Category: World Music

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

According to an old Swedish legend, a traveling witch doctor and her disciples were led to Korpilombolo, a tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village by a Sami traveller. The reasons why that Sami traveller may have decided to lead the witch doctor to a remote, Northern Swedish village has been lost to history — these things happen after all — but strangely enough, within Korpilombolo, the practice of voodoo quickly became common and continued unabated and fairly unnoticed for several centuries. During the time of the Crusaders, the Catholic Church had discovered that heretical and non-Christian practices were occurring in the tiny and remote Northern Swedish village, and a small band of Crusaders were sent to burn the villagers out and the village down. Whoever survived returned when it was safe, rebuilt their village and have since continued to practice voodoo.

Reportedly, the rather mysterious and masked collective GOAT hails from Korpilombolo — and a great deal of their work thematically and aesthetically draws influence from voodoo, spirit conjuring, psychedelia and other practices. And although little is generally known about the collective, they quickly built up a national profile across Sweden. In a series of coincidences that could only seem to happen in the age of the Internet, the band signed to renowned indie label Sub Pop Records, who released the act’s sophomore full-length effort, Commune and a couple of 7 inches to critical acclaim internationally. Last year, the collective’s “It’s Time For Fun”/”Relax” 7 inch was written while  in their native Sweden but recorded in the Americas —   A side single “It’s Time For Fun” recorded here in NYC, while B side single “Relax” was recorded in Sao Paulo — and had the act expanding and experimenting with their sound through the use of synths and drum programming that pushed their sound towards a trippy world music-leaning post-punk similar to Talking Heads.

The Northern Swedish collective’s forthcoming “I Sing In Silence”/”The Snake of Addis Ababa” 7 inch is slated for a May 27 release through Sub Pop Records and their latest effort  reveals that the act is continually expanding upon and experimenting with their sound — this time going completely acoustic as a gorgeous and fluttering flute line is paired with a shuffling and elastic guitar line, gently propulsive drumming and chanted vocals as you’ll hear on the A side single “I Sing In Silence.” And interestingly enough, the single strikes me as sounding as though it’s heavily indebted to early prog rock — in particular think of Yes’ “Roundabout“–  and psych rock as “I Sing In Silence” possesses a similar trippy and expansive vibe.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Adriana Giordano (vocals), Meese Agrawal Tonkin (flute), Rosalynn De Roos (clarinet), Jamie Maschler (accordion), Mike Withey (piano), Adam Kozie (drums) and Martin Strand, the Seattle, WA-based septet En Canto specialize in a sound that meshes several distinct genres of Brazilian music, including Forro, the dance music of Northeastern Brazil; samba, which is probably Brazil’s most popularly known and beloved genre; and choro within a repertoire that features both originals, as well as reworked and re-imagined covers of classic Brazilian hits. Interestingly, as the story goes the Seattle, WA-based septet can trace their origins to four years ago when the individual members were at a North American celebration of Brazilian music in the California Redwoods. What the-then future members of En Canto quickly noticed, every instrument and stage was dominated by men — the women in attendance were expected to sing, cheer or act demure. And what male maestros, audiences and fellow performers here and in Rio have quickly learned since En Canto’s formation is that the ladies in the band simply don’t do the demure thing. “We love this music because of its compositional brilliance, its original grooves, and its revolutionary nature. It has roots in post-colonialism, in cultural battles for class and racial equality,” accordionist Jamie Maschler explains in press notes “Why wouldn’t it also inspire gender equality?”

Primarily playing in North American venues, the Seattle-based septet have developed a reputation for being fiercely independent, challenging stereotypes within Brazilian music, while also helping audiences expand their comfort zones. As the band’s Adam Kozie explains in press notes “We make people dance. We routinely open our concerts to a room full of shy, awkward faces, and we close them to a sweat-drenched melee of bodies and smiles. We experience real joy when we play these songs, and people feel that, and they respond in kind, regardless of whether they understand the words or know the ‘right’ dance moves. It was the same for each us at one point when we first heard Luiz Gonzaga or Gilberto Gil—we were provoked and then captured by the music, and we feel honored to be able to offer our own interpretations of it.”

After spending a month in Brazil, the members of En Canto went into the studio to record their full-length debut Solto por Jeri, which translates from Brazilian Portuguese to English as Released to Jeri, a nickname for Jericocoara, Ceara, an old fishing village on the Brazil’s Atlantic coast, and a region of the country that adores Forro — the most popular genre of music and dance in Northeastern Brazil. Immersed in the culture that inspired the genre, the members of the band wound up in the middle of impromptu jam sessions, which then became writing sessions for the album.

“Elas,” which I have the unique pleasure of premiering here on this site begins with a slow-burning intro that has the band pairing Giordano’s gorgeous vocals with a breezy melody consisting of twisting and turning clarinet, accordion and flute notes punctuated with shuffling percussion that quickly turns into a salsa-like samba section consisting of gorgeous bop-era jazz-inspired piano, staccato percussion. The entire composition possesses a sleek, coquettish yet confident sensuality while subtly revealing the septet’s playfully and charmingly modern take on Brazilian music  and on genres that are largely unfamiliar to North American ears. Granted, as a native of Queens, NYC, one of the most diverse places on Earth, En Canto’s sound is familiar as it evokes the streets of parts of Astoria, Jackson Heights and Corona as well as my folks record collections — in particular my mom is a huge fan of Brazilian music, so I’ve heard a fair amount of it as a child. Bout my hope is that Seattle’s En Canto and contemporaries will introduce folks to  one of the world’s great dance music genres.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Return with Psychedelic, Egypt-Inspired Visuals for “Sphynx”

Comprised of founding members Marlon Magnée (keyboards), Sacha Got (guitar), Sam Lefevre (bass), Noé Delmas (drums) and Lucas Nunez, along with a rotating cast of vocalists including current lead vocalist Clémence Quélennec, lara Luciani, Jane Peynot and Marilou […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Check Out Joe Driscoll and Sekou Kouyate’s Breezy and Funky Cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Boogarins and O Terno Team Up for a Trippy Cover of Classic Brazilian Psych Rock

Towards the second half of 2015, the Brazilian indie psych rock quartet Boogarins quickly became a JOVM mainstay, and if you had been frequenting this site over that period dog time, I had written about a couple […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Breezy Tropicalia of Santiago de Cuba’s Septeto Santiaguero

With the release of 8 full-length albums, the 3 time Cubadisco Award-winning, 2 time Latin Grammy-nominated Santiago de Cuba-based septet Septeto Santiaguero have developed an internationally recognized profile for a sound that draws from the […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

While the States and the rest of the Western world was in the height of “Flower Power,” “The Age of Aquarius,” were protesting for civil rights for people of color and women and against the Vietnam War in 1967, Nigeria descended into a bloody civil war. The rock scene that developed during the bloodshed and destruction would eventually help heal and unite the country, propagate a new ideal of the Modern Nigerian, and perhaps most important for us, help propel Fela Kuti to stardom once the conflict ended in 1970.

Wake Up You!, a compilation that Now-Again Records will be releasing as a two volume book with companion CDs and vinyl, featuring research from renowned musicologist Uchenna Ikonne and an incredible array of never-seen photos that will tell the stories of some of Nigeria’s long-forgotten but best rock bands — bands that specialized in a sound that meshed funk, psych rock and rock in a way that was unique and particularly Nigerian, while being remarkably familiar to Western ears. And on Volume 1 single Ify Jerry Krusade’s “Everybody Likes Something Good,” you’ll hear a sound that’s heavily indebted to James Brown, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T and the MGs and several other things as heavily wah-wah pedaled guitar, soaring organ chords, sinuous and throbbing bass lines, layers of percussion are paired with call and response vocals but what also makes this single and the compilation so important is that sonically the material manages to nod towards Fela Kuti’s early releases; so in many ways, this single and the rest of the compilation will likely fill in the gaps for audiophiles everywhere while introducing new listeners to some of the funkiest stuff out of the late 1960s you’d ever hear.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Typically, the majority of most Americans — hell,  most Westerners, really — are largely unfamiliar with music scenes and artists outside of the usual bastions of popular music — i.e., the US. the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Sweden, Iceland and maybe a few outside of that sphere, such as Nigeria, South Africa, Mali and a few others. Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past couple of years, there has been a increasing focus on presenting and covering artists from diverse backgrounds from all over the globe. And interestingly enough, one of those acts has been the Istanbul, Turkey-based indie rock/dream pop quartet The Away Days. Inspired by The Cure, Tame Impala and others, the quartet have developed a reputation in their homeland as being among the forefront of a Western-inspired indie rock scene. Their How Did It Start? EP was released to critical praise internationally from the likes of Seattle‘s renowned indie radio station KEXP, The Guardian, SPIN Magazine, Noisey, and the blogosphere. And with a growing international profile, the quartet went on a tour of the UK and made an appearance at SXSW.

It’s been close to 18 months since I’ve last written about them but in that time, they’ve been working on the material, which would eventually comprise their long-awaited and forthcoming full-length debut, slated for release sometime next year. The yet unnamed debut’s first single “Less Is More” is a lush and atmospheric song that features plaintive vocals paired with four-on-the-floor drumming, shimmering guitar chords, brief bursts of cascading synths, a sinuous bass line and soaring, anthemic hooks that sounds indebted to 80s New Wave and post-punk.

2016 looks to be a big year for the Turkish quartet as the band has been confirmed to make a return appearance at SXSW in March and will be announcing additional tour dates to support their debut. Hopefully, there will be a New York tour date or two!

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over course of its history, you may recall coming across several posts on Brooklyn-based quintet Super Hi-Fi, who were something of a mainstay act on this site back in 2012. The core members of the band led by Ezra Gale (bass) features Rick Parker (trombone). Jon Lipscomb (guitar) and Madhu Siddappa (drums) can actually trace their origins to a rather unlikely start. Gale, who was a founding member of the acclaimed San Francisco-based Afrobeat act, Aphrodesia had relocated to Brooklyn and was collaborating with Quoc Pham in Sound Liberation Front when Gale was asked to get a band together for Pham and Gale’s then-monthly Afro-Dub Sessions parties in Williamsburg. The parties would pair the live band with several top-name dub producers and DJs including Victor Rice, Prince Polo, Subatomic Sound System, the Beverley Road All-Stars and others.

With the release of their critically applauded debut effort, Dub to the Bone released through Electric Cowbell Records in 2012, the Brooklyn-based quintet won quite a bit of attention locally and nationally as they’ve played renowned local venues such as the Mercury Lounge, the now-closed Zebulon and Brooklyn Bowl and have opened for nationally known acts including Rubblebucket, Beats Antique and John Brown’s Body. Over the past couple of years, Super Hi-Fi have recorded and released two 45s on Electric Cowbell, a split 7 inch with Ithaca, NY-based act Big Mean Sound Machine through Peace and Rhythm Records and  Yule Analog, Vol 1.,  a dub-inspired take on Christmas standards.

Super Hi-Fi’s soon-to-be released new album Yule Analog, Vol. 2 picks up on where Yule Analog, Vol 1. left off  — with dub-inspired takes on another batch of holiday classics and a holiday-inspired original dub composition. Featuring contributions from renowned trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, best known for his work with The Lounge Lizards, Bill Frisell and Charlie Hunter; Mitch Marus, best known for his work with Donovan, The Dean Ween Group, and Aphrodesia; as well as Adrian Harley and Alex Castle, who collaborate with Gale in the old school groove project, The Get It. And much like their previously recorded effort, Prince Polo took up production duties, recording the material on analog tape and mixed the album using vintage reverb and tape delay units — in the fashion of legendary dub masters King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Yule Analog Vol. 2′s latest single, which I have the unique privilege of premiering here is a trippy, dub rendition of an old time Christmas classic “O Come All Ye Faithful” which features the trombone-led compositions that won the attention of the blogosphere — the trombone gives the song a regal, old-timey feel while the reverb and bass heavy dub pushes the song towards a funky shoegazer territory. It’s a sunny and playful rendition of an extremely familiar song that puts a completely different spin on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Massama Dogo (lead vocals, guitar), Clayton Englar (sax), Megan Nortrup (sax), Scott Aronson (bass), Franck Martins (lead guitar). and Aaron Gibian (percussion and drums), the Washington, DC-based sextet Elikeh has developed a reputation for material that sonically has been classified as Afropop, as it draws influence from Western Africa — frequently meshing traditional Togolese rhythms with rock, funk, jazz with lyrics that deal with global themes and personal journeys.

Dogo, the band’s leader was born in Togo and while in the African nation, he played and sang in several local bands, including a local band also named Elikeh, with whom he released one album, Nyade in 2007. Several years later, Dogo relocated to Washington, DC met the current lineup and then wrote, recorded and released their 2010 Stateside debut, Adje! Adje! The sextet’s 2012 release Between 2 Worlds featured renowned Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Toure and Further and Dark Star Orchestra‘s John Kadlecik received international attention in World Music circles.

As the story goes, the band was considering calling it quits, finishing out the songs they had booked and moving on to other creative endeavors. During a band meeting in which the members of the band were going to discuss their future and splitting up, the band’s guitarist Frank Martins kept playing the entire time. He came up with a musical idea, someone else would join in, another band member would join in and then everyone began jamming — until they developed a song. One of the sax players had recorded the jam session and while listening to that session, the members of the band realized that their break up talk was premature. “We’re all excited about the band now,” Dogo mentioned in press notes. “It’s lucky the guitarist didn’t want to put down his instrument. The EP saved us.”

 That jam session inspired “The Conversation,” which appears on the Washington, DC-based sextet’s recently released Kondona, an EP that gets it title from ” a ceremony they hold every five years in the northern part of my country,” Dogo explains. “It’s an initiation, a way to welcome the young men into the adult part of the community. It seemed right for what had happened to us, although we still have a long way to go.”
The EP’s first single the aforementioned “The Conversation” manages to possess clear elements of Afrobeat and sounds partially influenced by Fela Kuti (in particular Afrodesiac/Open and Close and Expensive Shit/He Miss Road-era Fela) and contemporary American Afrobeat bands, including fellow DC area band The Funk Ark, NYC’s Ikebe Shakedown and others,

as the song begins with an introductory section with soaring organ chords throughout  before establishing the tight, percussive groove that holds the entire song together, and allows for each section and each instrumentalist to show off their immense chops — and conversing with each other throughout the length of the song. Of course, each region of the world specializes in subtle variations of the genre so that Togolese Afrobeat won’t be exactly the same as American Afrobeat or Nigerian Afrobeat — and in the case of Elikeh, the band’s sound possesses subtle elements of highlife, the genre that influenced Fela, thanks to its upbeat feel. But interestingly enough there’s subtle elements of pop and other African traditional sounds, which helps to set them apart from a very crowded DC Afrobeat scene. And yet somehow, from listening to this single it’s surprising to me that they’re not much larger than what they currently are; hopefully, the blogosphere can get it right.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting over the past few days or follow me through Twitter or Instagram, the annual CMJ Festival, which presents new and emerging artists to music industry folks — namely, college radio programmers, bloggers, journalists, A&R and others, and the general public at a rather insane number of showcases and concerts across Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. For a music fan and journalist, it manages to simultaneously be the best thing in the entire world and a daunting and exhausting experience.

Last night, I walked out of my apartment at 12:40 to pick up credentials for the festival, saw seven — yes, that’s right, seven — different sets of music across three or four different genres and wound up walking into my door at 5:45 this morning. And I’m about to repeat some of that complete madness today. Fun times.

As you can imagine, as a result I just haven’t had a chance to post as much as I would have preferred over the past couple of days. But I’ll be back to more regular posting as we begin a new week. And yes, you can expect some CMJ-related coverage here shortly; however, in the meantime, let’s get to some necessary business  . . .

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM for a bit, you may be intimately familiar with the Austin, TX-based collective Grupo Fantasma. Since their formation 15 years ago, the collective has developed a reputation as being one of the US’s preeminent, independent Latin bands as the collective has been nominated for multiple Grammies and won a Grammy for their 2011 effort, El Existential, as well as praise from the likes The Wall Street Journal, Billboard and USA Today, who once called the band “Latin funk masters.” Adding to an extensive national profile, the collective has had music placements in a wide array of film and TV shows including AMC‘s Breaking Bad, ABC’s Ugly Betty, NBC‘s Law and Order, Showtime‘s Weeds and the John Sayles‘ film Casa de los Babys.  And the collective has also had a long-held reputation for being one of the best live funk bands in the country, and as a result they’ve backed Prince for The ALMA Awards, The Golden Globes and CBS‘ Super Bowl Bash, Fania All-Stars‘ pianist Larry Harlow, Sheila E., The GZA, Gina Chavez, and renowned indie rock band (and fellow Austinites) Spoon.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Groupo Fantasma. Perhaps because of the finances behind being a large band, the current lineup — now comprised of nine full-time members — has frequently split off into a variety of side projects and other musical concerns, including a Turkish pop-inspired project and the funk and heavy metal project Brownout, which has spent the better part of the past two years touring with a unique concept — Latin funk-based interpretations and reworking of Black Sabbath that the band dubbed Brown Sabbath. (Imagine some of your favorite Black Sabbath tunes with horns, congas and the like. Yeah, seriously. And it’s honestly pretty fucking awesome, as it adds an unexpected nuance and a different interpretation on songs that have long been familiar – without ruining the song’s intent and spirit.)

Grupo Fantasma’s soon-to-released  fifth full-length effort Problemas is slated for an October 30 release through Blue Corn Music and the album marks the first time that the band worked with an outside producer — in this case, Steve Berlin, who’s also a renowned horn player and keyboardist. As bassist Greg González explained in press notes, “We thought a new process would help us find a unique voice and create a story. It would’ve been easier and cheaper to record everything ourselves and reuse the same techniques which successfully garnered us a Grammy and two nominations for successive albums (Sonidos Gold and El Existential) but the desire was to push ourselves in new directions.”

During the writing and recording process, Berlin influenced the members of the band to streamline their music as much as possible so that the band’s songwriting and unique approach would come out to the forefront of their recorded sound — and to give voice to their experiences and influences without falling into being pigeonholed as merely a Latin, Texas or “World Music” album or be dismissed as a calculated attempt at crafting a crossover album. In fact, the album also reportedly draws from a variety of influences including heavy metal, indie rock, funk, hip-hop, jazz, African music, Eastern European music, gypsy music, South American. Cuban, Tex-Mex and others. Now you might have come across the album’s first single “Solo Un Sueno” revealed a stripped down songwriting approach, which naturally forces the listener’s attention to the song’s lyrics. Sonically, the song clearly draws from Latin music, funk and Eastern European music, as it possesses a twisting and turning song structure that’s spacious enough to allow for each section to do their thing.

The album’s latest single “Roto El Corazon” is a bit more of a straightforward-leaning percussive salsa song with elements of atmospheric psych rock towards the song’s coda, that sounds (for the most part) as though it could have been released during the Fania Records days. Obviously in this composition, the incredible horn and percussion sections are the heroes, pulling the heavy weight of the song’s muscle and melody throughout while being roomy enough for the vocalist and his lyrics to effortlessly flow through the mix. But interestingly enough the song manages to have a lot going on — while feeling unfussy and stripped down to nine guys sounding like they were jamming at a club.