• Music

    Baligh Hamdi – Instrumental Modal Pop of 1970’s Egypt

    December 10, 2021 - By 

    Sublime Frequencies never ceases to amaze me with the gems they dig up.  From their Bandcamp site: Sublime Frequencies finally unleashes it’s ESSENTIAL compilation from 1970’s Egypt. Modal instrumental tracks from Baligh Hamdi – one of the most important Arabic composers of the 20th Century (writing for legends Umm Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sabah, Warda, and many others). Features his legendary group the “Diamond Orchestra” with Omar Khorshid on guitar, Magdi al-Husseini on organ, Samir Sourour on saxophone, and Faruq Salama on accordion. All of these musicians were discovered and recruited by Hamdi to interpret his vision of a modernized,…

  • Music

    Nkom Bivoué – Zeun Ya Yop

    December 9, 2021 - By 

    This one came as an unsolicited pleasant surprise.  I love Afrobeat and am slowly developing a healthy respect for Afro-House, and if I delve further into the genre, it’ll be because of artists like Cameroon’s Nkom Bivoué. What is best about the disc is the absolutely sharp percussion of the album.  This is dance floor-ready material that you can also appreciate on its own merits.

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    Jeff Gburek – Trans Beskid Radio Volume 4 Extended

    December 8, 2021 - By 

    The last week I was in the United States before heading off to China, I watched MEV (collecting Alvin Lucier with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, may their names be ever remembered) and Kayhan Kalhor the weekend before.  It was an incredible week of music before heading to more surreal surroundings. Jeff Gburek’s latest album comes at a time where Alvin Lucier, whose mark on contemporary classical and experimental music in general is impossible to overstate, continues to inspire musicians as time passes.  It is a ghostly work, at once warm and organic, but imbued with a vibe of a…

  • Music

    CMC – CMC/Now

    December 7, 2021 - By 

    Hungarian band CMC have been recording albums since 1989, and, had they received their fair due during the heydey of post-Industrial Electronic Body Music (EBM), they would have been recognized as competitors of such luminaries as Front Line Assembly and Front 242, but with a darker groove. The band’s main actors, composer Vince Kósa and György Szász, have reactivated the band.  The grooves are still as powerful as they were nearly 30 years ago, and it feels like they never went away.  Three tracks are available to check out, and each will remind you of the days where EBM dance…

  • Music - Music Articles

    Russian World Music Chart 2021

    December 6, 2021 - By 

    I’m proud to have been asked to participate in helping to decide which albums would top the Russian World Music Chart.  Here is a press release on this event: Russian World Music Chart 2021 Making Russian world music visible to the world In October 2021, Russia’s first world music chart, the Russian World Music Chart (RWMC), was launched. The purpose of RWMC is to attract the attention of the world music community to the novelties of folk music of multinational Russia, as well as popularization and assistance in promoting unique musicians from remote corners of Russia in the Russian Federation…

  • Music

    Perila – How much time it is between you and me?

    December 4, 2021 - By 

    Perila i(Alexandra Zakharenko) s a composer from Berlin of Russian roots releases one of the heaviest and, frankly, bleakest albums of the year.  I spent today trying to unwind a bit as the snow looked pleasant, but after watching Juraj Herz’s The Cremator, hearing this album left me in a somewhat dark place. The sounds are deep and cavernous.  It is, in fact, my favorite style of ambient music, as it becomes easy to get lost in the sonic abyss the artist is projecting through her lens.  There are two standout tracks on this album; Vaxxine, with gives me the…

  • Music

    E.U.E.R.P.I. – Timid Memories

    December 2, 2021 - By 

    We have a new band to follow, and they’re out of Bulgaria.  E.U.E.R.P.I. produce a sonorous and pleasantly dark ambient music that sounds heavily influenced by the works of Steve Roach, Matthias Grassow, or even Lustmord.  E.U.E.R.P.I. have proven to be as masterful at using field recordings, blending them into their live performance as documented on this record.  One to watch out for.

  • Music

    Various Artists – Lèspri Ka : New Directions in Gwoka Music from Guadeloupe 1981​-​2010

    December 1, 2021 - By 

    This compilation released by Time Capsule Records is going to be stunningly good.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: The innovative, radical soul of Guadeloupe explored across thirty years of contemporary gwoka music, released by Time Capsule and Séance Centre. As Guadeloupean vocalist and composer Marie-Line Dahomay writes in her liner notes to the compilation, gwoka is more than a style of music, it is “a way of living and thinking.” Rooted in the social, musical and ritual practices of enslaved African people and their descendants on Guadeloupe, gwoka has always sought to express the spirit of independence and resistance authentic…