December 26, 2016

Program December 28, 2016: The Rest of the Best of 2016

A music fan doesn't live on albums alone.  Indeed, in the streaming music era playlists have overtaken albums as the preeminent way to organize and sequence songs.  And radio whether terrestrial or internet has always been a singles medium: there are actually laws that prohibit WRIR from playing albums from beginning to end.

So I always devote my final best-of-the-year program to my favorite album-independent songs of the year.  I'm talking here about stuff released as singles or on short-form EPs, great tracks from albums that were good or indifferent to my ears, and the best songs from albums that didn't quite crack my top 20.

Holiday leftovers they aren't: this is some of the best music of 2016, just as compelling as the stuff I played in the last two weeks if not more so.  Tune in and hear for yourself.  Oh, and bonne annee, bonne sante to all in 2017!

December 20, 2016

Program December 21, 2016: Top Ten Compilations Of 2016

It's time for show #2 in the Global A Go-Go recap of 2016.  This week: my ten favorite compilations, reissues and historic recordings of 2016, plus ten more honorable mentions.

The crate-diggers who are responsible for bringing so much great African music of the 60s, 70s and 80s to our attention continue to branch out.  This year, the theme seemed to be islands of the African diaspora -- we're the recipients of superb compilations from Cabo Verde, Haiti and Mauritius, and of crucial re-appreciations of Puerto Rico's Cortijo and Jamaica's Augustus Pablo.

You'll hear all of these and more on this week's program.  Click "Read More" to see Global A Go-Go's Top Ten 2016 compilations and reissues list (with links to my reviews):

December 13, 2016

Program December 14, 2016: Top Ten New Releases Of 2016

It's the most wonderful time of the year ....  That's right, it's the time of the year when Global A Go-Go unwraps its favorite albums of the last 12 months.

This week, it's my Top Ten new releases of 2016, plus ten honorable mentions.  Next week, you'll hear my favorite compilations, reissues and historic recordings of the year.  And on December 28, it's the best of the rest: all the great songs that didn't fit onto the previous two programs.

And without further ado, click "Read more" to see Global A Go-Go's Top Ten new releases of 2016 (with links to my reviews):

December 6, 2016

Program December 7, 2016

I hope you got to hear DJ Otto JD's episode of Over The Edge of the Pop Narcotic last week -- if not, you can find it for another week at wrir.org/listen.  The show was all about Vashti Bunyan and English folk eccentrics.

Otto's program inspired me to put together my own set of some favorite trippy British folk material for Global A Go-Go this week, including the gentleman pictured above.  The sitar's a clue to what it's going to sound like.

Also this week: an African plays Coltrane, Coltrane plays Africa; what's new in Afropop; some rock y pop en espanol.