani in the late 80’s and only released on cassette and CD in 1991. Composed and arranged by Rahbani, who had already produced ‘Wahdon’ (1979) and ‘Maarifti Feek’ (1987), ‘Kifak Inta’ features his usual blend of Jazz, funk and Arabic music, spiced up with Brazilian influences serving Fairuz’s beautiful voice. The album successfully pursue the path that made ‘Wahdon’ and ‘Maarifti Feek’ such in-demand albums, modernising the sound of the Lebanese Diva with contemporary arrangements. It is the first time ‘Kifak Inta’ is released on vinyl, retaining the original cassette artwork. The album – curated by Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), who also wrote the liner notes (Fr/En) – has been newly remastered by Colorsound Studio in Paris.
Tracklist:
Side 1
1. Farewell Song
2. You Can Forget
3. Ouverture 87
4. “Ya Leili Leili Leili”
5. Reprise
6. ProvaSide 2
1. “Kifak Inta” (How Are You?)
2. “Dia’ Anou”
3. Something Is Happening
4. Indi Thika Fik
5. It’s Not A Problem
I am floored at how consistently good Polish jazz is, and though I find the idea of dabbling in demonology somewhere between hokey and morally bankrupt, what matters for people who read this blog is consistency in great music.
From EABS’ Bandcamp site:
“The idea for “The Darkness”, the composition opening the Slavic Spirits LP, was born out of collective improvisation performed before a Komeda-inspired medley of “Free Witch and No Bra Queen / Sult” played in concert. It came as a surprise to us that this new album, devoted to broadly understood Slavism, turned out to have its roots in the combination of compositions about a witch and hunger. Both were present in Central Europe, not only in the Early Middle Ages. During the tour, while travelling together, we talked a lot about Poland’s difficult history. We noticed a number of dreadful episodes and unresolved traumas that have been haunting us until this very day – Marek Pędziwiatr recollects.“