Just saw this from the Nigerian News Service ... Unbelievable!Lagos, Nigeria: Kolade Kuti Wombia, a cousin of African music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti has convinced courts in Nigeria, Britain, and the United States to uphold his trademark claim on the term "Afrobeat," coined by his famous relative.Wombia has been enmeshed with other family members over the legendary singer's legacy since Kuti's...
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CONTEST: See below for a chance to win Dengue Fever's "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong"!In the US consciousness, Asia is a mix of mystery and factories and food. Japan is known for cars and sushi; China is known for cheap (sometimes tainted) products, action films, and rising global power; Korea's got kimchi; India has curries and call centers; Vietnam has in increasing tourist draw replacing t...
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Normally I'm all about quality. But once in a while I cave to the pressure for more. And standing in a little music shop in Delhi's Khan Market, I caved. I'd been looking for a bhangra artist I kept hearing on taxi radios, but was striking out. Then, there it was. A gleaming black box about the size of a DVD case...but far more compelling than High School Musical 3.Gulshan Kumar Presents Bhangr...
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Over the years, the keen-eyed reader will have noticed my references to foreign travel. Travel was a key factor in forming my interest in music, dance, language, religion, and culture of people in far-away places. But it's been years since my last significant trip, years in which my cultural wanderings have been limited to what I could find on the Web, and the CDs and DVDs I have received for r...
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The upcoming Olympia Ethnic Festival (see calendar) compelled us to spin global sounds from right here in the USA -- some of them from our friends and neighbors -- on today's show. Plus new releases and some old faves in hour 2.More show info at http://spintheglobe.earball.netWorld Music from the USA: Spin The Globe playlist for 6 February 2009Listen/download for a limited time at: soundroots.p...
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Happy Year of the Ox! To celebrate the Lunar New Year, we heard music from all over Asia in the first hour. A little Asian music trickled into hour 2, along with other global sounds. And yes, I had a hankerin' for qawwali today. The Music of Asia: Spin The Globe Playlist for 30 January 2009 Listen/download for a limited time at: soundroots.podomatic.com Hour 1 Portland Taiko - All Is W...
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You know that SoundRoots likes us some strange cover songs. Among the strangest have to be Central Asian versions of classic rock songs. I'm not sure if there's a cover-song arms race going on between Tuva and Siberia, but not long after the former's latest salvo (Yat-Kha's Re-Covers), I recently discovered a new entry from the latter from the group Bugotak. Their newest album Coverlar (which m...
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It was a blast of new releases from around the planet this week on Spin The Globe, from Serbia to Somalia, China to Rwanda, and many point in between. Happy New Year!New World Music: Spin The Globe playlist for 2 January 2009as heard on 89.3 fm, radio KAOSListen/download for a limited time at: soundroots.podomatic.comMore show info at http://spintheglobe.earball.netArtist - Song - AlbumHour 1 K...
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CD REVIEW Calexico: Carried to Dust (Quarterstick) An eager publicist insisted that I have a listen to Calexico's latest offering. The group has been on the periphery of my musical knowledge in recent years, though I admit to never developing a hunger for their sound. Apparently this album is a shift more toward the global music I'm inclined to write about. Or is it? From the git-go yo...
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Here it is, the final Spin The Globe playlist for 2008. We heard a selection of tunes from our favorite global releases of the year while the snow outside slowly turned to slush. A perfect day for radio... Spin The Globe Playlist: Best World Music of 2008 26 December 2008 -- as heard on KAOS radio Listen/download for a limited time at: soundroots.podomatic.com Artist - Song - Album ho...
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I'm easing into the Christmas spirit this year. I haven't yet broken out any of my collection of odd holiday albums. Until today!Here's a gentle easing into the holiday vibe, courtesy of the Banks Soundtech Steel Orchestra. Just the thing to distract my mind from the subfreezing temperatures and ice that have appeared outside, blanketing the Pacific Northwest in an uncharacteristic blanket of w...
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The December chart has some new entries -- notably the sublime offering by Uxia, the multicultural fun of Kokoura, and the Middle Eastern dancehall stylings of Tomer Yosef (of Balkan Beat Box fame). SoundRoots / Spin The Globe Top 10 World Music Albums December 2008 (click on title for sound samples and more info) 1. Uxia: Eterno Navegar 2. Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze: Sira 3....
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We wandered freely between cultures and between old and new music on this week's show. And apparently the mix worked, judging by the way the phone was ringing off the hook. The Balkan/klezmer set at the top of hour 2 particularly seemed to get listeners' attention, as did the wonderful song by Faraualla.Spin The Globe playlist for 12 December 2008 New Releases Old Favorites Artist - Song - Al...
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CD REVIEW Azam Ali, Keyavash Nourai, & Shahrokh Yadegari - Green Memories (LilaSound) Azam Ali is undoubtedly the big-name musician on this album. But if you approach it expecting something like her work with Vas or Niyaz, you'll be wrong. Sort of. Green Memories is billed as a "structured improvisation work by Shahrokh Yadegari," who plays the Lila, "a computer music instrument which al...
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CD REVIEW Azam Ali, Keyavash Nourai, & Shahrokh Yadegari - Green Memories (LilaSound) Azam Ali is undoubtedly the big-name musician on this album. But if you approach it expecting something like her work with Vas or Niyaz, you'll be wrong. Sort of. Green Memories is billed as a "structured improvisation work by Shahrokh Yadegari," who plays the Lila, "a computer music instrument which al...
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I've been asked by various publications/entities to create lists of my favorite global releases of 2008. Unfortunately, none of them agree on how many entries constitute a proper Top X list. So here, in three acts, is my list. (Disagree with my choices? Think I missed the best album of the year? Say so in the poll below the list, or leave your own list in the comments.) 2008 has been a rich ye...
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This one is a bit off the beaten SoundRoots track, but Jewish rapper eprhyme ("e-prime") has a message, and he's not shy about sharing it. I caught him yesterday at Temple Beth Hatfiloh, where he and neo-klezmer group The Erev Ravs performed separately, and in collaboration. Some of my favorite pieces were when they shared the stage, but eprhyme's cutting vocals are captivating even when he's ...
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Just a quick heads up about a nice offering from Modiba Publishing. They have online a 16-track sampler of music, ranging from West African and Iran to Brazil and New Orleans. You can download -- free! -- individual tracks or the complete album. One-click full album download at: www.modiba.net/pub The Swarm - Noble Society (Guyana, USA) Barap Barap - Abjeez (Iran, Sweden) Sobe A Poeira ...
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Sandwiched between two related observations -- The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery Dec. 2 and International Human Rights Day Dec. 10 -- this week's show focused on the music of slavery in hour 1. Hour 2 wandered more globally, and hit some new world music releases. Note: this podcast archive contains only the first 80-ish minutes of the show. More show info at http://spintheglob...
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BOOK REVIEW Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi Just finished this book, which came out in 2007, and I can heartily recommend it to the culturally curious. Included are marvelous tales of cultural integration and its pitfalls as experienced by Indians in the USA. The stories are very accessible and enjoyable even if you're not Indian or an immigrant, as Reddi's writing also reflects u...
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