Spin
the Globe reviews, September 2004
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VARIOUS
ARTISTS: WORLD GROOVE
Putumayo
info
: buy CD
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Another wide-ranging compilation from Putumayo, World Groove hops
from Lebanon to South Africa, Cuba to Turkey. If you're wondering what's
hip or looking for the world's equivalent to Anglo-American R&B/hiphop/pop/electronica,
you'll dig Mustafa Sandal's "Aya Benzer (Royal G's R&B Mix)" and
Cheb Mami
& K-Mel's "Parisien du Nord (Remix)." Issa Bagayogo (see
CD review below) contributes a trancey track from his previous CD Timbuktu.
The soaring voice of the late Brenda Fassie shines on "Ama-Gents (Club
Mix)."
And Zap
Mama
is
represented by the song "Miss.Q.In" from the long-anticipated
CD Ancestry
in Progress. Also included is the Quicktime music video "Nari
Nari"
by Egyptian star Hisham Abbas & Jayashree. Some Cuban flavor rumbas
forth on tracks from Edesio (Cuba) and Major Boys (France),
but
while
this
music
comes
from
all over
the world, many listeners will find it unadventurously leaning too much
toward western pop.
©2004
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
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ISSA
BAGAYOGO: TASSOUMAKAN
Mali Music / Six Degrees
info
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Malian electro-experimenting kamel n'goni player Issa Bagayogo gets a 10
from the American judges on his latest release, a lightly programmed
amalgam of rhythms and vocals. Yves Wernert's deft electronic touches
never overshadow the organic West African feel of the music, allowing
the call-and-response vocals and Bagayogo's hypnotic kamel n'goni
to shine. More chill than dancehall, Tassoumakan may help
pave the way for a modern African music with one ear on the past,
and the other soaking in the sounds of the future.
©2004
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
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YOSHIDA
BROTHERS: II
Domo
info
: buy CD
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Continuing
this month's world-pop theme, we've got the second release
from the shamisen-slinging Yoshida Brothers. Juxtaposing the plucky
sound of this traditional three-stringed instrument with richly arranged
backing instrumentation, the brothers are all over the map of musical
genres on their new CD, starting with with the bluesy/soundtracky
"Frontier." They really dig into the blues motif with "Indigo," though
it sounds more like a PBS special than a back porch. The
most interesting tracks are the Arabic/gypsy tinged "Kagero"
and the stripped-down shamisen duet "Kodo" (the album
ends with a dance remix of the latter). The music has just enough
edge and beat to avoid veering into the foggy realm of adult contemporary
instrumentals, and should appeal to listeners who don't mind mixing
their rock, blues, electronic, and world music in the same tempura
pot.
©2004
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
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J.U.F.
: GOGOL BORDELLO VS. TAMIR MUSKAT
Stinky Records
info : buy
CD
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Gypsy-cabaret-rock
band Gogol Bordello mixes it up on this DJ-project album
with drummer Tamir Muskat. These New York musicians achieve
a hard-edged, otherworldly sound fronted by the growly
vocals of Eugene Hutz. J.U.F.
-- which stands for Jewish Ukrainian Freundschaft -- produces
a dangerously advancing wall of sound, threatening to push
your emotions, bend your preconceptions of musical genre,
and shove your feet onto the dance floor. Anchoring the
rhythms are Oren Kaplan (programming), Tamir Muscat
(beats, keyboards, programming), and
Ori Kaplan (saxes, flutes, woodwinds). Sergey Rjabtzev's
violin helps keep an organic side to the music. J.U.F.
even has a traditional moment on "Roumania," a
lumbering vehicle dripping of sex and sax. But this album
is for lovers of Eastern European rock (and western bands
like Kultur
Shock), who will dig the deep grooves on songs like "Balkanization
of Amerikanization."
©2004
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
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Other recent arrivals
of note:
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EX-CENTRIC
SOUND SYSTEM: WEST NILE FUNK
EXS
samples/mp3s
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“The
first time you stand next to the sound system trucks at
Carnival in Trinidad it is unbelievable,” exclaims
Yossi Fine, founder and bassist for Ex-Centric Sound System. “On
one truck alone, the amount of low end sound, the number
of speakers: it’s huge! That is what we tried to
create on the album,” he says. “West
Nile is everything west of the Nile. Not just West Africa
but the Caribbean and America too,” Fine explains. “When
we called our first album Electric Voodooland, it was originally
going to be Electric Motherland. But it is everything that
is Black. It’s the same with ‘Alice in Voodooland,’ but
this time the emphasis is more on the funk elements rather
than the dub element. We did the down-tempo dub element
on the first album and we did not want to repeat that.
I wanted a different album altogether to go completely
to the future. We do not want to retro all the African
things that have been done. Our logo, the Sankofa, is a
Ghanaian bird looking back at its egg, and it means to
look backwards in order to move forward. For this album,
the forward is extremely important.”
(www.rockpaperscissors.biz)
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VARIOUS
ARTISTS: AFRICAN UNDERGROUND VOL 1 - HIP-HOP SENEGAL
Nomadic Wax
info
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African
hip-hop’s politically conscious messages set it apart
from the materialism and misogyny so common in mainstream
rap. In Senegal, rap lyrics have become highly politicized.
In the year 2000, the rappers of Senegal literally changed
the political landscape by contributing to the ouster of
the Diouf regime in the first successful democratic election
in Senegal’s history. Senegalese rap is just the
tip of the iceberg. All over Africa, hip-hop is sparking
debate about poverty, war, corrupt government and the threats
of globalization. The world may be waiting for hip hop’s "next
big thing" to emerge from the ghettos of Brooklyn,
Detroit or LA. But tomorrow’s hip-hop leaders may
come straight out of Dakar, Lagos or Cape Town.
(africanunderground.com)
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DABY
TOURE: DIAM
Real World
info/listen/buy
CD |
Daby Toure had a rural upbringing in Mauritania, but this
first solo album betrays his Senegalese family roots. Toure's
father tried to push him away from music, but Daby snatched
secret guitar time, and in 1989 his brothers invited him to
join their Toure
Kunda band in Paris. Later, Daby formed Toure
Toure with his cousin Omar.
Daby writes his own material, and is a virtual one-man band,
layering up all of his own guitar, bass and percussion parts.
His voice is wide-ranging. Its bass parts trimmed with a variety
of subtle mixing desk effects, the higher tones left free to
float with a pure and clear natural sound. Toure's basslines
are the beating heart of each song, flanked by detailed percussion,
with delicate acoustic guitar taking care of the crucial verse
frameworks. A song like "Yaw" will
include sampled loops and echo-percussion, but these trimmings
don't interfere with the illusion of acoustic space. Toure
repeatedly aims for a mesmerising mood, which can sometimes
relax into blandness. "Bary" has a Malian feel, particularly
with its sawing electric cello lines, whilst "Dendecuba" boasts
one of the album's strongest melodies. "Hammadi" and "Fabe" are
infused with a great sadness, as Daby's voice takes on a raw
aspect for the latter tune, set against a trailing melodica
line. This album's only drawback is a cumulative sense of sameness
as the songs unfold. (BBC) |
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MANU
DIBANGO: THE ROUGH GUIDE TO MANU DIBANGO
World Music Network
info/listen/buy
CD |
Manu calls this collection a disc of many colours and it does
show the full spectrum of his work over more than forty years
in the groove. Manu Dibango is one of a handful of musical
monoliths from Africa able to stand on an equal footing with
superstars from Europe or America. He has lived and worked
on all three continents and had hits around the world over
four decades, including one of the epoch-defining soul tracks
of the 1970s, ‘Soul
Makossa’. When the original
was released in 1972, it shook up the American soul scene especially
vigorously. It was the era of Black Power and the dawning of
Afrocentricity, and Manu was a great symbol of both. Manu is
a veritable encyclopedia of musical grooves and a high-class
purveyor of beats through the ages. His eclectic catalogue
of recordings is astonishing, but people who have seen Manu
perform will already be familiar with the wide sweep of his
artistic embrace, and his positive energy balanced with mellow
charm. (World
Music Network) |
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