April 27, 2014

Charts April 27, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BIO RITMO | Puerta Del Sur | Vampisoul
2 RAY LUGO AND THE BOOGALOO DESTROYERS | Que Chevere! | Freestyle
3 VARIOUS ARTISTS | The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Cambodia | World Music Network
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Haiti Direct: Big Band, Mini-Jazz And Twoubadou Sounds 1960-1978 | Strut
5 NAWA | Ancient Sufi Invocations And Forgotten Songs From Aleppo | Lost Origins/Electric Cowbell
6 RODRIGO Y GABRIELA | 9 Dead Alive | ATO
7 KYSSI WETE | "Ce Que Tu Me Donnes" [Single] | Tourbillon Air
8 AILLACARA 2743 | "No Mate" / "Para La Libertad" [Single] | Electric Cowbell
9 KEITH AND TEX | Redux | Soulbeats
10 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Zion Train Riddim | Liv Up

April 24, 2014

Boulpik | Konpa Lakay

ARTIST: Boulpik
TITLE: Konpa Lakay
LABEL: Lusafrica
Here’s something you don’t get to hear often on an international recording: the old-fashioned country music of Haiti. Boulpik calls their style konpa but this isn’t the danceable urban big band compas of Nemours Jean-Baptiste or Tabou Combo.

Ray Lugo & The Boogaloo Destroyers | Que Chevere!

ARTIST: Ray Lugo & The Boogaloo Destroyers
TITLE: Que Chevere!
LABEL: Freestyle
This is the second album from Ray Lugo & The Boogaloo Destroyers, and like its predecessor (Mi Watusi, 2011) it’s about as much fun as you can have legally.

April 23, 2014

Program April 25, 2014

This week I'll be joined in the studio by two special guests, both of whom will be performing at the Camel after my show on Friday night.

DJ Crown Vic (left), aka Jim Thomson, runs the Electric Cowbell record label, promotes concerts as Multiflora Productions, and started the Independent Grand vinyl web-shop.  He's a founding member of both GWAR and Bio Ritmo (hard as that may be to believe) and he's played in so many great bands over the years: The Alter Natives, Hotel X, Plasmodium, Tulsa Drone, CSC Funk Band, the list goes on and on.  Jim and I will talk about life, the world and his current projects, and he'll DJ a set of music akin to what he'll be doing tonight at the Camel.

Marlysse Simmons (right) composes, arranges and plays keyboards for Bio Ritmo; you might also know her work in the bands Miramar and Os Magrelos, not to mention The Girtles.  Bio Ritmo's new album Puerta Del Sur will be released on June 24 and it's truly outstanding, their best work yet.  Marlysse and I will talk about the making of Puerta Del Sur and we'll preview a couple of tracks, then she'll DJ a set from her personal record collection.

Jim comes on at 5 PM, Marlysse at 6, so set your clock accordingly and join us on the radio on Friday evening for a special edition of Global A Go-Go.

April 20, 2014

Charts April 20, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 HASSAN HAKMOUN | Unity | Healing
2 ALSARAH AND THE NUBATONES | Silt | Wonderwheel
3 ECCODEK | Singing In Tongues | Black Swan Sounds
4 SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS | Libation | Cumbancha
5 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Let's Boogaloo, Vol. 6: Explosive Deep Funk, Northern Soul And Dancefloor Jazz En El Barrio | Record Kicks
6 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Inner Fire | Strut
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Rough Guide To Latin Rare Groove | World Music Network
8 MONTY ALEXANDER | Harlem Kingston Express Volume 2: The River | Motema
9 JORGE DREXLER | Bailar En La Cueva | Warner Latina
10 ZIGGY MARLEY | Fly Rasta | Tuff Gong

April 17, 2014

Eccodek | Singing In Tongues

ARTIST: Eccodek
TITLE: Singing In Tongues
LABEL: Black Swan Sounds
Here’s one of the finest global fusion albums you’ll hear all year. This category, characterized by international samples and electronic instruments over EDM beats, is jam-packed with phony exoticism. That’s exactly not what you get here.

Hassan Hakmoun | Unity

ARTIST: Hassan Hakmoun
TITLE: Unity
LABEL: Healing
Rockers as far back as the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones have thrilled to the intense, trance-inducing sounds of Moroccan gnawa music. Now Hassan Hakmoun, maybe the world’s best-known gnawa artist, has made what’s essentially a rock album.

April 16, 2014

Program April 18, 2014

No, that isn't Bootsy Collins (above) in pointy babouche slippers -- it's Hassan Hakmoun, the Moroccan sintir player who graced the stage of the Richmond Folk Festival in 2012.  Hassan has a brand-new album and it rocks like a mother -- you'll hear a track on this week's program.

Also this week: the Wassoulou sound of south-west Mali; some chevere Latin soul; Afro-funk and Afrobeat.

April 13, 2014

Charts April 13, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE | Ibibio Sound Machine | Soundway
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Cambodia | World Music Network
3 LA MISA NEGRA | Misa De Medianoche | NAM Entertainment
4 GAROTAS SUECAS | Feras Miticas | Vampisoul
5 ALSARAH AND THE NUBATONES | Silt | Wonderwheel
6 IMARHAN TIMBUKTU | Akal Warled | Clermont Music
7 HASSAN HAKMOUN | Unity | Healing
8 THIEVERY CORPORATION | Saudade | ESL Music
9 SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS | Libation | Cumbancha
10 BLACK MASALA | Black Masala | self-released

April 10, 2014

The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Cambodia

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Cambodia
LABEL: World Music Network
The success of Khmer-American rock band Dengue Fever put a spotlight on the amazing, tragic story of Cambodian rock music – amazing for its natural, fully-formed psychedelic sound, tragic because essentially all of the music’s protagonists were executed as part of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror.

Program April 11, 2014

This week, it's time for another installment of "Mondo Mundo Garage A Go-Go," where we dig in to a whole set of vintage garage- and psych-rock from all over the planet.  This time we touch down in Nigeria, Cambodia, Turkey (with Baris Manco & Kaygisizlar, pictured above), Mozambique and the Dominican Republic.

Plus a classic recording of Ali Farka Toure; the urbanized sound of Colombia, then and now; and soul brasileiro.  And make sure to stay tuned after Global A Go-Go for Time Is Tight with Paul Ivey, which makes its debut in its new time this Friday from 7 to 9 PM.

April 6, 2014

Charts April 6, 2014

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS | Libation | Cumbancha
2 BLACK MASALA | Black Masala | self-released
3 LUCIANO | Deliverance: Mad Professor Dub Showcase | Ariwa Sounds
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | The Clash Goes Jamaican | Golden Singles
5 LA MISA NEGRA | Misa De Medianoche | NAM Entertainment
6 TED SIROTA'S HEAVYWEIGHT DUB | The Scientist Meets Ted Sirota's Heavyweight Dub | Liberated Zone
7 SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | Inner Fire | Strut
8 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Haiti Direct: Big Band, Mini-Jazz And Twoubadou Sounds 1960-1978 | Strut
9 THIEVERY CORPORATION | Saudade | ESL Music
10 KOUDEDE | Guitars From Agadez, Vol. 7 | Sublime Frequencies

April 3, 2014

Program April 4, 2014

This week, you'll hear a whole stack of vintage tracks from Jamaica's ska and rocksteady eras -- we're talking Skatalites, John Holt, Derrick Morgan (pictured above right) and many more, classics all.

Also this week: spiritual jazz by The Souljazz Orchestra and Pharoah Sanders; music from the films of Emir Kusturica; and we'll close it out with an African-Caribbean dance party.

April 1, 2014

April 2014 Concert Calendar

April's Global A Go-Go picks:
  1. Legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela (pictured above), still going strong at age 74, performs at the Birchmere in Alexandria on Wednesday April 2
  2. An excellent new Balkan brass band from Washington, Black Masala, visits LuLu's in Richmond on Saturday April 5
  3. The University of Richmond's annual Earth Day Global Sounds concert is in the glorious outdoors (weather permitting, of course) on Saturday April 19
  4. Bio Ritmo and DJ Crown Vic (Jim Thomson of Electric Cowbell Records and Multiflora Productions) play the Camel on Friday April 25; Thomson and Bio Ritmo's Marlysse Simmons will drop by Global A Go-Go earlier that evening
Have an event you'd like me to include, or a suggestion for the concert calendar?  Just drop me a line at globalagogoradio [at] gmail [dot] com, or leave me a message right here.

Click "Read more" to see the entire April calendar.