New Releases! Mon 16/11/09

A variety of new releases approaches you today, as they were a comet about to crash into the surface of the Earth.

Panama! 3 - Various Artists

Soundway’s latest release in the series. Due to its totally unique geographical location connecting North and South America, Panama’s music is a soulful blend of Latin American, Caribbean, European and indigenous forms. From bilingual calypsos to guajira jazz, from tropical guarachas to cumbia tamboreras, Panamanian musicians fearlessly combined and brilliantly executed styles that reflected their multicultural environment during a turbulent time in the young country’s history.

Soundway are offering you the opportunity to preview the whole album, just follow the link.

 

fRoots Critics Poll Announced!

Since the BBC ceased its Awards For World Music after 2007, the fRoots Critics Poll Albums Of The Year continues in its own right as the de facto flagship industry awards. They have wide support including from all the previous partners in the BBC Awards.

The nominees for the 2009 awards have been announced:

 

Live Review! Azymuth

Azymuth – Ronnie Scott’s, Soho – Thu 12/11/09

Azymuth

I was fortunate enough to catch Brazilian samba-jazz trio Azymuth at one of their shows on their 5-date excursion to British soil.

The elders’ set was permeated with a sense of youth and playfulness with various percussion battles taking place. There was a tambourine battle between drummer Ivan Conti and keyboard player Jose Roberto Betrami, Ivan trumping Jose by pulling out a bigger tambourine; Jose at one point was playing a solo using a two-tone wood block with a long-handled castanet* (see figure A), to extraordinary percussive effect.  Bass player Alex Malheiros pulled out a pair of agogo bells on more than one occasion too.

 

Free Tracks From Navigator/Reveal Records!

Our friend Tom Rose from Navigator and Reveal Records have compiled a 30-track mix “tape” of some of their favourite artists, including Jon Redfern, Bellowhead, Chris Wood, Kris Drever, Madam, Alyth, Mawkin:Causley, Lau, Boo Hewerdine and many others.

The songs are all available for download as well as streaming and you can find them on the Independent website.  The music is available for 4 weeks only (ie. until Friday 11th December 2009) so make sure you get over there and download the lot for free!

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Sam Baker on Bob Harris!

The country-blues singer/guitarist who was left permanently injured as a result of a terrorist bomb is to make an appearance on Bob Harris‘ show this Saturday.  He will be playing some songs live and will also be joined by Norah Jones.

The show starts at 11:00pm, although will most likely be available on the iPlayer after the event.  In  a strange turn of events, they are on after Bon Jovi whom our friends next door in Proper Records are listening to right now.

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Imagined Village – New Album and Tour!

Yours truly has just had the pleasure of making some promo CDs for The Imagined Village.  We had a listen to it too!  It was very good!  But you’ll have to wait to hear it!  Ha ha!

 

New Releases! Monday 09/11/09

A torrent of new releases floods towards you today, like wild rapids in a Canadian mountain river:

Rupa & The April Fishes – Este Mundo

With their second album, Rupa & the April Fishes hold up a carnival mirror to life and present a warped, humorous and occasionally disquieting reflection, blending an alternative pop attitude with international spices, mixing in elements of Gypsy swing, Colombian cumbia, French chanson and Indian ragas.

Available on CD and Download.

 

Moustaches!

Badamsinh Juwansinh Gurjar , owner of a fantastic moustache

There’s nothing better than visiting your favourite music blog to find out that they’re talking about moustaches, is there?

To an extent, that’s what happened to us when we visited the Times site the other day, as we were treated to their article The Top 25 Moustaches In Pop.  Don’t worry, Freddie Mercury is in there.

November is also of course Movember, an excuse for men to grow a moustache but to also to raise money for The Prostate Cancer Charity.  So if you know anyone who’s growing their lip rug, make sure you sponsor them to raise money for the war against cancer.

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New Charlie Winston Video!

We’ve just found out about this, it’s a video for Kick The Bucket by Charlie Winston, taken off the album Hobo.  It features skeletons!  Glow-in-the-dark dancing skeletons!

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Lack of Updates!

Dear regular readers, you’ll have no doubt noticed that the blog hasn’t been updated for a couple of days.  Apologies, we’ve all been very busy.

Your faithful correspondent spent Monday night selling merch for Portico Quartet and Sweet Billy Pilgrim.  I’d say it was a great gig but due to the fact that the merch stall at Koko is in the foyer and outside the main hall we couldn’t see or hear it.

Subscribers to our newsletter will be pleased to hear that i’ve spent the last day attempting to make it look pretty.  Hopefully you’ll like it and the whole exercise won’t have been a complete waste of time.  For those of you who haven’t subscribed, you get to listen to music if you do!  You can sign up here.