world music
Album: Rodrigo y Gabriela - In Between Thoughts… A New WorldMonday, 17 April 2023
Ahead of two spring dates in the UK, Rodrigo y Gabriela release their seventh studio album, In Between Thoughts… A New World, a beguiling set of guitar-based music that has echoes through time and hints of rumba-flamenco and occasionally the heavy... Read more... |
Album: Sissoko Ségal Parisien Peirani - Les ÉgarésMonday, 27 March 2023
This is an enchanting album which brings together four outstanding musicians, brilliant in their own right, but also adept at the kind of collaboration in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.The distinguished cellist Vincent Ségal... Read more... |
Album: Aksak Maboul - Une aventure de VV (Songspiel)Thursday, 02 March 2023
One of the greatest things a musical artist can achieve is world building. That is, creating a distinctive type of environment, language and coordinates for everything they do such that the listener is forced to come into the musical world, and to... Read more... |
Album: Steve Mason - Brothers & SistersFriday, 24 February 2023
Steve Mason has been impressively blunt about the inspiration behind his fifth solo album. “To me, this record is a massive “Fuck you” to Brexit and a giant “Fuck you” to anyone that is terrified of immigration,” he’s said, “Because there is nothing... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Padang Moonrise - The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording IndustrySunday, 29 January 2023
“Ka Huma” by Ivo Nilakreshna sounds as if a jazz band was taking on rock ’n’ roll. There’s a swing and sway, busy rhythm guitar and a lead female voice singing a yearning melody. An instrument which seems to vibes is in there. But there’s more than... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Best of 2022Sunday, 25 December 2022
The Beatles loomed over everything else. It wasn’t inevitable, but the arrival of the revealing Revolver box set and Peter Jackson’s compelling Get Back film confirmed that there is more to say about what’s known, and also that there are new things... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Perú Selvático - Sonic Expedition into the Peruvian Amazon 1972-1986Sunday, 11 December 2022
"Descarga Royal" by Los Royal’s de Pucallpa opens proceedings. After flurries of wobbly wah-wah guitar, a driving percussion bed interweaves with a rolling guitar figure. Then, about two minutes in, the guitarist steps on the fuzz pedal. Groovy.... Read more... |
Oslo World review - a dizzying selection of high-tech, grassroots global brillianceWednesday, 09 November 2022
The Oslo World organisers are at pains to point out that, despite the name, they are not a “world music” festival. And with good reason, really. There may have been a few familiar WOMAD veterans headlining over the week-long event – Senegal’s... Read more... |
Dongyang Gozupa, Purcell Room review - K-Music’s power trioFriday, 04 November 2022
A minute before coming on stage, the audience is asked to observe a minute’s silence for the victims of the Halloween tragedy in the central Itaewon district of the South Korean capital of Seoul. The stage is dark, clouds of dry ice forming a... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Maha - OrkosSunday, 16 October 2022
Orkos was originally released in 1979 on cassette. The only album by Egyptian singer Maha seems to have been little known. The liner notes for its first-ever reissue say “it was not a success when it was originally released. While nobody remembers... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Abel SelaocoeFriday, 23 September 2022
South-African cellist Abel Selaocoe is about to begin his third major concert in London in under a year. As the support artist for kora player Ballake Sissoko and cellist Vincent Segal at the Roundhouse in January, he received a lengthy ovation for... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Movers - Vol. 1 1970-1976Sunday, 07 August 2022
After a burst of gun-shot drumming, “Hot Coffee” instantly hits its groove. Simple but insistent guitar, a rubbery bass line and electric organ all fall into line. For the instrumental’s two-and-half minutes, it is unstoppable.“Gig Soul Party” is as... Read more... |
