Rolling Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2014 Thread Formerly Known as World

i heard that comp - it's not my fave of what they do (tho if you like it they did release a full-length pheno s. album last year)

http://sahelsounds.com/2014/01/rain-the-color-of-blue-with-a-little-red-in-it/

http://www.djrocard.com/tag/serge-beynaud/

I like the song (via video) on this site by this Sierra Leonian dance pop guy. He's gonna be in DC on Friday

that sahel kickstarter got funded btw

I can't stop listening to this old record of my Dad's - Ariel Raminez's 'Misa Criolla', an Argentinian folk chorale which is just incredible, a mix between Latin folk music and choir worship music.

the new tinariwen comes out soon - recorded in joshua tree bc of the conflict at home

Touring the US too

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M5714&type=A

The Bombay Royale's novelty Bollywood shtick is entertaining at times, but its mostly too cute for me

I couldnt deal with them at all honestly

Christgau likes African acts Tal National, Sidi Touré, Mariem Hassan, Tamikrest, & Bassekou Kouyate in year-end piece http://alturl.com/aj6o5

a better link to his essay which also contains the link to his list

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Consensus-Has-Consequences/ba-p/12189

He likes Rachid Taha too, which I need to listen to. I wonder if its on Spotify?

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-2013-Dean-s-List/ba-p/12191

(English captions available.)

Hamza Namira - Wa Ollak Eh

http://obengerecordings.bandcamp.com

OBENGE RECORDINGS is a collection of field recordings by Roger Peet, recorded in the Congo in a now vanished village called “OBENGE”. It has since been burned to the ground by military. The village was very small, and unfortunately neighbor to a ruthless ivory warlord who terrorized them and put them in harms way. EWE OF NOW was fortunate enough to capture these songs on cassette for your listening enjoyment. They are full of life, from a place where life is more real than we are accustomed to. All proceeds from the sales of this cassette go to Roger’s relief work in the in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and hopefully this isn’t the last volume.

Plenty of listening to do. With Congo calming down a bit, hopefully we'll start hearing more music from there again.

x-post to myself
Spotify does have Rachid Taha's Zoom album plus I see he did songs for a movie Cheba Louisa, and that's on Spotify too.

Freaky Trigger's Pop World Cup has started: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/pop-world-cup-2014/2014/01/pwc-14-group-a-match-1-brazil-mexico-cameroon-croatia/

Looks more interesting than the Grammy winners

Reggae Album
“Ziggy Marley in Concert,” Ziggy Marley

World Music Album
“Savor Flamenco,” Gipsy Kings
“Live: Singing for Peace Around the World,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo (tie)

lol, I had no idea you could tie for a Grammy

Dunno if this is the thread where we talk about archival releases but the new Haiti Direct comp on Strut is a very good time.

this is def a thread for discussing archival releases!

x-post--I've seen Tabou Combo who are on that Strut comp, who I think are still together, and I have an album or 2 of theirs; so I bet this is great. Will have to check it out. They meshed together trad Haitian sounds with funk and more

They meshed together trad Haitian sounds with funk and more

yeah that description fits most of the comp

Haitian music (classical, folk etc. (guitar works preferred)) s/d

The Haitian thread never gets many posts

just heard this segment on npr and thought it was pretty brilliant (+ beautiful) - excuse me while i crosspost it to the 2014 china thread too:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/01/28/265468566/remaking-all-that-jazz-from-shanghais-lost-era

i love this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LLMBJntfV8

oh, that's not the one i thought it was - it's this one:
http://open.spotify.com/track/04cPsJ4iXU5JHspgdwdXOc

Would love to get hold of this "electro chaabi" release but it's vinyl-only (and expensive!): http://thequietus.com/articles/14300-eek-islam-chipsy-dj-sardena-review

Short YouTube sample sounds absolutely banging:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Z7MegmZH4

wow no kidding

Ester Rada lp out!!!

http://esterrada.bandcamp.com/album/ester-rada

http://f0.bcbits.com/img/a2047931644_2.jpg

She was on my list of folks I should listen to, and I still haven't gotten to her yet. But I will.

I'm liking the new Angelique Kidjo album

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/30/ibrahima-sylla

RIP. 57 is too young. That's horrible. Dude was an awesome producer. I once wanted to interview him and it never happened and now never will.

A case in point was his nurturing of the collaboration between the Senegalese singer Thione Seck and Indian and Egyptian orchestras on the album Orientation (released in 2005, but recorded a few years earlier), an idea later taken up with equal success by N'Dour.

This was a great cd as were the Africando albums he worked on. He loved Latin clave sounds as well as West African ones and nicely made them work together.

And on the Thione Seck one showed he could work with Egyptian & Indian sounds as well

A couple of listing on my P&J Top Ten, perhaps right for this thread--from P&J comments archived inhttp://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2014/01/ive-seen-bootage-pazz-jop-13-pt2.html
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou, Volume Three---The Skeletal Essences of Afro-Funk 1969-1980 is
Analog Africa's third collection of tracks from Benin's primo movers of "traditional Voudon rhythms to funk, sato, Latin, sakpata, psychedelia, and Afro-beat" includes reel-to-reel, one-or-two mic recordings in houses, and even outdoors: conditions which might have suggested the "Skeletal Essences" advisory. Still, the reel-to-reel was a Nagra, the outdoors settings were gardens, the sessions often nocturnal; the results are fully charged. They seem like a response to late-night Bay Area FM and UK pirate stations, who maybe turned on those trendy Voice of America and BBC World Service headz to Hendrix, Santana, Meters, James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, then dialing in electric Miles, P-Funk, Stevie Wonder, the expanding Talking Heads: trace elements, as filtered/reduced by these gray rockhead American ears, of Cotonou's ricochet path around the encrusted periphery of textbook popular music history. Peripheral visions, flickering lightning, skeletal filaments: like Miles slipping in, stealing the scene on his own records, as the background becomes the foreground---not in a New Age sense, or anything rarefied; more like oops upside the head, as the searchlight and spotlight merge. Back in the day, these guys are still re-writing the books, the future----as now, Daddy-o. Keep 'em coming, Analog Africa! (Cotonou's founder passed in 2012, but think there have been some reunion shows in the fairly recent past?)

Jazz didn't make the list this year, in terms of obvious titles, but as usual (always?), it was a crucial ingredient of several selections---made a difference with Cotonou, the way I hear 'em, and Guerilla Toss even, as we shall see--but right now should mention the inclusively, still inadequately-titled Underground Sounds of Modern Brasil: Hip-Hop, Beats, Afro & Dub. The excursions that first swept me up were the penultimate-to-ultimate grooves cruising off Disc 1, both very reliably informed by kosmic Krauts and Miles Davis (most likely). And all of Disc 2 has something to do with various kinds of jazz, as only the Brasilians/Brazilians can iterate ( yes, getting essentalist with it, but there's your classy 2013 buzzword or meme or whatever it is, too).

This was in the Top Ten too:
Key point in the p.r. pitch for Rough Guide To African Disco: "Creative scenesters put their own spin on the disco sound, mashing together the rhythmic pulse of funk, soul and Latin with African grooves; soukous, Afrobeat, township jive and more." Yes! There are a few let-downs, like the very first track, I think, but mostly amazing. Some of my faves are ones I wouldn't have thought to tag as disco, but no prob.

That's all old stuff on that Rough Guide to African Disco, or recent stuff? I can google later but thought I'd ask since you like it. Either way, its of interest, just curious re more details.

It's all older, don't remember the cut-off date. Def check the two-disc version (on Spotify).And a couple of Right Hon. Mentions:

National Wake---Walk In Africa 1979-1980: Music made by young South Africans, of various RSA racial classifications: punk-funk-reggae-dub, reminding me of Australia's Us Mob, No Fixed Address, Coloured Stone, early live Police, some of Tom Robinson's combos, Bad Brains kinda. The finale, a dub workout, is over 17 min long, like over three times as long as any other, but despite my habitual editorial fantasies, wouldn't part with a particle so far. Would have Top Tenned this set, but already got all those reissues on there already….

Bombino---Nomad: None of Tinariwen's occasional late-night campfire acoustic ruminations, which is okay by me. Electric and maybe acoustic guitars, always plural, over and around bass, drums (usually a full kit), an organ, which is sometimes almost subliminal, but always at least flickering; I'd miss it. First few tracks have a distractingly buzzy, grainy midrange squeeze; whether it's the quality of the source, the stream, my usually okay headphones showing their limitations, I dunno. But then the mix of desert harshness times deftly. sometimes boldly applied fluidity kicks in, the latter taking over quickly enough, but never complacently. Some tracks seem a little, brief, ending abruptly; I'll have to check his concert links from this page too. Closes with maybe a little mellotron on the Garcia/Costello-ish voice, def hand drums and steel guitar, at times like uh T.Rex jamming on "Lively Up Yourself", ha comparisons. Wild set still here: http://www.npr.org/event/music/204500938/bombino-live-in-concert-newport-folk-2013

+1 on the bombino album

Oh yeah, and this for sure:
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba---Jama ko: Language proved not nearly as much of a barrier as it might have, mainly cos I can tell all the tracks apart right off, not a given to this non-ethnomusicologist, even w that Mali vibe. So, so far this is my guitar album of the year, even though it's generated by little ol' electrified lutes (which also provide sufficient bass), looking like something from the local produce market. Sharp-edged and fluid as wine, elegant yet never pissy, drawing rough-edged male and bold female vocals into further focus, landing and spinning on a dime, at times, but nothing too showy. Wonder if they ever work with drummers? Sneaky grooves anyway.

i was hoping jama ko or bombino or traore would show up in the ilx top albums thread

I'm getting the debut album by a Sarahawi singer named Aziza Brahim in the mail soon; can't wait to hear it. I'm totally obsessed with the only other Sarahawi singer I know, Mariem Hassan. Her voice is just phenomenal. Her last album, El Aaiun Egdat from 2012, was surprisingly jazzy at times; my favorite is still her debut, Deseos, from 2005.

x-post -I got swamped with stuff, and missed the Ilx deadline to vote. Wonder if my possible votes for African albums and tracks would have made a difference...

x-post to Wonder if they ever work with drummers

Kouyate had one when I saw he and his family band in a great DC gig last year

Mariem Hassan is another name I keep meaning to check out

this looks cool:
http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/item.asp?Item_id=107&cd=Radio-Niger

I should've voted in the ilx poll. Also hoping to receive the xpost Brahim album soon; here's the pitch:

Voiced with passion and grace, Aziza Brahim's music adeptly travels the expanse between her Western Saharan roots and Barcelona, the European cosmopolis where she now lives. Aziza is both a contemporary sonic poet and a prominent and eloquent spokesperson for the Saharawi people and their ongoing struggle for recognition and justice. Born and raised in the Saharawi refugee camps lining the frontier between Algeria and Western Sahara, Aziza's life has been marked by both daunting hardship and inspired will. Fleeing from these camps and the regime of political oppression that followed Morocco's 1975 invasion of Western Sahara, as a young teenager Aziza travelled to Cuba for her secondary school studies. There she experienced first-hand the deep Cuban economic crisis of the 1990s and the subsequent denial of her request to pursue a university degree in music. Music had been Aziza's passion since she was a small girl and despite this setback, she returned to the Saharawi camps in Algeria and began singing and playing in different musical ensembles, a process that continued when she moved to Spain in the year 2000. There she founded the eclectic Saharawi/Spanish band Gulili Mankoo with whom she released two acclaimed self-produced recordings: the EP Mi Canto (2008) and an album Mabruk (2012), both on Reaktion. In recent years Aziza has performed extensively, appearing at major festivals and venues including WOMAD Cáceres (2012) and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London (2009). Aziza's album Soutak (trans. "Your Voice"), her debut for the Glitterbeat label, is her first recording to predominantly focus on the cadence of her majestic voice and the soulful critique of her lyrics. The album was produced by Chris Eckman (Tamikrest, Ben Zabo, Dirtmusic) and was recorded live and direct in Barcelona in June of 2013. In the liner notes to the album, Aziza describes her vision for Soutak: "Feeling the need to make an acoustic record, I imagined a somewhat modest musical outline, which would not involve too many instruments and in which the voices would take the expressive emotional lead. I wanted to further explore the range of possibilities found in the Haul, the Saharawi's traditional rhythmic sources, played on the tabal and a source of inspiration for the desert blues." The hand-picked band she assembled for the album consists of Spaniards Nico Roca (percussion) and Guillem Aguilar (bass), Malian Kalilou Sangare (acoustic lead guitar), Aziza's sister Badra Abdallahe (backing voice) and in addition to singing, Aziza contributes acoustic rhythm guitar and the tabal, the traditional Saharawi hand-drum. The music on Soutak is a powerful and nuanced mixture of musical cultures and features Malian, Spanish, Cuban and contemporary Anglo-European motifs all held together by Aziza's deeply rooted knowledge of traditional Saharawi song and sound. Though the songs on Soutak can be unsparing in their details of oppression, Aziza Brahim has delivered an empowered flight to freedom; an alternative world where hope is imminent and dancing is justified.

While I saw a few African dance songs and Bunji garlin on the ILM tracks list, I didn't see much non-Us non-European on the ILM album list...Omar Souleyman and ???

william onyeabor placed

oh yeah

Onyeabor at 49, Souleyman at 95, John Wizards at 186, Rokia Traoré at 231. Also some K- and J-Pop.

I was the only voter for Tal National :(