December 26, 2020

Top ten compilations & reissues of 2020

This week on Global A Go-Go (Monday December 28, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site), I'm wrapping up my 3-week-long look at my favorite recordings of 2020.
 
The focus this time will be on my favorite compilations and reissues of the year.  These categories are important parts of my personal collection; I use them to backfill my musical knowledge.
 
I've been actively listening to non-American music since the early 80s and I've increased that focus since I started Global A Go-Go in 2004.  However there are still vast holes in my musical experience.  I rely on reissues to highlight music of the past that I should know more about, and on compilations to make the case for genres, countries, regions and time periods that I've overlooked.

Without further ado, here's a list of my ten favorite compilations and reissues of 2020, plus ten honorable mentions:

December 19, 2020

Top ten new singles & EPs of 2020

It's week 2 of Global A Go-Go's 3-week review of my favorite recordings of 2020; this week you'll hear my favorite singles and EPs of the year.  Singles are definitely overtaking albums in the playlist/YouTube/Spotify era as the unit of account for recorded music.
 
2020 was the first year in which, wearing my World Music Director hat at WRIR, I recommended more singles and EPs than albums to our DJs (by a 60-40 margin, by the way).  Very simply, if you're not following singles and EPs, you're missing a lot of the most significant music that's coming out today.

So this week on Global A Go-Go (Monday December 21, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site) it's my top ten singles and EPs of 2020, plus ten honorable mentions and a few more to round out the two hours.

And here they are in list form:

December 14, 2020

Charts December 8-14, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 RHEINGANS SISTERS, THE | Receiver | Bendigedig
2 FAT FREDDY'S DROP | Lock-In | The Drop
3 KELEKETLA | Keleketla! | Ahead Of Our Time
4 ABELARDO CARBOBO Y SU CONJUNTO | Guana Tangula | Vampisoul
5 ALFREDO LINARES | Lo Que Tengo | Vampisoul
6 BUDOS BAND, THE | Long In The Tooth | Daptone
7 CONTENTO | Lo Bueno Esta Aqui | El Palmas
8 NAHAWA DOUMBIA | Kanawa | Awesome Tapes From Africa
9 QWANQWA | Volume 3 | Wuzzawazzee Industries
10 JAAKKO LAITINEN AND VAARA RAHA | Borek | Playground Musicd Finland

December 13, 2020

Top ten new albums of 2020

It's the most wonderful time of the year, the time to find out who's been naughty and nice.  No, I'm not talking about the holiday season; I'm talking about when everyone's Best Of The Year lists come out.
 
I'll be rolling my own lists out over the next three weeks on Global A Go-Go.  On this week's program (Monday December 14, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site) I'll present my top ten new albums of 2020 plus ten honorable mentions.
 
Next week you'll hear my favorite singles and EPs of the year gone by, and in two weeks it will be selections from my favorite compilations, reissues and historic recordings of 2020.  In general, the less said about 2020 the better I guess, but it was a good year for the kind of music I play on this program and you'll hear that for yourself over the rest of December.
 
Without further ado, here are my top new releases of 2020:

December 8, 2020

Charts December 1-7, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 FEMI KUTI | "Pà Pá Pà" [Single] | Partisan
2 MADE KUTI | For(e)ward [Advance Tracks] | Partisan
3 JUANA MOLINA | ANRMAL (Live In Mexico) | Crammed
4 CARAVELA | "A Macieira" [Single] | None More
5 WARSAW AFROBEAT ORCHESTRA | Antibody | Peace & Rhythm/Scriptology
6 MODESTE HUGUES AND KILEMA | Ala Maintso - Green World | ARC
7 TOM ZE | Raridades | Warner Brazil
8 PAPA ROSKO | Papa Rosko | Voodoo Possum
9 ZEDASHE | Silver Sanctuary | Electric Cowbell
10 LEYLA MCCALLA | Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute To Langston Hughes | Smithsonian Folkways

December 6, 2020

Diaper story

Most of the artists who led Brazil's late 1960s Tropicalia movement went on to become national icons: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes and Gal Costa for example.  And then there's Tom Ze.  As his peers' music won more and more commercial and critical acclaim, Ze's became more and more experimental and forgotten.
 
It took a non-Brazilian to bring Ze the attention he deserves: David Byrne made Ze the first solo artist (after Byrne himself) to be released on his then-new Luaka Bop label in 1990.  A new collection of Tom Ze's singles, special projects and other rarities; you'll hear an unforgettable track from it on this week's edition of Global A Go-Go.

Also this week (Monday December 7, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): reggae goes country & western, left-of-center Colombian big band cumbia, new father-and-son singles by Femi and Made Kuti, a quick trip to Madagascar; and vintage dance music from the French Antilles.

December 1, 2020

Charts November 24-30, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 RICARDO LEMVO AND MAKINA LOCA | N'Dona Ponte | Mopiato
2 DANDANA | Free The System | Rebel Up
3 LOS SAICOS 69 | "El Mercenario/Un Poquito De Pena" [Single] | Munster
4 SONGHOY BLUES | Optimisme | Fat Possum
5 ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS | Kampala Fire [EP] | Switchstance
6 GINA CHAVEZ | La Que Manda [EP] | self-released
7 PROTOJE | In Search Of Lost Time | In.Digg.Nation Collective/Six Course/RCA
8 SETENTA | Materia Negra | Latin Big Note
9 MARCOS VALLE, ADRIAN YOUNGE AND ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD | Marcos Valle JID 003 | Jazz Is Dead
10 LADAMA | Oye Mujer | Six Degrees