Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Timbuktu calling
Life, John Clewley, Published on 20/05/2025
» Mali and West Africa dominate the Transglobal World Music Chart for May 2025, with the "desert blues" rockers Songhoy Blues leading the way in top spot with their new album Héritage.
Tunes for the chill season
Life, John Clewley, Published on 09/11/2022
» The music scene has been given a boost this year with the return of tourists and the reopening of entertainment venues. Festivals are returning to the provinces this month and the local circuits for rock and luk thung are back, too. The summer festival season in Europe, Japan and North America also returned and coincided with lots of summer and now winter music releases. The World Beat desk is groaning under the weight of new music.
Gatemouth is the swingingest
Life, John Clewley, Published on 12/04/2022
» The Half Moon Pub in Putney, London, has been hosting rock'n'roll gigs since 1963, making it one of the oldest live venues in the capital. In 1980, I was studying at Garnett College (now University of Westminster) and living in Roehampton. Every Friday night, I would join a group of fellow students to check out the live music at the Half Moon.
A smoother blue from North Mississippi Allstars
Life, John Clewley, Published on 13/04/2021
» In 2014, I wrote a review about the unique sound of blues rockers North Mississippi Allstars (NMA), whose music is rooted in the "fife and drum" culture of North Mississippi. Unlike in the Mississippi delta, which has a distinctive brand of guitar-driven blues, North Mississippi African-American hill country musicians use fifes (a small shrill flute used in 19th-century military bands), fiddles, banjos, tambourines, snare drums and a huge bass drum to create their local sound.
Wander through the desert
Life, John Clewley, Published on 28/04/2020
» The Transglobal World Music Chart for April features one of the most popular of the so-called desert blues bands of West Africa, with Tamikrest in the No.1 slot.
The S.L.P. Experience
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 15/09/2019
» When Sergio Lorenzo Pizzorno came out with his first solo single, Favourites, back in June, we were pleasantly surprised. The song, an unlikely collaboration with UK rapper Little Simz, gave us an early glimpse into what could be expected from Pizzorno's solo project -- a whole lot of wacky swagger coated with a good amount of sonic experimentation. Listening to it closely, you can easily detect that indie impishness of his band Kasabian as well as the genre-hopping tendencies of Gorillaz. It's an impressive balancing act of breakbeat backdrop and funky basslines that sounds entirely new and familiar all at once.
African and Eastern European artists dominate World Music Charts
Life, John Clewley, Published on 12/06/2018
» This month's World Music Chart from the European Broadcast Union, selected by 45 radio producers across 24 countries, features some interesting new releases that music fans might like to consider.
A Tranquil Trip to an Inner World
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 15/01/2017
» The celebrated ambient pioneer continues to push the boundary with a sublime, immersive single-track soundscape that plays with the idea of generative music
Tuareg women-only musical tradition reborn in Algeria
AFP, Published on 25/01/2016
» TAMANRASSET (ALGERIA) - A single-stringed violin played only by Tuareg women is making a comeback in Algeria as the last of its players come to the rescue of a tradition on the verge of extinction.
African ambassadors of music
Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/11/2015
» Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux, one of West Africa's most famous dance bands, reunited last year to play shows in Europe and to celebrate Stern Music's release of a wonderful compilation of their early, formative music from the band's residency at the Motel de Bamako.