Krar Collective | Ethiopia Super Krar

ARTIST:  Krar Collective

TITLE:  Ethiopia Super Krar

LABEL:  Riverboat 

Krar Collective is a London-based trio that plays Ethiopian azmari music with a modern, urban edge.  The azmari are Ethiopia’s answer to West Africa’s griots – minstrels, keepers of the tradition, social commenters and jesters.

Program July 13, 2012

What's new in the world of world music this week is: Ethiopian.  I'll play two brand-new releases from young bands, one from the USA (Debo Band, pictured above) and the other from the UK (Krar Collective), who are putting their personal stamps on classic 60s and 70s Ethiopian music.

Charts July 8, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 CHICHA LIBRE | Canibalismo | Barbes
2 BA CISSOKO | Nimissa | Cristal
3 KONKOMA | KonKoma | Soundway
4 KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS | Demoni | Asphalt Tango
5 HOLLIE COOK | Prince Fatty Presents Hollie Cook In Dub | Mr Bongo
6 LACK OF AFRO | One Way: Remixes And Rarities | Freestyle
7 EBO TAYLOR | Appia Kwa Bridge | Strut
8 BLACK BAZAR | Black Bazar | Lusafrica
9 QUANTIC AND ALICE RUSSELL WITH THE COMBO BARBARO | Look Around The Corner | Tru Thoughts
10 MARIEM HASSAN | El Aaiun Egdat (El Aaiun On Fire) | Nubenegra

Program July 6, 2012

I'm back from a week's vacation (thanks to DJ Graybeard for filling in for me last Friday) and we've crossed 2012's halfway point, so it's time for a look at the best new releases of the year so far.  That's Chicha Libre pictured above, whose Canibalismo is probably my favorite album thus far in 2012.

Charts June 24, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 RICHMANIAN RAMBLERS | World, Sister World | self-released
2 BALKANIZE! | For You Are Made Of Stars | self-released
3 KONKOMA | KonKoma | Soundway
4 TUNE-YARDS, ANGELIQUE KIDJO, AHMIR ?UESTLOVE THOMPSON, AKUA NARU | "Lady" [Single] | Knitting Factory
5 KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS | Demoni | Asphalt Tango
6 BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR | Golden Horns | Piranha
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Sensacional Soul, Vol. 3 | Vampisoul
8 HAPPY LUCKY COMBO | Lucky Buddha | self-released
9 JOAN SORIANO | La Familia Soriano | iASO
10 QUANTIC AND ALICE RUSSELL WITH THE COMBO BARBARO | Look Around The Corner | Tru Thoughts

Program June 22, 2012

BALKANIZE!, who played live on Global A Go-Go last year (pictured above) have just released a brand-new album; you'll hear a track from it this week on Global A Go-Go.  Ditto for the Richmanian Ramblers, another RVA band playing Eastern European music who have a new record.  Welcome to Richmond, center of the Balkan music universe.

BALKANIZE! | ... For You Are Made Of Stars

ARTIST:  BALKANIZE!

TITLE:  … For You Are Made Of Stars

LABEL:  self-released 

BALKANIZE! is a Richmond-based band that specializes in “Old World TurkoBalkan folk music.”  In a blindfold test, there’s no way you’d guess their home town; in fact, you probably wouldn’t guess their home country.

KonKoma | KonKoma

ARTIST:  KonKoma

TITLE:  KonKoma

LABEL:  Soundway 

Soundway Records, famous for their compilations of historic African recordings, is branching out into original music.  They have a winner in KonKoma, a new band featuring several veterans of London’s Ghanaian scene including three former members of the pioneering Afro-rock band Osibisa: guitarist Kari Bannerman, keyboardist Emmanuel Rentzos and percussionist Nii Tagoe.

tUnE-yArDs + Angelique Kidjo + Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson + Akua Naru | "Lady"

ARTIST:  tUnE-yArDs + Angelique Kidjo + Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson + Akua Nara

TITLE:  “Lady”

LABEL:  Knitting Factory

Here’s the first track from the forthcoming (RED) Hot + FELA album, due in 2013 – a version of Fela’s “Lady” as conceived by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs.

Charts June 17, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 CHICHA LIBRE | Canibalismo | Barbes
2 VARIOUS ARTISTS | For Whom The Cowbell Tolls | Electric Cowbell
3 BA CISSOKO | Nimissa | Cristal
4 KOO NIMO | Highlife Roots Revival | Riverboat
5 BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR | Golden Horns | Piranha
6 EBO TAYLOR | Appia Kwa Bridge | Strut
7 BLACK BAZAR | Black Bazar | Lusafrica
8 MOUSSU T E LEI JOVENTS | Empeche-Nous | Le Chant Du Monde
9 MARIEM HASSAN | El Aaiun Egdat (El Aaiun On Fire) | NubeNegra
10 FUNKEES | Dancing Time: The Best Of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77 | Soundway

Program June 15, 2012

What's new in the world of world music this week is -- palm-wine.  Yes, an entire musical genre named after an alcoholic beverage (someone tell Josh Sturgill right away), it was popular across West Africa in the 1950s and it's being brilliantly revived by Ghana's Koo Nimo (pictured above) on a delightful new recording.

Ba Cissoko | Nimissa

ARTIST:  Ba Cissoko

TITLE:  Nimissa

LABEL:  Cristal 

Ba Cissoko is a kora player from Guinea Conakry in West Africa who now lives in France; this is his fourth album as a bandleader.  Cissoko’s playing and singing is very much of the grand Mande tradition, but he’s equally committed to modernizing that tradition.

Koo Nimo | Highlife Roots Revival

ARTIST:  Koo Nimo

TITLE:  Highlife Roots Revival

LABEL:  Riverboat 

Palm-wine is a coastal West African musical style with a relaxed, acoustic sound centered on guitar and voice that gained mass popularity in the 1950s.  Its easygoing tempos and mellifluous melodies link it to a variety of tropical genres from the other side of the Atlantic: Trinidadian calypso, Jamaican mento, Dominican bachata, Cuban son and the Garifuna music of Central America all sound like they could be palm-wine’s cousins.

Charts June 10, 2012

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Sensacional Soul, Vol. 3 | Vampisoul
2 KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS | Demoni | Asphalt Tango
3 BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR | Golden Horns | Piranha
4 HOLLIE COOK | Prince Fatty Presents Hollie Cook In Dub | Mr Bongo
5 LACK OF AFRO | One Way: Remixes And Rarities | Freestyle
6 SOOTHSAYERS | We're Not Leaving | Red Earth
7 HAPPY LUCKY COMBO | Lucky Buddha | self-released
8 EBO TAYLOR | Appia Kwa Bridge | Strut
9 CHICHA LIBRE | Canibalismo | Barbes
10 MOUSSU T E LEI JOVENTS | Empeche-Nous | Le Chant Du Monde

Program June 8, 2012

Some of the best reggae music in the world these days is made in London, where there's a developing sound that connects directly to the classic roots era, that uses dub as an element of performance, and that's ambitiously open to the wide range of influences that are almost inevitable in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities.

This week on Global A Go-Go, I'll feature an hour of music from a few of my favorite London reggae artists, mostly recent material (including the latest from Little Axe, pictured above) with a little bit of older stuff in the mix -- certainly not a comprehensive look at the London reggae scene, more of a personal perspective on a place where good things are happening.