February 28, 2017

Fruko Y Sus Tesos | A La Memoria Del Muerto

ARTIST: Fruko Y Sus Tesos
TITLE: A La Memoria Del Muerto
LABEL: Vampisoul
What we now call salsa, the admixture of Cuban son montuno with Puerto Rican bomba and plena, American jazz and soul, and rock ‘n’ roll attitude, was invented in New York City in the 1960s.

Mokoomba | Luyando

ARTIST: Mokoomba
TITLE: Luyando
LABEL: Out|Here
It’s been a while since Zimbabwe, home of Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mtukudzi, produced an international music star. The young band Mokoomba is a beacon in a never-ending sea of bad news from the country being systematically ruined by Robert Mugabe.

February 27, 2017

Program March 1, 2017

Ani Cordero (pictured above), is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter of Puerto Rican ancestry whose work straddles the line between indie-folk and world music.  She and her band will be at Ashland Coffee & Tea's Mainline this Saturday, touring behind her terrific new album Querido Mundo, and you'll hear a couple of tracks from it on this week's program.

Also this week: a continuous-mix set of Colombian champeta, the way you'd hear it on a Barranquilla pico; from Algerian rai to Balkan brass with a Turkish accent; Cabo Verde's psychedelic disco; and the new album by Ibibio Sound Machine.

February 20, 2017

Ibibio Sound Machine | Uyai

ARTIST: Ibibio Sound Machine
TITLE: Uyai
LABEL: Merge
The second album by London-based Ibibio Sound Machine is being released by the indie-rock Merge label, a sure sign the band is trying to escape the world music ghetto.

Jaakko Laitinen & Vaara Raha | Naennainen

ARTIST: Jaakko Laitinen & Vaara Raha
TITLE: Naennainen
LABEL: Playground Music
OK, a band from Finland with a Balkan sound? I’m game, expecting it’s going to be a tongue-in-cheek Leningrad Cowboys scenario. Wait a minute: these guys are totally serious.

Synthesize The Soul: Astro-Atlantic Hypnotica From The Cape Verde Islands 1973-1988

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: Synthesize The Soul: Astro-Atlantic Hypnotica From The Cape Verde Islands 1973-1988
LABEL: Ostinato
Space Echo, Analog Africa’s anthology of the trippy, funky 70s and 80s sounds of Cabo Verde, was my favorite compilation album of 2016. Hot on its heels comes Synthesize The Soul with another 18 killer tracks in the same vein.

February 19, 2017

Charts February 19, 2017

WRIR's RWR World Music Spins
1 Aurelio | Darandi | Real World | 2
2 Tinariwen | Elwan | Anti- | 2
3 Ani Cordero | Querido Mundo | self-released | 2
4 Girma Beyene & Akale Wube | Ethiopiques 30: Mistakes On Purpose | Buda Musique | 1
5 Awa Poulo | Poulo Warali | Awesome Tapes From Africa | 1
6 various artists | Macondo Revisitado: The Roots Of Subtropical Music, Uruguay 1975-1979 | Vampisoul | 1
7 Slavic Soul Party | Plays Duke Ellington's Far East Suite | Ropeadope | 1
8 Chico Mann & Captain Planet | Night Visions | Bastard Jazz | 1
9 Flavia Coelho | Sonho Real | World Village | 1
10 Amadou Binta Konte & Tidiane Thiam | Waande Kaade | Sahelsounds / Songs From Home | 1

February 14, 2017

Aurelio | Darandi

ARTIST: Aurelio
TITLE: Darandi
LABEL: Real World
Aurelio Martinez’s fourth studio album is a valedictory: a summing-up of his 30 year career as the world’s best-known Garifuna musician as he prepares to move in new musical directions.

Tinariwen | Elwan

ARTIST: Tinariwen
TITLE: Elwan
LABEL: Anti-
This is the band that invented the sound: whatever you want to call it, assouf or tishumaren or la guitare or desert blues, Tinariwen created it in 1979 in southern Algeria’s Tamanrasset oasis.

Program February 15, 2017

The Garifuna people are direct descendants of the survivors of two shipwrecked Nigerian slave ships that landed on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1675.  Those survivors inter-married with native Caribbeans; they were exiled by the British to Roatan Island off the coast of Honduras in 1797 and then disbursed across Central America.

Against all odds, this tiny ethnic group has survived three exiles (from Africa, from St. Vincent and from Roatan).  There are about 600,000 identifiable Garifuna in the world today, mostly living in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, with about 100,000 in New York's Bronx borough.

Aurelio Martinez (pictured above) is the greatest living exponent of Garifuna music, which has had a massive worldwide revival in the last 20 years.  You'll hear a track from Aurelio's new album Darandi on this week's program, part of a full set of Garifuna music.

Also this week: Tinariwen's new album, the pachuco sound of 1950's Mexican-Americans, and Balkan songs of immigration.

February 13, 2017

Charts February 12, 2017


WRIR's RWR World Music Spins
1 Afro-Zen Allstars | Greatest Hits | self-released | 3
2 Tinariwen | Elwan | Anti- | 2
3 Systema Solar | Rumbo A Tierra | Nacional | 2
4 C.A.M.P.O.S. | Miracles & Criminals | Peace & Rhythm | 2
5 Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids | "Tinoge Ya Ta'a Ba" | Philophon | 2
6 various artists | Dangal original soundtrack | Zee Music | 2
7 Girma Beyene & Akale Wube | Ethiopiques 30: Mistakes On Purpose | Buda Musique | 1
8 Awa Poulo | Poulo Warali | Awesome Tapes From Africa | 1
9 Ani Cordero | Querido Mundo | self-released | 1
10 Hard Proof | Stinger | Modern Outsider | 1

February 7, 2017

Program February 8, 2017

Juan Campos (pictured above) is a bad hombre -- he's from the southside of Richmond and he plays music from the Peruvian Amazon; he takes the electric accordion to outer space and beyond.

In real life, Juan Campos is Joshua Camp: ex-Richmonder currently based in Brooklyn, founder of the bands One Ring Zero and Chicha Libre, a solo artist under the name C.A.M.P.O.S. (short for Cumbias And More Psychedelic Original Sounds), and he's also the video artist who calls himself Croaker Norge (shoutout to I-64 exit 231).

Joshua Camp joins me in WRIR's Studio C this week to play C.A.M.P.O.S. music with Coco Barez (Bio Ritmo) and Gary Kalar (Yeni Nostalji) and to talk about the many projects he's working on.  I'll spin some of his recordings beforehand; after that, who knows where we'll go?

February 5, 2017

Charts February 5, 2017

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 YENI NOSTALJI | 2016 EP demo (final mix) | self-released
2 ALKIBAR JR. | Jamal | Studio Mali
3 AFRO-ZEN ALLSTARS | Greatest Hits | self-released
4 BONGO HOP | Satingarona Pt. 1 | Underdog
5 JUNGLE FIRE | Jambu | Nacional
6 NILE PROJECT | Jinja | self-released
7 SYSTEMA SOLAR | Rumbo A Tierra | Nacional
8 IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE | "Give Me A Reason"/"The Pot Is On Fire" [Single] | Merge
9 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Agrim Agadez: Musique Guitare De La Republique Du Niger | Sahelsounds
10 NOUVELLE VAGUE | I Could Be Happy | Kwaidan / !K7