Oumar Konate – Maya Maya (Clermont Music, 2016) Following up on his 2014 release of Addoh, Malian guitarist and vocalist Oumar Konate has hit the…
Blazing a New Path for Mali’s Musical Landscape
Category: Album reviews
Savagely Hip M.A.K.U. Soundsystem
M.A.K.U. Soundsystem – Mezcla (Glitterbeat Records, 2016) Done your stretches? Done your deep breathing exercises? Well, you’re going to need them when you get an…
Mayotte Afro-Rock
M’Toro Chamou – “Punk islands” (2016) Singer-songwriter, guitarist and composer M’Toro Chamou hails from Mayotte, an island located in the Indian Ocean near Comoros which…
Masters of Magyar Folk
Buda Folk Band – Saját gyujtés (Fono, 2015) Buda Folk Band demonstrates that it’s one of the finest Hungarian contemporary folk music bands. The string…
Transnational Recreations of Gloomy Sunday Song
Various Artists – Hungarian Noir – A Tribute to the Gloomy Sunday (Piranha, 2016) Odd submissions are just part and parcel to music reviewer, but…
Drawing the African Line
Call me a traditionalist, call me a purist, call me a snob, call me a journalistic hack. (Okay, that last one is kind of beside…
Dazzling French Nordestino Amalgam
Zé Boiadé – Zé qué casá (La Roda/Rue Stendhal, 2016) Zé Boiadé is a Franco-Brazilian band based in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. The quartet includes…
Pakistan-Brooklyn Connection
The sounds of various regions of Pakistan and klezmer come together in the new project called Sandaraa. The debut album incorporates the impressive vocals…
Different Combinations of Latin Spices
I‘ve long asserted that Latin music was the first “world” music to make its way into the mainstream. Arguable though that may be, there’s no…
Sketches of Spain
Not sure why, but I’ve recently been receiving a steady stream of music from the Fol label out of Spain. Some I initially put aside…