Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2018 Thread Once Known as World Music

Exhibit: [Soukous in Central Park](http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWSoYkdo799OvI71oOIn_ELo11jEQDQiH) (NY), 1993.

Agree with Sanpaku

The new Jupiter & Okwess album sounds pretty good.

The Jupiter & Okwess album has old-school Congolese roots but feels new to me. Galloping rhythms, some harmonies, it’s as worthy as the American indie and rap that gets more coverage and commentary everywhere including Ilx / ilm.

Jupiter & Okwess is/are as worthy as Wye Oak and Rolling Blackouts and techno and Rico Nasty rap and whatever other niches get acclaim on ILM

Jupiter & Okwess are busy touring now.

Wish the Jupiter & Okwess tour was coming back to my neck of the woods. Same with the Sidi Toure one. They've been here in the past, but not on current tours.

Will make do with the Jupiter & Okwess album and try to also listen to some old Orlando Julius maybe

I need to find that NPR story re music in Zimbabwe post-Mugabe I heard mentioned on the radio as coming up (but I then didn't hear at the time)

Banning Eyre I know write about the return of Thomas Mapfumo there. But npr story might also be about younger musicians

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/20/630419032/politics-in-zimbabwe-has-a-new-soundtrack

Oh, that's not the greatest article. The writer found the leader of a longtime Zimbabwe cover band who is now working with younger musicians

Chitambo is making music again. He has a new outfit, called Friends Band. The group mostly plays covers — they are much less famous than Wells Fargo was — and nearly all of the musicians are about 40 years younger than Chitambo. They have only ever known a Zimbabwe ruled by Mugabe.

Still need to check out latest Kiran Ahluwalia album 7 Billion

Ahluwalia is from India but blends in other influences (north African and more) in a well-done way; not world music cliches

Saturday night is busy in the DC area

Made in Cameroon music festival at the Fillmore

* Love Wins--A celebration in honor of new Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s historic visit to #WashingtonDC with Ephrem Tamiru, Madingo Afwerk, Sami Berhane, Berehanu Tezera & More backed by Ras Band at Echostage (Ethiopian acts)

* Dancing under the Stars for free with Afro-Colombian champeta band Bazurto Allstars and Congolese act Soukous Stars plus dance lessons on the Kennedy Center North Plaza

* Tinariwen at the Warner Theatre

*Anna Mwalagho one woman show at Silver Spring Black Box Theatre

* Chardabat Video release party at Lee's Lounge, 2903 Hamilton Street, Hyattsville, MD (Congolese)

digging Ahluwalia on first listen, thanks for the recommendation

Leila Gobi ‘s squeaky voice over insistent rhythms is kinda entrancing. Listening to her 2017 album

Noura Mint Seymali appears to be the token African woman on that NPR music list of 200 songs by women who debuted in 21st century or had their major impact in 21st. I think Yemi Alade should have made the list

fatoumata diawara would've been good too

Yep.

So Angelique Kidjo's take on Talking Heads "Remain in Light" is kinda uneven. On some of it, I am not enthused about her vocal delivery-- like she's trying too hard to be avante-garde or something. Gonna see her and her band live tomorrow night at a big outdoor theatre, with Femi Kuti opening

Enjoyed the show. Kidjo did a few of her own older songs plus covered Miriam Makeba “Pata Pata.” She can dance and her voice was strong.

Femi Kuti did a bunch of songs from his latest album. Some of it is formulaic afrobeat, but he makes it work. Political lyrics about evil people and how religion gets misused.

Kidjo and Femi Kuti are around my age. They are impressively energetic onstage

Listening to Fela now

http://www.sternsmusic.com/topchart.php

African and Brazilian stuff from December 2017, including some reissues and comps-- Le Grand Kalle; "Urgent Jumping", and a Vieux Kante album.

No newer list

August 2018 albums on top of European "World Music" chart
Fenfo Fatoumata Diawara, Mali; So Calypso! Calypso Rose, Trinidad & Tobago; Wande Samba Toure, Mali;
Joys Abound Bhattacharya Anandi, India Plaza Francia Orchestra Plaza Francia Orchestra, France; Maghreb United Ammar 808, Tunesia; Cachaito Orlando Cachaito Lpoez, Cuba; Guerra Cesare Dell'Anna, Girodibanda, Italy ; ; Sound the People Red Baraat, USA
Ne la Thiass (remastered) Cheikh Lo, Senegal; Remain in Light Angelique Kidjo, Benin/USA

http://www.wmce.de/

Album title, artist name, then country

Khaira Arby has passed away :((((

https://www.facebook.com/KhairaArby/posts/2624124244280405?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARARgsGZbB2toOF3waSdrpFn5jkzAHiMiYO7Aweyy6YJBp7SjRfWTivR5NAKZpavdvCYMNTjZeRU_uLIKqxY1RRLt1FGSjM0Z_jK_19ZnR0nEeXfMvC6oX4et7ynDUfLZyasAxZ9ot9E&__tn__=-R

Oh no. Khaira Arby was only 59. I saw this Malian desert diva a number of times and liked her on record too.

digging this

https://innovgnawa.bandcamp.com/album/aicha

oh hell yeah that's great

Saw Innov Gnawa do a special live set awhile back at an old Baltimore synagogue of North African Sephardic-rooted music. Good stuff.

Still shocked and sad re Khaira Arby's death at only 59.

reading about 33 year-old Afghan singer Aryana Sayeed who performs in her home country sometimes even though the Taliban and mullahs have issued death threats against her

http://www.spiegel.de/international/interview-with-afghan-pop-star-aryana-sayeed-on-women-in-afghanistan-a-1220274.html

One of Sayeed ‘s most viewed songs on YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxbZBbmpr58

Oh no I totally missed the news about Arby, that is really sad

Listening to Emel Mathlouthi, female Tunisian singer who came to fame with the Tunisian revolution in 2010. She's kinda Arabic folky, but sometimes now sings over programmed beats and sounds artsy

SOAR by Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, second collaboration between the harp and kora players. https://open.spotify.com/album/2s5WYOg1fezE42u6X0GqJc?si=9xI9lJXgRwCgqDnIbEIovg
^^this one is great!

World Music Fest in Chicago is about to start -- psyyyyyyyyched!!! https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/world_music_festival.html

Here's a very groovy live set by Senegal's Marema, at the Africa Festival in Germany:

- https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/076003-002-A/marema-africa-festival/

(Video is available online until 31 Dec 2019)

I like Marema’s vocals and some of the songs I have heard, although a few sound influenced by Peter Gabriel sorta — not as crazy about those.

https://m.france24.com/en/20180912-french-based-algerian-singer-rachid-taha-dies-59

Rip Taha. He did a rendition of “Rock the Casbah “ that got some crossover attention

Was listening again to the late Rachid Taha's rockin Algerian rai music last night. Sad he's gone too soon.

x-post-- that Chicago Fest looks good. If I was out there I would see Jupiter & Okwess from the Congo (again) on the 22nd and/or 23rd.

From Simon Reynolds piece on Autotune in Pitchfork, discussed on ilm rockism thread:

When it was first embraced by Western audiences in the ’80s, African music tended to be associated with qualities like rootsy, earthy, authentic, natural—in other words, values fundamentally at odds with Auto-Tune. Actually, this was a mistaken—and dare I say, rockist—projection. Most early forms of Afro-pop, such as highlife or juju, were slick, the work of highly professional bands not averse to a little bit of razzle dazzle. There was nothing particular rural about this sound, which was to a large degree associated with an urbane, sophisticated, cosmopolitan audience. Nor was it particularly “pure” in the way that Western world music enthusiasts seemed to crave: It always eagerly incorporated ideas from black America, the Caribbean, and the outside world, from King Sunny Adé’s Shadows-style twangy guitar, to the synths and drum machines in ’80s Ethiopian electro-funk.

So it makes perfect sense that 21st century Afrobeat would embrace the latest in sonic modernity.

When it was first embraced by Western audiences in the ’80s, African music tended to be associated with qualities like rootsy, earthy, authentic, natural

is this true? who/what is he talking about? putumayo listeners? i feel like african music that could be described that way exists - as field recordings, folk styles, etc - but the same thing applies in the west as well. once music starts to travel, becomes urban, gets radio play it immediately becomes eclectic in its influences. seems like maybe a strawlistener. ppl who listened to african crossover music in the 80s like lizzy mercier descloux or graceland would i think get how cosmopolitan this music was.

crossover influenced

Yea, it's all a little more complicated. There are both Putumayo listeners and others who do view this simplistically, and so yes Simon would have been better if he had stated African music tended to be associated BY SOME WESTERNERS

Sometimes I feel a bit defensive with this thread that some people will think we're pushing and embracing "rockist" global sounds rather than the pop modern ones of the Afrobeats thread. I would hope that most people here know that multiple types of sounds exist everywhere (and depending on taste, age, etc.) one can find music inspiring in all camps no matter how its made.

it's a little weird bc i don't think of world folk music traditions as rockist? but maybe i don't know what rockist means anymore? but like field recordings def don't scan as rockist to me. isn't rockism like canonical western guitar band albums? how would that relate to putumayo listeners who i have complaints about but i don't think of as rockist? when you say "rockist global sounds" do u mean those sounds or do u mean more like stuff that guitar band fans might like like tuareg blues type stuff?

Rockist to me simply means here "I like music played on real instruments with real vocalists" not "Programmed computer sounds with autotuned vocals"....

World music fests that include only folks playing sounds on old-school traditional instruments, but not new autotuned vocalists from such countries, might also be a type of rockism to some. Of course, others will say that such fests are highlighting the sounds that don't get the support and recognition that the younger (usually) autuned pop gets.

Sneering at Congolese rumba and soukous dance records and saying its not authentic like field recordings could also be seen as rockist

I don't think a recording itself can even be rockist but appreciation of folk recordings can come in the guise of "look at the authentic roots of the music that ended up as Blues/Rock when it came to the US", i.e. framing it only in the context of its influence on Rock (obviously this works better w/ some field recordings than others).

Then there's the impulse to ignore modern Pop coming from Africa and rejecting anything that sounds to o influenced by Western music but I dunno if that's rockism so much as the kind of old school folkie mentality that angered Dylan in the US and the Tropicália bunch in Brazil.