World Music
Yasmine Hamdan: Ya Nass - review
Yasmine Hamdan deserves to be the next female celebrity from the Arab-speaking world.
Kobo Town: Jumbie in the Jukebox - review
(Cumbancha) Oddly, this dazzling update of calypso tradition comes not from Trinidad but Toronto, where Kobo Town founder Drew Gonsalves was relocated at age 13, later setting aside teenage rock interests for the music of his homeland. The result is...
Yasmine Hamdan interview: 'If you can feel the emotion, it's for you'
'I can’t censor myself,” says Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan. “I follow my desires, and I’m prepared to take the consequences.”
Yasmine Hamdan: Ya Nass - review
(Crammed) Since forming electro duo Soapkills in the late 1990s, Beirut-born Hamdan has been reimagining Arabic tradition for modern times. This solo debut, made with French producer Marc Collin , updates the intense, sensual style of bygone divas...
Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s and 80s - review
(Soundway) The resurrection of Africa's overlooked musical legacy continues apace. This lovingly packaged collection turns to the less celebrated sounds of east Africa during the 1970s and 80s. With Nairobi sucking in acts from DRC and Tanzania, a...
Bombino - review
Omara "Bombino" Moctar was this week in the UK for just one concert to promote his new album, Nomad, before heading off to Europe and then the US. The choice of venue was significant: the Village Underground in Shoreditch was packed with a young,...
Mokoomba: Zimbabwe's new sound
Abundance Mutori was just 14 when he began playing with the other members of Mokoomba. It was in 2002, when they were at school together at Mosi-Oa-Tunya High in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and he remembers that their biggest problem was getting hold of...
Debashish Bhattacharya and friends: Beyond the Ragasphere - review
(Riverboat/World Music Network) Here is a boldly original fusion experiment from the virtuoso Indian instrumentalist who designed his own slide guitars so they could match the intricacies of the sitar. Now, Debashish Bhattacharya has expanded his...
Femi Kuti: No Place for My Dream - review
(Wrasse) On the cover there's a striking photo of an African woman walking past a vast garbage heap, while on the album itself there are 10 new songs (and an instrumental) in which Femi Kuti continues his musical attacks on corruption, oppression and...
Banda Estrellas de Sinaloa v Boban & Marko Markovic Orkestar - review
Barbican, London The opening was inspired. Lights flashed on and off, Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes played, and La Linea festival director Andy Wood came on stage like a boxing promoter, asking, "Are we ready to rumble?" The idea of a...