Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Blessed be the funk
Life, John Clewley, Published on 18/06/2025
» Last week, two giants of US popular music passed away. Beach Boys legend, composer/songwriter Brian Wilson, and funk pioneer Sly Stone of Sly & The Family Stone fame.
Remembering the 'King of the Talking Song'
Life, John Clewley, Published on 13/08/2024
» National Artist and luk thung icon Phloen Phromdaen passed away on Aug 3, aged 85. He was one of the titans of the luk thung world, garnering the nickname Raja Phleng Phut (King of the Talking Song) for the spoken passages in the middle of his songs.
Bridging cultures
Life, John Clewley, Published on 18/06/2024
» In 2011, Iraqi musician, actor and writer Ahmed Moneka was working as an artist and actor. He studied at Baghdad's Institute of Fine Art and, according to Canada's The Globe And Mail, he was the first black TV presenter in the country. His father, also a well-known comedy actor, was the pioneer. Moneka went into the "family business".
Travel notes
Life, John Clewley, Published on 23/05/2023
» Cambodia, like many Southeast Asian countries, enjoyed a golden era of popular music during the 1950s and 1960s, when Phnom Penh, known as the "Pearl of the Orient" became an important cultural centre, a breading ground for the meeting of Western rock and pop and Cambodian music. Author Dee Peyok in her fascinating new book Away From Beloved Lover: A Musical Journey Through Cambodia (Granta, UK, 2023) notes that "the music of East and West merged across Southeast Asia to the most fascinating mélange of instruments, attitudes and expressionism".
Can I interest you in South American psychedelics?
Life, John Clewley, Published on 25/05/2021
» The Caribbean is in the spotlight in this week's column, with two new and contrasting albums from different parts of the region featuring.
Bringing' it all back home
Life, John Clewley, Published on 24/11/2020
» Recent compilations on popular music genres in Africa have revealed an astonishing range of local styles across the continent. Popular music from West Africa, South Africa and Central Africa featured in the first compilations, along with North Africa. Then producers focused on individual countries and guitar-based styles, so we enjoyed terrific compilations from Kenya and Madagascar, and even Benin.
The doctor is out
Life, John Clewley, Published on 11/06/2019
» Dr John, the High Priest of New Orleans' hoodoo, the Night Tripper and one of the heirs to Professor Longhair's legacy, died last week at the age of 77. He was widely regarded as one of the Crescent City's most accomplished musicians -- a master bandleader, songwriter, guitarist, voodoo showman and pianist. He was comfortable moving between blues, jazz, funk, boogie-woogie and anything else he fancied, and he was known as a keeper of New Orleans' piano traditions.
A tribute to Rachid Taha
Life, John Clewley, Published on 18/09/2018
» Rachid Taha, the iconoclastic and rebellious singer from Algeria, died last week in a Paris suburb. He was 59 years old. He had emigrated to France at the age of 10 with his family and emerged in the early 1980s with his band Carte de Sejour, which he founded in 1980 in Lyon. In 1986, he made waves with a cynical, mocking cover of chanson icon Charles Trenet's song, Douce France (Sweet France). Adding Arabic oud and drums and jumping into the song with a punkish snarl and biting (new) lyrics, this song set the tone for his entire career.
Remembering Kak Channthy
Life, John Clewley, Published on 03/04/2018
» The news last week that the lead singer of the Cambodian Space Project, Kak Channthy, had died in a car crash in Phnom Penh has shocked her fans in Cambodia and across the globe. She was 38 years old.