June 24, 2012

Charts June 24, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 RICHMANIAN RAMBLERS | World, Sister World | self-released
2 BALKANIZE! | For You Are Made Of Stars | self-released
3 KONKOMA | KonKoma | Soundway
4 TUNE-YARDS, ANGELIQUE KIDJO, AHMIR ?UESTLOVE THOMPSON, AKUA NARU | "Lady" [Single] | Knitting Factory
5 KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS | Demoni | Asphalt Tango
6 BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR | Golden Horns | Piranha
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Sensacional Soul, Vol. 3 | Vampisoul
8 HAPPY LUCKY COMBO | Lucky Buddha | self-released
9 JOAN SORIANO | La Familia Soriano | iASO
10 QUANTIC AND ALICE RUSSELL WITH THE COMBO BARBARO | Look Around The Corner | Tru Thoughts

June 21, 2012

Program June 22, 2012

BALKANIZE!, who played live on Global A Go-Go last year (pictured above) have just released a brand-new album; you'll hear a track from it this week on Global A Go-Go.  Ditto for the Richmanian Ramblers, another RVA band playing Eastern European music who have a new record.  Welcome to Richmond, center of the Balkan music universe.

BALKANIZE! | ... For You Are Made Of Stars

ARTIST:  BALKANIZE!
TITLE:  … For You Are Made Of Stars
LABEL:  self-released 
BALKANIZE! is a Richmond-based band that specializes in “Old World TurkoBalkan folk music.”  In a blindfold test, there’s no way you’d guess their home town; in fact, you probably wouldn’t guess their home country.

KonKoma | KonKoma

ARTIST:  KonKoma
TITLE:  KonKoma
LABEL:  Soundway 
Soundway Records, famous for their compilations of historic African recordings, is branching out into original music.  They have a winner in KonKoma, a new band featuring several veterans of London’s Ghanaian scene including three former members of the pioneering Afro-rock band Osibisa: guitarist Kari Bannerman, keyboardist Emmanuel Rentzos and percussionist Nii Tagoe.

tUnE-yArDs + Angelique Kidjo + Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson + Akua Naru | "Lady"

ARTIST:  tUnE-yArDs + Angelique Kidjo + Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson + Akua Nara
TITLE:  “Lady”
LABEL:  Knitting Factory
Here’s the first track from the forthcoming (RED) Hot + FELA album, due in 2013 – a version of Fela’s “Lady” as conceived by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs.

June 18, 2012

Charts June 17, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 CHICHA LIBRE | Canibalismo | Barbes
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | For Whom The Cowbell Tolls | Electric Cowbell
3 BA CISSOKO | Nimissa | Cristal
4 KOO NIMO | Highlife Roots Revival | Riverboat
5 BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR | Golden Horns | Piranha
6 EBO TAYLOR | Appia Kwa Bridge | Strut
7 BLACK BAZAR | Black Bazar | Lusafrica
8 MOUSSU T E LEI JOVENTS | Empeche-Nous | Le Chant Du Monde
9 MARIEM HASSAN | El Aaiun Egdat (El Aaiun On Fire) | NubeNegra
10 FUNKEES | Dancing Time: The Best Of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77 | Soundway

June 14, 2012

Program June 15, 2012

What's new in the world of world music this week is -- palm-wine.  Yes, an entire musical genre named after an alcoholic beverage (someone tell Josh Sturgill right away), it was popular across West Africa in the 1950s and it's being brilliantly revived by Ghana's Koo Nimo (pictured above) on a delightful new recording.

Ba Cissoko | Nimissa

ARTIST:  Ba Cissoko
TITLE:  Nimissa
LABEL:  Cristal 
Ba Cissoko is a kora player from Guinea Conakry in West Africa who now lives in France; this is his fourth album as a bandleader.  Cissoko’s playing and singing is very much of the grand Mande tradition, but he’s equally committed to modernizing that tradition.

Koo Nimo | Highlife Roots Revival

ARTIST:  Koo Nimo
TITLE:  Highlife Roots Revival
LABEL:  Riverboat 
Palm-wine is a coastal West African musical style with a relaxed, acoustic sound centered on guitar and voice that gained mass popularity in the 1950s.  Its easygoing tempos and mellifluous melodies link it to a variety of tropical genres from the other side of the Atlantic: Trinidadian calypso, Jamaican mento, Dominican bachata, Cuban son and the Garifuna music of Central America all sound like they could be palm-wine’s cousins.

June 10, 2012

Charts June 10, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Sensacional Soul, Vol. 3 | Vampisoul
2 KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS | Demoni | Asphalt Tango
3 BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR | Golden Horns | Piranha
4 HOLLIE COOK | Prince Fatty Presents Hollie Cook In Dub | Mr Bongo
5 LACK OF AFRO | One Way: Remixes And Rarities | Freestyle
6 SOOTHSAYERS | We're Not Leaving | Red Earth
7 HAPPY LUCKY COMBO | Lucky Buddha | self-released
8 EBO TAYLOR | Appia Kwa Bridge | Strut
9 CHICHA LIBRE | Canibalismo | Barbes
10 MOUSSU T E LEI JOVENTS | Empeche-Nous | Le Chant Du Monde

June 7, 2012

Program June 8, 2012

Some of the best reggae music in the world these days is made in London, where there's a developing sound that connects directly to the classic roots era, that uses dub as an element of performance, and that's ambitiously open to the wide range of influences that are almost inevitable in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities.

This week on Global A Go-Go, I'll feature an hour of music from a few of my favorite London reggae artists, mostly recent material (including the latest from Little Axe, pictured above) with a little bit of older stuff in the mix -- certainly not a comprehensive look at the London reggae scene, more of a personal perspective on a place where good things are happening.

Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs | Demoni

ARTIST:  Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs
TITLE:  Demoni
LABEL:  Asphalt Tango 
Kottarashky (“Tomcat”) is a Bulgarian electronic musician whose specialty is integrating Balkan and Roma music samples (everything from contemporary tracks to his own field recordings) into the 21st century laptop-music palate.

Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar | Golden Horns

ARTIST:  Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar 
TITLE:  Golden Horns 
LABEL:  Piranha
Contemporary Balkan brass band music is the product of a confluence of influences, most directly Roma (gypsy) musical traditions and the Ottoman Empire’s military bands.  The best Balkan brass players are world-class virtuosos (after hearing a few, Miles Davis famously said “I didn’t know you could play the trumpet that way”) and musical omnivores.

June 3, 2012

Charts June 3, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 THE BOMBAY ROYALE | You Me Bullets Love | Hope Street
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Sensacional Soul, Vol. 3 | Vampisoul
3 HAPPY LUCKY COMBO | Lucky Buddha | self-released
4 DAVY GRAHAM | Anthology: 1961-2007 Lost Tapes | Les Cousins
5 EBO TAYLOR | Appia Kwa Bridge | Strut
6 VARIOUS ARTISTS | For Whom The Cowbell Tolls | Electric Cowbell
7 BLACK BAZAR | Black Bazar | Lusafrica
8 DERDIYOKLAR IKILISI | Disco Folk | Guerssen
9 LE SUPER BORGOU DE PARAKOU | The Bariba Sound | Analog Africa
10 THE FUNKEES | Dancing Time: The Best Of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77 | Soundway