Showing 81 - 90 of 307
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.
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.
Ambuya!'s back baby!
Life, John Clewley, Published on 16/03/2021
» Piranha Records, a Berlin-based independent record label, was founded in 1987 to produce and distribute mainly African, Gypsy and Jewish music. The label expanded its roster to include various projects by 3 Mustaphas 3 bass player and crooner Colin Bass. His work with Sundanese (West Javan) musicians, under his Asian moniker Sabah Habas Mustapha, produced several excellent albums and one much-covered popular love song, Denpasar Moon.
No ordinary wedding singer
Life, John Clewley, Published on 02/03/2021
» In 2016, World Beat featured an album, Bahdeni Nami (MonkeyTown Records, Germany), by the prolific Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman.
Of khaen and men
Life, John Clewley, Published on 16/02/2021
» Thai Country Living, a short film documentary released in 2020, is a delightful sojourn into the rural life of khaen maker Suman "Chang Bour" Tapkham, his family and village in the peaceful backwaters of the Isan region.
Amid chaos, world music still rocks
Life, John Clewley, Published on 19/01/2021
» Riding high at the top of this month's Transglobal World Music Chart is the Isreali-Persian singer, songwriter and social activist Liraz Charhi.
Old classics revived with high-tech edge
Life, John Clewley, Published on 02/02/2021
» The Penguin Encyclopedia Of Popular Music released in 1991, edited by Donald Clarke, has more than 3,000 entries on rock, rock'n'roll, folk, soul, R&B, gospel, country and swing, and a whole host of lesser-known genres. Musicians, songwriters and producers are all in this tome.
Rediscovering forgotten grooves
Life, John Clewley, Published on 05/01/2021
» Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and the country's most populous city has a long history as an important Indian Ocean port connecting traders. As we saw with my recent review of the first international release of popular Djibouti music, The Dancing Devils Of Djibouti by Groupe RTD on the Ostinato label, ports at the western edge of the Indian Ocean region played a crucial role in developing popular genres of music.
Christmas carols, Isan music end troubled year
Life, John Clewley, Published on 22/12/2020
» This has been a tough year for everyone involved in the music business, here in Thailand and everywhere else.
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.