December 26, 2017

Program December 27, 2017: The Best Of The Rest, 2017 Edition

For the last six years, I've ended the calendar year with a program I call "The Best Of The Rest": my favorite new songs that didn't get played in my two-week review of that year's best albums.  I always find it to be one of the year's most compelling shows, and this week's edition is no exception.

The plain truth is that I hear too many good tracks each year to limit myself to a Top 10 or 20 -- this year, my best albums short list was forty titles long.  Then there are the long-players with just one or two killer songs, plus all the EPs and singles that cross my desk.

Add it all up, and the music on The Best Of The Rest might be even more stellar than what you heard over the last two weeks.  I'll let you be the judge.  And this year's The Best Of The Rest is particularly deep: I started with about 60 ideas and managed to winnow it down to 20 or so.

Bonne annee, bonne sante!

December 19, 2017

Program December 20, 2017: Top Ten Compilations Of 2017

It's time for program #2 in Global A Go-Go's three-week recap of 2017.  This week: my ten favorite compilations, reissues and historic recordings of the year, plus five honorable mentions.

Since I started hosting Global A Go-Go in 2004, there's been a massive wave of rediscovery of great international music from the 60s, 70s and 80s.  It's brought to the fore artists from around the world that first-world listeners like me never heard about when they were in their heyday.

That wave may be cresting as we enter 2018 -- I received and heard fewer top-tier compilations, reissues and historic recordings this year than in any year since I started doing my radio show.  Have all the African, Caribbean, Latin and Balkan crates now been dug?  I doubt it -- hopefully 2017 was a lull rather than an ending.

On the other hand, the best releases in this category were every bit as good as in previous years; it was just the volume of them that disappointed.  Tune in and hear how good they are for yourself.

Click "Read more" to see Global A Go-Go's Top Ten compilations, reissues and historic recordings for 2017 (with links to my reviews):

December 12, 2017

Program December 13, 2017: Top Ten New Releases Of 2017

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 2017, plus ten honorable mentions.  Next week, you'll hear my favorite compilations, reissues and historic recordings of the year.  And on December 27, 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 2017 (with links to my reviews):

December 11, 2017

Charts December 10, 2017

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 USHER'S ISLAND | Usher's Island | Compass
2 LES FILLES DE ILLIGHADAD | Eghass Malan | Sahel Sounds
3 HAMAD KALKABA AND THE GOLDEN SOUNDS | 1974-1975 | Analog Africa
4 BOUBACAR TRAORE | Dounia Tabolo | Lusafrica
5 BANDA MAGDA | Tigre | GroundUP / Verve
6 CHOPTEETH AFROFUNK BIG BAND | Bone Reader | self-released
7 GOGOL BORDELLO | Seekers and Finders | Cooking Vinyl
8 SWEET AS BROKEN DATES: LOST SOMALI TAPES FROM THE HORN OF AFRICA | various artists | Ostinato
9 GUY ONE | "Everything You Do, You Do For Yourself" [Single] | Philophon
10 ALBOROSIE | Soul Pirate Acoustic | Baco

December 5, 2017

Program December 6, 2017

Global A Go-Go has been Christmas-song-free for 14 years -- we'll leave that thread to other shows at WRIR, and indeed other entire radio stations.  But Hanukkah?  Now that's a different story.

Especially when you can play Geoff Berner on how he's ambivalent about the holiday, or Gypsyphonic Disko and Katey Red giving the dreidel song a New Orleans bounce, complete with dancers twerking behind a menorah (that's an actual screenshot of their video above).  That's the kind of holiday music I can get behind.

Also this week (aside from holiday music in questionable taste): desert blues channeling Piedmont blues; Afropop meets the second line (a second Crescent City sighting in this week's show); and new and old Brazilian psychedelia.

December 3, 2017

Charts December 3, 2017

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 HAMAD KALKABA AND THE GOLDEN SOUNDS | 1974-1975 | Analog Africa
2 SON PALENQUE | Kutu Prieta Pa Saranguia | Palenque
3 MAKING MOVIES | You Are Another Me | 3/2 Recordings
4 SPY FROM CAIRO, THE | Nothing New Under the Sun | Wonderwheel
5 EL BUHO | Balance | Wonderwheel
6 SERTANILIA | Gratia | self-released
7 LES FILLES DE ILLIGHADAD | Eghass Malan | Sahel Sounds
8 BOUBACAR TRAORE | Dounia Tabolo | Lusafrica
9 DA CRUZ | Eco Do Futuro | Boom Jah/Broken Silence
10 EXPANDERS, THE | Old Time Something Come Back Again, Vol. 2 | Easy Star