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Pop
Culture Press Around the World is
a regular feature of the Pop Culture Press
website and examines musical topics and artists
that fall outside of our normal editorial focus.
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By Andy Smith
2005 was quite an interesting year for world
music and featured a number of exciting releases;
some of which were among the best records of
the year in any genre. So in an effort to give
due notice to as many of these records as possible,
especially since many did not quite fit into
the general Pop Culture Press editorial direction,
let's take a trip around the world and roundup
the diverse styles and genres that comprise
the impossibly vague but still fitting category
of "world music."
 Now,
if you are going to embark on a global journey,
why not start off with a record that truly attempted
to bring together as many divergent musical
styles as possible. Trans-Global Underground's
Impossible Broadcasting (Troliko/Artemis) showcases
this London-based collective's attempts to mix
as many musical styles together to create a
truly multi-cultural sound. The result provides
a soundtrack for a global journey, and maybe
even more accurately, it musically captures
the 21st century melting pot of cultures and
sounds found in modern major cities such as
the group's London homebase.
There were also a couple of globally focused
compilations that deserve mention. Another World
is Possible (Uncivilized World) is admirable
for both musical and philosophical reasons.
Combining powerful musical contributions by
such internationally recognized artists as Manu
Chao, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Femi Kuti,
Salif Keita, the Skatalites, Massive Attack,
Moby, and Grandaddy with extensive essays on
the effects of globalization by such thinkers
as Noam Chomsky, Jose Saramago, and Arundhati
Roy, and Subcomandante Marcos, this CD makes
quite an effective argument against capitalism's
global rampage. The music is uniformly excellent
as it weaves through differing styles and tempos
but never loses momentum and passion. The musical
show stealer might be Serbian filmmaker/musician
Emir Kusturica's version of the Clash's "Lost
in the Supermarket."
Another interesting compilation comes from
BBC DJ Charlie Gillett, who assembled the excellent
Sound of the World collection which features
33 tracks on 2 CDs and includes contributions
from artists in 28 countries. Some of the year's
breakout artists are here including Mali's Amadou
and Mariam and Brazil's Seu Jorge as well as
such established international stars as Youssou
N'Dour, Ali Farka Toure, and Oliver Mtukudzi.
However, this compilation has some obscure gems
including Siberian musician Ivan Kupala's totally
cool instrumental "Geo" and New Zealanders
DJ Fitchie and Joe Dukie's haunting "Midnight
Marauders."
If we keep Europe as our focus, there were
a number of interesting releases that gave a
new spin on older styles. One of the year's
most hailed releases came from Poland's Warsaw
Village Band whose Uprooting (World Village)
record took traditional folk music instrumentation
and field recordings of elderly people singing
and mixed it all with raucous energy.
Another unique take on traditional instrumental
styles arrived right at the end of the year
and also came from a Polish group,. The all-accordion
Motion Trio unveiled Play-Station (Asphalt Tango),
which merged their squeezebox virtuosity with
their fondness for video games. The result is
a demented sort of French Riviera café
on acid soundtrack.
Farther to the south in Romania, the Asphalt
Tango label discovered a lost gem in the form
of Sounds From a Bygone Age, Volume 1, the product
of some remarkable sessions of an all-star band
assembled by Ion Petre Stoican during the 60's
and 70's. In 1965, after turning in a foreign
spy to the Romanian secret police, Stoican was
offered a house as compensation, but inside
he asked to be allowed to make a record. Granted
permission and access to the state-run recording
studios as a result of this event, he recruited
some of the finest musicians in the country
and with the blessing of the Romanian dictatorship,
made his one and only recording with this all-star
group. With Stoican now deceased, this record
lives as a monument to the innate desire of
musicians to create no matter how difficult
the circumstances.
 To
the west, in the Vojvodina region of Serbia,
acclaimed musician and multimedia artist Boris
Kovac and his group La Campanella released World
After History (Piranha), on which Kovac and
company try to bring together the divergent
eastern and western traditions that meet in
the Balkan region. The result mixes excellent
musicianship with a wry sense of dark humor
and playfulness as well as moments of great
solemnity and grace.
Continuing back to western Europe to France,
the just released US version of Les Yeux Noirs'
record tChorba should turn some heads as we
get into 2006. Led by the classically trained
Slabiak brothers, Eric and Olivier, the group
(whose name meaning "black eyes" is
a French translation of a Russian gypsy song
made famous by Django Reinhardt) mixes its instrumental
skill with a love of traditional Yiddish and
Roma (gypsy) music but also reflects the members'
youth as fans of such rock musicians as David
Bowie. The record might be too slick for fans
of more traditional folk styles, but the Slabiak
brothers' twin violins are certainly something
to behold.
Down in Spain, the theme of new spins on traditional
styles was continued in fine form by Martires
Del Compas, the Andalucian group who take traditional
flamenco styles and drag them through rock,
blues, and West African influences creating
something singer Chico Ocana calls "flamenco
billy." The group's No Papeles/No Papers
(World Village) record illustrates this hybrid
with a deluge of nylon-stringed guitars, plenty
of energy, and Ocana's rough-hewed but soulful
vocals. Flamenco traditionalists might scoff
at this, but there is an undeniable energy and
accessibility to it and in a market where the
Gypsy Kings once achieved crossover success,
Martires Del Compas may be able to do the same.
2005 also saw the return of an old favorite
in the release of Linton Kwesi Johnson's Live
in Paris record on Wrasse/LKJ. Backed by the
excellent Dennis Bovell Dub Band, Johnson gracefully
rolls through thirteen tracks of his signature
dub-poetry style where he chants anti-racist
anthems and pays homage to fallen comrades in
the British civil rights movement. Back in the
80's when he first came to attention, Johnson
was a controversial and provocative figure,
but now, even though his words have lost none
of their sting, he comes across as a distinguished
elder statesman whose ideas are still as potent
and relevant as they were two decades ago.
A major part of the European round-up involves
artists in exile from their native lands, either
by choice or circumstance. In many ways, this
phenomenon reflects on both the changing multi-cultural
face of Europe, and of the commercial opportunities
unavailable to many artists in their homelands.
 In
France, two Algerian artists drew strong interest
though their styles are quite different. Rachid
Taha's Tekitoi (Wrasse) boldly confronts his
fellow Arabs about finding their individual
identities and casting a skeptical eye at the
conforming powers of media and religion. The
music mixes Taha's gruff vocal style with a
stew of traditional sounds, distorted guitars,
and electronic elements. It also features a
totally wicked cover of the Clash's "Rock
the Casbah" which gives the original a
polyrhythmic, North African makeover.
Souad Massi's sound is certainly sweeter, as
evidenced on her Honeysuckle (Mesk Elil) release
(Wrasse), but the record is no less determined,
especially when you considered the cultural
hurdles a female singer in an Islamic country
has to overcome. Massi risked great public scorn
in her native city of Algiers for her attempts
at being a professional singer, so six years
ago, she emigrated to France and was signed
to recording deal at a time when she was considering
giving up her dreams of being a professional
musician. Her new record is a lovely, lilting
affair but has strong undercurrent of assertiveness
and self-determination.
In Portugal, we find two singers earning acclaim
for music that reflects countries that they
are far removed from but which still hold great
influence. The first of these is the Portuguese-born
Lura, whose family is from the Cape Verde Islands
archipelago that sits west of Senegal in the
Atlantic Ocean. Far from a lush tropical paradise,
these islands' arid climate and isolation have
caused so many people to leave that the exiled
population now exceeds the resident population.
Lura's music blends her interest in styles from
Cape Verde with a breezy musical style that
could fit into the adult-contemporary category.
Her di korpu ku alma record (Lusafrica/Escondida)
will appeal to fans of lighter, slicker styles
and also includes a live concert DVD.
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