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Pop
Culture Press Around the World
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to Part 1
Part 2 - Rock standards given a
modern world music makeover
EASY STAR ALL-STARS
Dub Side of the Moon
DVD
Easy Star Records
ALBERT KUVEZIN AND YAT KHA
Re-Covers
World Village/Harmonia Mundi
At first blush the ideas behind the Easy All-Stars
Dub Side of the Moon and Re-Covers sound like
noble but bad ideas. A dub reggae treatment
of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and hearing
Tuvan throat singers sing Led Zeppelin and Joy
Division songs both sound like products pushed
in some horrible late night music infomercial,
even though both provide tremendously satisfying
listening experiences. Both of these groups
defy conventional wisdom by delivering records
that both give proper tribute to their originas
while taking the music in completely unexpected
and exciting directions.
Dub Side of the Moon makes perfect sense when
you listen to it. After all, the original has
accompanied bong hits since its release, so
the transition from space rock into dub is fairly
seamless. Recorded live at a theater in Falls
Church, Virginia, the packed concert setting
provides a special spark to the Easy All-Stars
performance of Dark Side of the Moon from start
to finish. The band is comprised of crack players,
whose sense of dynamics and deep grooves works
wonders with the original material. Hopefully
somewhere, someone is setting up a Dub Side
of the Moon laser light show at the local planetarium.
 The
Tuvan throat singers (from the isolated Siberian
province of Tuva, which borders Mongolia) received
attention in the late 90's for their work on
the acclaimed Genghis Blues by the late San
Francisco blues singer Paul Pena, as their unique
vocal sounds (which are not unlike the sounds
of a didjeridoo) brought new life to Pena's
work. Albert Kuvezin is one of the region's
best known throat singers, but with his band
Yat Kha, we get to see that western rock n'
roll has had a powerful influence on him. On
such classics as "In A Gadda Da Vida,"
"Black Magic Woman," and Bob Marley's
"Exodus," the musical arrangements
of these songs in Central Asian folk styles
with Kuvezin's low-pitched throat singing will
not be for every listeners' ears, but once you
get past the oddness of hearing these almost
hackneyed songs in a comleltely new light, there
are some very powerful moments. Testament to
this was how the version of "When the Levee
Breaks" was used on three different Hurricane
Katrina anniversary radio broadcasts I heard.
KAD
Societe
Beleza Records/Ether Music
 Kad
Achouri makes an appearance in this list because
of his soothing, lounge jazz cover of Nirvana's
"Come As You Are" on his Societe record.
Kad has born in southwestern France to parents
of Algerian and Berber descent. He was first
based in Barcelona before moving to London.
With a background in both jazz and French-North
African styles mixed with strident political
views and techno shadings, Societe sounds like
the cocktail lounge soundtrack of new multicultural
millennium. Also worth noting is Kad's distinctive
visual style which looks like a splendid Franco-Algerian
cross between Prince and Perry Farrell.
Part 3 - The Best of the New Discoveries
BOLE 2 HARLEM
Bole 2 Harlem, Volume 1
Sounds of the Mushroom
 Based
in New York City, Bole 2 Harlem is a project
with its sights firmly set on the horn of Africa
and the nation of Ethiopia. Combining the skills
of Ethiopian vocalist Maki Siraj and American
composer/instrumentalist David "Ashagre"
Schommer (whose father helped found the first
university in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa
during the 1950's). Also prominently featured
is Ethiopian rapper Tigist Shibabaw. The name
of the group is meant as a link between Harlem,
where the members are currently based, and Bole,
the name of the international airport outside
Addis Ababa from which the Ethiopians exit and
enter their native country. The result of this
collaboration is a high-energy, heavily groovy
record that will likely lead to dancing, so
handle with care around your less than funky
friends.
SKA CUBANO
Ay Caramba!
Cumbancha
This record will be absoultely irresistible
for people who appreciate ska, Cuban music,
or who just love infectious upbeat music. The
Ska Cubano project came together when British
music impresario Peter Scott brought London-based
ska musician Natty Bo to Santiago, Cuba to play
ska music with Cuban musicians. This led to
the meeting of Bo and singer Beny Billy, who
sings in a style eerily similar o the late great
Cuban crooner Beny More. The Cuban musicians
were unfamiliar with ska music, since the access
to other Caribbean musical style dried up after
the 1959 revolution, but many of the stylistic
origins of ska, that go back to the pre-Castro
days were well-known to the older Cuban musicians.
The result is a seamless mix of ska rhythms,
blaring Cuban jazz horns, and Beny Billy's deft
crooning. "Big Bamboo" sounds destined
to become a standard for ska bands everywhere.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
From Bakabush: The First Ten Years
of Stonetree
Stonetree
Based in Belize, the Stonetree label collects
music of Garifuna amd Creole people from the
Caribbean coast of Central America. Comprised
of both studio and field recordings, this compilation
features nine artists from Belize, Guatemala,
and Honduras. The styles are as disparate as
the region label head Ivan Duran covers, but
there are essential, unifying elements of insistent,
serpentine rhythms backing singers strumming
acoustic guitars and singing in the local dialect,
a sound that has been described as putting African
drums behind a Cuban son singer. Highlights
include the simply glorious "Naguya Nei"
by 76 year-old Belizean singer Paul Nabor, the
heavily reggae influenced "Lirun Dan"
by Lugua and the Larubeya Drummers from Honduras,
and "Que Sera Sera" by Belize City's
The Grandmaster, a classic dub poet in the finest
Linton Kwesi Johnson. The honest truth is that
there isn’t a single weak track on the
whole record. A truly splendid record that may
be the find of the year.
Part 4 - Other notable
releases
Cheikh Lo - Lamp Fall
(Nonesuch/World Circuit)
Cheikh Lo grew up in the West African nation
of Burkina Faso, though he is now based in the
Senegalese capital of Dakar. Having collaborated
with Senegal's world famous Youssou N'Dour,
Cheikh Lo has broken out worldwide in his own
right with Lamp Fall. Featuring an accessible
sound, the sound of Lamp Fall is more sophisticated
and commercial than some of the more rustic
sounds of other West African groups, but there
is no shortage of spiritual intensity and soul.
With this record appearing on many critics'
Best of 2006 lists, it's not hard to imagine
that Cheikh Lo is going to be a familiar name
for a long time.
Darko Rundek and Cargo Orkestar
- Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da (Migration Stories
and Love Songs) (Piranha)
Rundek left Zagreb, Croatia for Paris during
the Yugoslavian civil war and formed Cargo Orkestar
with fellow Balkan refugees and French musicians
in a unified desire to create something experimental
and original. With elements of jazz, traditional
Balkan brass, and acoustic and electronic elements
set against Rundek's poetic ramblings, the results
on display on Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da (Migration
Stories and Love Songs) seem to capture the
essence of the early morning hours in an empty
city.
DJ Bootsie - The Silent
Partner (Ugar Records)
DJ Bootsie hails from Hungary and plays down-tempo,
ambient electronic music with classical and
prog undercurrents. With track titles such as
"Horseriders Toward the Abyss" and
"Falconstalk," one can imagine this
as the soundtrack for some sort of medieval
knight epic. The introduction of a rapper on
"Vuluke Khall" breaks up the mood
a bit, while "Invisible Suit" heads
for funk territory.
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