Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Rhythms of the Northeast
Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/02/2026
» The first Maha Morlum Festival, a showcase soft power event, was held in Maha Sarakham from Feb 13-14 and World Beat travelled to the Isan province to enjoy the two-day, one-night immersive experience promised by the event's organisers.
Isan sound goes global
Life, John Clewley, Published on 13/09/2025
» Last month, World Beat was invited to join a government sponsored event to promote molam music from Isan on the international stage. The event was held on Aug 12 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok as part of the National Science and Technology Fair 2025.
The vinyl comeback
Life, John Clewley, Published on 25/04/2023
» Music fans and "crate diggers" enjoyed Record Store Day (RSD) last weekend. The inaugural event was first held in the US in 2007, on the third Saturday of April and on Black Friday in November. The idea, according to USA Today, was to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store" and indie outlets banded together with the support of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores and the Alliance of Independent Media Stores.
Country comes to the city
Life, John Clewley, Published on 31/01/2023
» The All-Thidsa Molam Band was in Bangkok this past weekend to perform at the Thailand International Jazz Conference. World Beat caught up with band last Friday when they played two sets at Isan Spicy BBQ, a rooftop bar at the Jim Thompson Art Center.
Nora dance gets Unesco nod
Life, John Clewley, Published on 21/12/2021
» Nora, a traditional folk dance-drama from southern Thailand, was awarded intangible cultural heritage status by Unesco last week. The distinctive dance form joins khon and Thai traditional massage on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Tale of the tape
Life, John Clewley, Published on 30/03/2021
» Lou Ottens, inventor of the humble cassette tape, died on March 11. He was 94. Ottens was a Dutch design engineer who worked as a product development officer for Philips. Before the cassette tape, he created the company's first portable tape recorder (reel-to-reel) and it was his irritation with the lack portability and clumsiness of reel-to-reel tape recorders that led him onto a path to the cassette tape. From 1963 to the late 1980s, 100 billion cassette tapes were sold.
Tracing the roots of zouk
Life, John Clewley, Published on 08/12/2020
» In 1983, Kassav', a band from the Antilles in the Caribbean, released Zouk La Se Sel Medikamen Non Ni (Zouk Is The Only Medicine We Have). It became the first Antillean record to sell 100,000 copies. Kassav' went on to top the French pop charts with a string of gold albums, drew bigger crowds at their concerts than Prince and put Antillean music firmly on the international musical map.
Twenty-five years of musical magic
Life, John Clewley, Published on 19/03/2019
» This year is the 25th anniversary of the World Beat column. It began all the way back in February 1994. That's right, in the last century. We survived the millennium and have forged ahead into the 21st century.