• LIFE

  Lift up your voice

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 10/10/2023

  » South Africa has a long tradition of harmony singing, stretching back to Soloman Linda's famous 1933 song Mbube, which created a genre of its own to isicathamiya folk singing that led to one of the country's most potent popular genres, mbaqanga and on to gospel choirs.

• LIFE

  All there at the square

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 05/03/2019

  » Busy Victory Monument, with its buses, taxis and motorcycles, is one of Bangkok's few traffic circles (or roundabouts, as we call them where I come from). It's a busy intersection of roads that lead to all points on the compass.

• LIFE

  Farewell to a punk pioneer

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 11/12/2018

  » Manchester in the mid- to late-1970s was dark and moody. The International Monetary Fund bailed out the UK economy with a £3.5 billion loan in 1976 as the pound sunk to record lows. There was bitter infighting in the Labour-led government and strikes were in the news headlines.

• LIFE

  Revolutionary's road

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 02/04/2019

  » Poet, novelist, piano player. And that was before Gil Scott-Heron had reached 20. He wrote and recorded his best known song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, in 1971, and from then on produced a unique and polemical body of prose, poetry and music that led him to be dubbed the "Father of Political Rap", the originator of "nu soul" and many more titles. He preferred being called a "bluesologist".

• LIFE

  The beat goes on

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 19/12/2023

  » Molam continues to evolve with time. Musicians, especially from Isan, are experimenting with new musical combinations, creating new hybrids and sounds.

• LIFE

  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".

• LIFE

  Celebrating three decades of discovery

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 27/02/2024

  » World Beat celebrates 30 years on the music trail this month. The column started in Feb 1994 when Chuan Leekpai of the Democrat Party was in his first term as Prime Minister.

• LIFE

  The sound of a new era

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 16/01/2024

  » It's been eight years since Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band released their last studio album Planet Lam, in 2016. This followed their debut album 21st Century Molam, released in 2014. In early December, the band soft-launched a vinyl version of their new album Arayalam on the Zudrangma Records label.

• LIFE

  Keep on rockin' in a lockdown

  Life, John Clewley, Published on 14/04/2020

  » The sonic landscape of my life in central Bangkok has changed dramatically over the past few weeks of social distancing. Gone are the sounds of construction drills, booming pile drivers, honking horns, unmuffled motorcyles and throbbing tuk-tuks. I can hear birdsong of all kinds in the mornings and, at dusk, the whirring and squeaking of different bat species as they zoom around hunting for insects.

• LIFE

  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.

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