Around the World Preview - 30 May & 1 June
Coming up on Sunday at 10:00 pm and Tuesday at 7:00 pm
Hello and thanks for subscribing to the Around the World weekly newsletter previewing this week’s show. 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.
Listen to last week’s show: Part 1 here and Part 2 here
Like last week, it’s a “more for less show” as we head into the summer. More music, less me and consequently a bit more explanation in the newsletter.
Album of the Week: In last week’s newsletter I told you about my recent conversion to the music of Chilean superstar Mon Laferte. This week’s featured album is SEIS (SIX – it’s her 6th album). SEIS (in caps., I don’t know why) is a lockdown album, a product of not having the incessant touring and promotional pressures a musician like Mon Laferte normally faces. With a little more time to be creative she has made an inward musical journey in the country where she now lives, Mexico.
Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte has a string of awards, the first a local award in 2007, the majority over the last 5 years. Her first album was 2003 under the name Monserrat Bustamante. It’s a fairly straightforward pop album. Yet it was another eight years until her second release. According to Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Laferte] “she cites her grandmother who sang boleros as one of her first influences, and also recalls following her at young age to tango clubs in Valparaíso. She started her career at the age of 9, after winning a guitar in a singing contest. She received a scholarship to attend a musical conservatory in Viña del Mar at the age of 13, and soon after began playing in bars in Valparaíso and Santiago.”
Here are some other press cuttings about the new album.
“Mon Laferte may have always been versatile, but this very Mexican album is a surprise in comparison to what she’s done before. It’s a testament to her attachment to Mexico, the country the Chilean artist now calls home. The record features iconic regional Mexican artists such as Arolladora Banda El Limón de René Camacho, and Alejandro Fernandez (son of the very famous ranchera singer Vincente Fernandez), as well as famous pop singer Gloria Trevi. Mon Laferte embraces all Mexicos, in order to transmit her own picture and tribute to the country. The album is sprinkled with homages to Mexican rurality: they are found in the instrumentation, lyrics, as well as in the videos.” From Sound and Colours
“Overall, international fans who discovered Laferte after her 2016 major label debut may miss the sound they’ve grown to love. Any area’s regional music can take time for outsiders to appreciate, after all. Though boleros and the other featured styles have spread throughout Latin America, much like jazz or heavy metal in the United States, these genres still lack the universal appeal of more generalized pop music.” From Riff Magazine
The videos are stylish and witty as is the approach to the music. Here are a few examples.
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As you can see, I have become quite a fan. I will leave it to you to decide whether this is worth exploring further. But you can expect to hear more from Norma in subsequent shows.
Local Music: Are Lúnasa local? Close enough for me. There’s a track from their first album in the second hour. I’m well along planning the next handful of shows and there will be a little more local music in them. Here’s a lockdown concert from March this year.
New to me: Every week half or more of the bands I play are new to me, and this week there is a lot of “new” to listen for. For example:
Hoodna Afrobeat Orchestra “is a 14 piece Afrobeat group from Tel Aviv, playing a blend of free flow Afrobeat riddims and heavy dance-floor Afro funk.”
Tirana-Tirona AllStars’s Tirana 100 album “celebrates the heritage and artistic soul of the city, the best of Tirana’s music which represents also the urban music of central Albania. The album was produced to celebrate Tirana’s centenary as capital city with exclusive support by the Municipality of Tirana.” Incidently, Tirana is on my list of cities to visit when we are able to travel.
IRUN by NURI “an amalgam of then and now by combining archival field recordings from diverse African folkloric traditions with electronic beats, polyrhythmic grooves echoing the techniques of North African trance music.”
Esma's Band Next Generation “The members of this band come from very famous orchestra of the Queen of gipsy music Esma Redzepova”
Ariana Tikao is a singer, composer, and leading player of taonga puoro the indigenous musical instruments of Aotearoa (Māori name for New Zealand). She writes waiata exploring themes relating to her Kāi Tahu identity and mana wahine, often drawing upon historical kōrero from her ancestors.
This isn’t the track I’ll be playing, but something a little older.
From Around the World: Other countries represented include Norway, Gabon, Finland, and Sao Tomé & Principe. There will be some French rap and French rock and of course, more music from Spain.
There will be some classic oldies: How does a Jimi Hendrix track fit into the show? And is there a good reason to play Robert Wyatt? The answer to the second questions is “because the music is brilliant.” Listen in for an answer to the first.
And there will be banjos: From Edgelarks, and Jake Blount.
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