Suphala - Alien Ancestry

Suphala is a tabla player who has studied under a number of classically trained Indian masters, as well as playing with a number of pop and jazz musicians. This album weaves a wide range of music with a large group featuring Vijay Iyer on piano, Amir Elsaffar on trumpet and Bill Laswell adding his unique mojo to the proceedings. Suphala’s tablas develop a simmering feeling of incantation throughout the music. Bubbling and shifting and reshaping the rhythm with a sense of continual motion. Horns join in at times, developing a beguiling swirl, or horns, clarinet, oud and percussion.

The fast paced rhythm of the percussion is tuned at times so instruments resemble percussion that rings and resonates. Vijay Iyer makes his presence felt a few times on piano which adds further melodic flavor to the cascading percussion. It is the amazing sense of rhythm that is the most impressive thing about this album, Suphala has seemingly internalized everything and then developing the music in hypnotic fashion and at a dizzying pace. The texture and fabric of the music is constantly changing, with Laswell playing master of ceremonies, mixing the music and adding subtle hints of electronics and a near danceable sensibility. The melding of Indian music along with jazz and forms of improvisation are consistently interesting on this album. It is a central meeting place where diverse influences are combined together in a crucible of passionate music.

Suphala: tabla, all other sounds
Kinan Azmeh: clarinet
Hadi Eldebek: oud
Amir Elsaffar: trumpet
John Hadfield: cajon, garhand
Vijay Iyer: piano, remix
Jose James: vocals
Matt Kilmer: frame drum
Mazz Swift: violin
Bill Laswell: Alien Translation

1. Interlude
2. The Beginning
3. Alien Ancestry
4. Bazaar
5. Cerulean
6. No Words
7. Not Even
8. Eight and a Half Birds
9. Vashikaran

Mulatu Astatke - Sketches of Ethiopia (2013) Ethiopía

On Sketches of Ethiopia, Mulatu Astatke's first international release, the father of Ethio-Jazz's remarkably rich music reveals influences ranging from jazz and Latin American music to the traditional music of his homeland. Astatke has collaborated with numerous jazz legends such as Duke Ellington, and in 2005 was featured on the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch's film Broken Flowers. Conductor, arranger, master of the vibraphone and conga drums, Astatke now plays with his England-based group Step Ahead. On his new album, Astatke's uniquely rhythmic and colorful music weaves a modern groove into age-old melodies, and blends western classical music with Latin and Afro funk rhythms into a heady musical brew.

320+covers

VA - Songlines Music Awards/2012

First things first: Songlines is a great magazine. Each of the eight issues that come out per year will satisfy the hunger and curiosity of those who wish to have their musical and geographical horizons broadened in an intelligent manner. However, they have done themselves no favours by releasing this jarring, borderline offensive, marketing department-led awards tie-in compilation.
Evidence has proven that awards ceremonies tend to favour safe or conservative consensus thinking. They can be ridden with concessionary thinking and sometimes feature judges too close to the subject. But when this is applied to the delicate arena of ‘world music’ – a dizzyingly wide selection of sounds which the magazine describes as “politics, history, ethnicity and the environment” – it appears all the more morally unedifying.
Everyone knows how good Touareg blues rockers Tinariwen are. They don’t need to win another award – especially not after releasing their least well-realised album in ages, Tassili, in the same a year that Tamikrest released the far superior Toumastin. But all of this is by the by – the real question is why have compilers included the track Tenere Taqqim Tossam, given that it is mainly sung in English by the Americans Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of Brooklyn band TV on the Radio? We all know this proud band of musician tribesmen can do better on their own and don’t need this kind of patronage.
And things get much worse. What is Ry Cooder doing here? The idea that his b-list satirical sub-prime country number No Banker Left Behind is somehow an amazing example of what ‘world music’ has to offer in 2012 is risible. But then quite a few of the ‘global brands’ here are merely presenting an ersatz, Westernised, diluted version of exciting indigenous music. Why do we have to listen to the British Bollywood Brass Band when we could be having our minds blown by Boban i Marko Marković Orkestar from Serbia? During a period where Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman is pushing his DIY rave/traditional raï hybrid into new shapes, and when Congolese dance band Konono No.1 are blazing a trail through venues across the world, why are Songlines presenting us with the Kronos Quartet from America? The enjoyment of weird and wonderful music from around the globe doesn’t have to go hand in hand with a politically correct post-Colonial guilt complex but, whether consciously or not, the compilers of this album are suggesting that Westerners do this kind of thing a little bit better. And that’s just unforgivable.
-- John Doran


01. Tinariwen - Tenere Taqqim Tossam [00:04:07]
02. Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile - Quarter Chicken Dark [00:04:47]
03. Trio Tekke - Batmans Uniform [00:03:36]
04. The Bollywood Brass Band, Rafaqat Ali Khan - Gurh Nalon Iskh Mitha [00:04:43]
05. JuJu (Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara) - Waide Nayde [00:05:14]
06. Ry Cooder - No Banker Left Behind [00:03:38]
07. Dub Colossus - Tringo Dub [00:03:44]
08. Khyam Allami - Tawazon I_ Balance [00:03:18]
09. Anoushka Shankar - Buleria Con Ricardo [00:04:09]
10. Watcha Clan - Viens, Viens Featuring Maurice El [00:05:40]
11. Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen - Sarma [00:03:27]
12. Abigail Washburn - Corner Girl [00:03:36]
13. Bombino - Tenere [00:03:56]
14. Hossam Ramzy - Shukran Arigato [00:03:45]
15. The SheKoyokh Klezmer Ensemble - Uskudar [00:03:18]
16. Fatoumata Diawara - Bakonoba [00:06:06]