World

Lionel Loueke

25 Jun 2009

Guitarist Lionel Loueke came to jazz via an early immersion in African music in his homeland of Benin, a grounding that has contributed to the distinctive style that caught the ears of Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard, both of whom have called on…

Sara Tavares - Xinti

25 Jun 2009

(World Connection) Portuguese singer Sara Tavares writes amazing songs, delivering them with one of the most shape-shifting voices around, a fusion of the gentle and wistful with subtly buoyant rhythm. Xinti which means ‘feel’, tells its own…

Baaba Maal: Television

28 May 2009

Why Baaba Maal is not on primetime radio is frustrating. Television, his first album for eight years, is so seductively sensual at times it’s almost chill out in style. It establishes him as a man with finger on the pulse of the musical times. Catchy…

Ojos De Brujo

16 Apr 2009

If flamenco isn’t really your thing, then you should probably turn away now. But come on, everyone needs a bit of flamenco in their life. Hip hop is also here in abundance too, consummating with each other to produce an exotically interesting mix.

Oumou Sangare - Seya

5 Mar 2009

WORLD Oumou Sangare shows why she is one of the most significant African female musicians alive in this stunning set in which she marries gutsy lyrics about arranged marriage and polygamy to her seductively zippy Wassoulou music. Sangare’s…

Children’s Classic Concerts – Crash, Bang, Wallop!

5 Mar 2009

Back in December, Owen and Olly arrived as the new presenters of Children’s Classic Concerts like a brick through a window. The young percussionists are not only talented musicians themselves, but know how to bring other fun guys to the party. Their…

Hitlist - Music

19 Feb 2009

● Shhh! Zoey Van Goey and My Latest Novel take on the task of performing a live musical interpretation of a classic film in one of the Glasgow Music and Film Festival’s more imaginative events. The Arches, Glasgow, Sun 22 Feb. (Rock & Pop) ● Butcher…

Amadou & Miriam

19 Feb 2009

When asked to define Jazz, Duke Ellington declared that there were only two kinds of music: good music and bad. Nevertheless, pigeonholes have proved a necessary evil in the pursuit and commoditisation of music, and rarely have the categories been as…

Novalima - Coba Coba

5 Feb 2009

WORLD FUSION This third release for the Lima-London collective Novalima furthers the adventures in Latin form, Afro-Peruvian percussion and electronic tweaks that spawned 2005’s award-winning Afro. Coba Coba, however, bears all the hallmarks of a…

Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation

2 Oct 2008

WORLD LOUNGE Leaders of the horizontal protest Thievery Corporation remain resolutely political in their approach and there is really no mistaking who programmed this set of sophisticate dub lounge. The breadth of styles treated to their signature…

Afr-I-Can

17 Jul 2008

Running between June and September, Afr-I-can is a loose series of events, talks, workshops and concerts led by artists of African origin and celebrating African achievement. Although the events are mainly aimed at families of African and Caribbean…

Fraser Fifield Band - Traces of Thrace

17 Jul 2008

It is tempting to assume that the fascinating meeting of musical minds reflected here is in some way down to the on-the-road developments worked out on their Tune Up tour featuring Fifield’s band and the Nedyalko Nedyalkov band from Bulgaria earlier…

Orkestra Del Sol - The Moveable Feast

22 May 2008

WORLD, JAZZ AND BEYOND (SolMusic Recordings) Fast, fun and furious Edinburgh-based ten-piece Orkestra Del Sol let loose a riot of rebellious global street music for this, their second full-length offering. With considerable talent, energy and…

Tinariwen

8 May 2008

Formed in 1982 in Muammar al-Gaddafi’s camps of Tuareg rebels, Tinariwen mix their traditional music Tishoumaren (‘music of the unemployed’), with electric guitars to create world music at its most thrilling aided by a distinct 70s rock edge.

Toumani Diabate - The Mandé Variations

14 Feb 2008

WORLD (World Circuit) Toumani Diabate is one of those great Malian musicians that cannot be knocked. The album Kaira was his first: a beautifully melodic 40-minute kora solo, released in 1989. Since then he has been a collaborators dream, working with…

Spiritual South

31 Jan 2008

For some, the term ‘world music’ still conjures up images of tie dyed tunics and florescent face paint. But this stigma is fading as revellers bring to the dancefloor an ever-greater familiarity with a myriad of musical genres. Flying the flag for world…

Vieux Farka Toure

15 Nov 2007

WORLD Arches, Glasgow, Sun 25 Nov When Vieux Farka Toure played at WOMAD this year, world music fans were intrigued to see how he would fare. When his father, the great Malian music oracle Ali Farka Toure died in 2006, he left behind a musical…

Vieux Farka Toure - album review

World

1 Nov 2007

You might think that if Vieux Farka Toure entered the music business he would be doomed to failure. As the son of Malian music legend, the late Ali Farka Toure, he would be working in his father’s shadow and probably end up petering out, à la Julian…

Orchestra Baobab

18 Oct 2007

WORLD Faced with dwindling audiences in the 80s, the members of Orchestra Baobab slid away from the forefront of their native Senegalese music scene, and went their separate ways. World Circuit Records have always dreamt of reuniting the band…

Manu Chao

4 Oct 2007

Manu Chao might just about be a household name in the UK, thanks in the main to 2001’s ubiquitous Próxima Estación: Esperanza, but he has not conquered the hearts and minds of Brits to the same degree as listeners in Europe and Latin America. This…

Colombiafrica

20 Sep 2007

WORLD Voodoo Love Inna Champeta Land (Riverboat Records) The title and artwork evoke early Dr John, but this exuberant album was brewed in a much bigger melting-pot than New Orleans. Like the original bluesmen travelling to London to record with their…

Samba Sane & Diwan

23 Aug 2007

Irresistible Afrobeats and jazzy grooves from Senegal. Vocalist Samba Sene moved to Scotland seven years ago and sings in English, French and his native Wolof, backed up by the five-piece Diwan. This is jazzed up world music to get the dancefloor…

Orkestra Del Sol

7 May 2007

WORLD They say this was the launch of Orkestra Del Sol’s new EP The Road to Thermosa, but copies of it were being dished out free at the front door to anyone who did a silly dance for the staff. It was that kind of a night, and one suspects the EP…

Idan Raichel Project, The - album review

The Idan Raichel Project

27 Nov 2006

WORLD The brainchild of Israeli keyboardist and producer Idan Raichel, his Project sees a group of over 70 albums contribute to this one cross-genre record. Already a huge pop success in his home country, Raichel seems to almost make a point of…

Kultur Shock - album review

Kultur Shock

11 Nov 2006

WORLD ESOTERIC Insane Seattle-based collective Kultur Shock have been gathering Bosnian, Bulgarian, Japanese and American members for almost ten years now with the sole intention of mashing up the music of their homelands in hitherto unrealised…