new int'l...including The Concretes!
COMRADES! Can't find a pair of closed-toe white shoes to go w/ my wife's bridesmaid dress to save our lives. What to do? No matter! A bunch of great new international discs this week.....NATACHA ATLAS goes roots (as much as she is able to, apparently).....CHEIKH LO dazzles with Senegalese flair....SUSANA BACA sings poetry from around the world....SLAVIC SOUL PARTY! justifies the exclamation point.....ANOUAR BRAHEM offers an instrumental gem....and THE CONCRETES emerge fully formed from Sweden to storm the Top 200.....ONWARD!Artist: Slavic Soul Party!
Title: Bigger
Label: Barbès
Genre: int’l / Balkan brass +
Grade: A
What happens when Balkan rhythms and melodies reminiscent of Eastern Europe are blended with elements of New Orleans street music and tempered with an agitated set of sensibilities right up out of Brooklyn? This is Slavic Soul Party!, a feisty response to a relentlessly mutating global reality taking place here in the stressful glare of the future, where multiple traditions and rigorous revisions mingle like mad. Bigger makes for wonderful and exciting music, exuding a thrilling and unpasteurized blend of traditional forms cheerfully reconsidered and reconstituted by a restlessly rolling creative collective. (4 stars)
FCC Alert: Finish 06 with the music; swearing follows!
Reviewer: arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
Artist: Susana Baca
Title: Travesí
Label: Luaka Bop
Genre: int’l / the linguist’s vocalist
Grade: A
Baca shines on this set of songs set to poetry from all over Caravanland. Highlights include a duet with Gilberto Gil called “Estrella” (02), the Afro-Peru gem “Palomita Ingrata” (10), and the Creole cut “Merci Bon Dieu” (06), written by Hatian Frantz Casseus. Always acoustic, always keeping the vocals out front—morning mix friendly, and a specialty show must-spin…This is a set well worth investingating!
Reviewer: bjorn ingvoldstad
Artist: The Concretes
Title: In Colour
Label: Astralwerks
Genre: alt / indie
Grade: A-
The Concretes, from Stockholm, ground their overall sound with vocals, but what stands out is the creativity in the arrangements and instrumentation: trumpets, woodwinds, banjo, mandolin, background choruses, big guitars, organ and strings. It’s the sounds of the Scandinavian summer, with plenty of sun but also the occasional dark and moody storm.
Reviewer: Joey Burns, New York Times “Playlist”
Artist: Natacha Atlas
Title: Mish Maoul
Label: Mantra
Genre: int’l
Grade: A
Even when paying homage to the Moroccan music she grew up with, vocalist Natacha Atlas can't help but let the multicultural and modern seep in. With bossa nova, Western pop, and just a thin slice of electronica figuring into the mix, the "back to my roots" album Mish Maoul is a rich collection of music that doesn't sound decorated but natural coming from an artist who prides herself in being a musical nomad. Easy to believe a nomad's memories of her homeland would be foggy and sentimental, and easy to believe the modern nomad's soundtrack would sound something like this -- only something like this because this is far and away Atlas' most personal album. Her music isn't so much "otherworldly" now as "worldly" in the most eye-opening sense of the word. (4 stars)
Reviewer: David Jeffries, All Music Guide
Artist: Anouar Brahem
Title: Le Voyage de Sahar
Label: ECM
Genre: int’l / jazz
Grade: A
Over the past 15 years, Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem has assembled a relatively small but profound body of work. A skilled improviser who refuses to be part of the historical authenticity argument, Brahem works from the same trio setting that performed on Le Pas du Chat Noir in 2002, with pianist François Couturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. The dialogue between these players is, despite the sparseness of the music and the considerable space employed, intense… Brahem has given listeners another of his wondrous offerings, full of deceptively simple compositions that open into a secret world, one where beauty is so present that it is nearly unapproachable, and it is up to the listener to fill in the spaces offered them by this remarkable trio. (4 stars)
Reviewer: Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Artist: Cheikh Lô
Title: Lamp Fall
Label: Nonesuch
Genre: int’l
Grade: A
Lamp Fall is the first international release from the Senegalese singer/songwriter and guitarist Cheikh Lô, who has been recording for over 15 years. It is a collection of traditional and original songs that heavily showcase his trademark mbalax drums, reggae grooves, and funky polyrhythms, with a host of colors and textures added by widely varying instrumentation. Lamp Fall is an utter joy in that it's so dense that most of its secrets won't be revealed until many repeated listenings are undertaken. That said, its sunny sheen and easy, airy atmosphere are intoxicating and elegant. This is early candidate for one of the best recordings of 2006.
Reviewer; Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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