Almost the weekend and here’s a preview of this week’s Around the World. Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter. There will be an update on Wednesday.
Around the World is on Ferry FM and Slice Audio on Sundays at 10:00 pm to midnight and on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm on Bangor FM, Lisburn’s 98FM and FM105 Down Community Radio.
Last week’s show is on Mixcloud - the first hour here and the second hour here.
What’s new? Like last week, there is a lot of excellent new music to choose from. The at the outset, playlist was at least three times as long as the final running order with changes right up to the last minute.
One example of that is a track from Albaluna’s album Heptad, a band I hadn’t heard of until last week. They are from Portugal playing Iberian traditional music blending with soundscapes coming from distant lands, such as the Balkans or the Middle East, not forgetting the African rhythms, North European folk, and progressive rock. The new album is dedicated to the cultures of the Silk Road.
Other music from Europe includes Carola Ortiz a Spanish Jazz singer. She had a musical upbringing between the Jazz Cava de Terrassa and the Municipal Conservatory of Music. She began travelling at 18 and lived has lived in New York, India, Berlin, Brazil, Greece, and Turkey. In addition to contributing and collaborating in more than 20 albums, since 2016 has had her own solo career with the albums: Sirin (2016), twice nominated for the NY Independent Music Awards, and Spirala (2018). Still travelling as a professional jazz musician Carola Ortiz has performed in clubs and festivals in the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy, New York, Canada, India, Germany, England and Hungary.
Also listen out for the quite excellent Warsaw Village Band. Here’s something from them from 2013
And the very wonderful if slightly weird Balkan Taksim. Disko Telegraf is their debut album. On Bandcamp they describe themselves, thus: “Balkan psych meets bass, breaks and synth electronica with a touch of groove.”
Featured album: I wrote a lot about Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino last week https://davy.substack.com/p/around-the-world-preview-6-and-8 so no point in repeating myself. There will be four tracks from Meridiana which goes to the top of my personal favourites for the moment.
They previewed the whole album a few weeks ago on YouTube
Other highlights and countries include: Anansy Cissé. From the Guardian “In 2018, Anansy Cissé and his group were en route to play a peace festival in his hometown of Diré, in the Timbuktu region of Mali, when they were stopped by an armed gang, held captive and their instruments smashed. Cissé, a gifted guitarist whose debut album, Mali Overdrive, had made waves, was devastated: what was the point of singing about love and peace, he wondered, in a war-torn country like his? Cissé retreated to his home studio to record artists from the country’s young hip-hop scene.” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/13/anansy-cisse-anoura-review-mali
Dobet Gnahoré is a singer from Côte d'Ivoire with a great new album “Couleur”. “The daughter of percussionist Boni Gnahoré, she plays with the group Na Afriki, consisting mainly of French and Tunisian musicians, who accompany her with the guitar, sanza, the balafon, the calebasse and bongos. Due to the civil war, she moved to France in 1999.”
Kady Diarra’s Burkina Hakili blew me away this week. There will be one track on the show with a promise of many to come. She is from Burkina Faso.
And there is one mystery track that I need to find out more about. But first a suggestion for new bands – make your band name searchable. Panza by Monte is a useless name to search. Apparently “Monte di Panza is a short, yet rewarding hike across a cliff top close to the village of Panza on the west coast of Ischia” And a band called Monte? Too common a word but a great summer track. More to explore there too.
Music from Spain, Cuba, Belgium, Haiti, Dominica, Mexico, India and the Levant. There will be harps from the Czech Republic played by musicians from Senegal, Wales and Colombia.
And a whole lot more …
Back home for local music: Recorded at Millbank Studios, County Antrim from 2017-2020, the Co Down band TRÚ’s album No Fixed Abode is getting very supportive mentions and is already a favourite of the show. The album – available on Bandcamp
includes “Gaelic Walking songs and Scots lullabies to vengeful Japanese spirits and other mysterious characters, debut album ‘No Fixed Abode’ draws inspiration from centuries of folklore in Ireland, Britain and beyond.”
“The trú was a mythological trio of poet-musicians in ancient Ulster. They were revered throughout Ireland, some believing their songs and stories came to them from the future. Others maintained that the trú were possessed by spirits during performance. As such, they were considered gatekeepers to the Otherworld.”
And from the traditional and folk music of the County Down band to the Belfast rockers Auld Gods who have an exceptional pedigree and a contemporary story. “Auld Gods are a pandemic band, not having been in the same room since they started working together in March 2020. After commenting on a short instrumental track on YouTube, Davy McLarnon joined the Williamson brothers (Marty ex-Pleasure and the Beast, ex-Psychedelic Furs, and Mike ex-Lovers of Today and ex-Pig) in the project which was to produce music that allowed a bit of experimentation, didn’t disappear up its own arse, provided a bit of emotional investment and you could tap your foot to.” You can subscribe to their YouTube channel for updates.
That’s it from me for this week. Have a great weekend. Listen in on Sunday night (local). It could be a great end to the week and if you are listening in other parts of the world, perhaps an uplift on a Monday morning. Also on Tuesday evening (local).
Links:
What music should I be listening to? Send me a message about your music suggestions via my blog.
The Around the World archive on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/davysims/
Slice Audio: https://www.slice.audio/
Ferry FM: https://ferryfm.com/
And on Radio Garden
Bangor FM 107.9:http://radio.garden/listen/bangor-fm-107-9/IycUhUbT
Lisburn’s 98FM:http://radio.garden/listen/facebook/ASeqAEl8
FM105 Down Community Radio:http://radio.garden/listen/fm-105-down-community-radio/K8lBDGFf