Keletigui Diabate Sandiya (Contre Jour CJ012, 2004) The balafon (or simply bala, if you prefer the non-Francophone name) is a West African gourd resonator xylophone…
Bala-bing
Author: Tom Orr
Tom Orr is a California-based writer whose talent and mental stability are of an equally questionable nature. His hobbies include ignoring trends, striking dramatic poses in front of his ever-tolerant wife and watching helplessly as his kids surpass him in all desirable traits.
Pods and Ends
Afro Celt Sound System Pod (Real World 7243 597526 0 0, 2004) Afro Celt Sound System were and are trailblazers in the ethno-techno movement that…
Paragons of Plena
Plena Libre Estamos Gozando! (Times Square Records TSQCD 9039, 2004) Ten years and as many albums down the line, Puerto Rico’s Plena Libre continue to…
The Many Faces of Roots
Various Artists – Reggae Pulse, Vol. 3: Love Songs (Sanctuary Records Group 06076-80446-2, 2004) Sly and Robbie – The Dub Revolutionaries (RAS Sanctuary 06076-89917-2, 2004)…
Kenya Feel the Spirit?
Various Artists – The Rough Guide to the Music of Kenya (World Music Network RGNET 1137 CD, 2004) The tightly syncopated, guitar-percolating style known as benga…
Shacking Up
Aphrodesia – Shackrobeat Vol. 1 (Flatbed Lamborgini Records FLR808, 2003) Though they’ve been pegged as part of the current Afrobeat revival, San Francisco’s Aphrodesia go beyond that.…
Life in the Vas Lane
Vas – Feast of Silence (Narada 70876-18497-2-1, 2004) Vocalist Azam Ali and percussionist Greg Ellis began making music as Vas in 1995, both bringing to the…
Music For a Global Gathering
Hamsa Lila – Gathering One (BRG/In The Pocket BRG 1268 2424701262 2, 2003) If a good fusion band is one that knows how to combine the…
The Eyes Have It
Ojos de Brujo – Bari (Europe: La Fábrica de Colores/USA: World Village 468024, 2004) Flamenco ain’t what it used to be, and if the purists want…
It’s the Thought that Counts
Think Of One – Chuva Em Po (Zonk Records LCM 100036, 2004) After three album’s worth of cleverly mixing their eccentric Euro-jazz with Moroccan music, Belgium’s…