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Asia/Pacific: Reviews |
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Wednesday 1 October 2008
Asian Dub Foundation - Punkara
Punk rock fused with banghra, dub, hip-hop is their trade-mark sound and there’s no let up with their latest album as it is as ferocious as when Asian Dub Foundation first burst into our musical consciousness.
Sunday 28 September 2008
Richard E - Hear Me Now
It’s no word of a lie when I say some of the best times I’ve had have been with Richard E; mostly in a dark basement but hear me now, this is the 7” you’ve been waiting for!
Saturday 13 September 2008
V/A - Eclectic Development Vol. 2 (Sampler)
A Limited Edition 10” vinyl sampler precedes the full album but with the ‘Asian Mark Ronson’ on one side and with a band that takes their name from a sewing machine manufacturer on the other, this is more than enough to get us excited.
Saturday 13 September 2008
Recloose - Perfect Timing
If you think Recloose moved to New Zealand in 2001 to get away from it all never to be seen again, think again as Perfect Timing is 10 tracks of dance infused funk ‘n’ boogie that’s out now!
Friday 12 September 2008
V/A - Under The Sun (Movie Soundtrack)
Filmaker Cyrus Sutton joined forces with the mighty Ubiquity Records to make a documentary about surfing. Obviously, such a project needs a soundtrack and who better to pick than their very own Shawn Lee and a trio of Ozzies, Band Of Frequencies, Low Pressure Sound System and Afto Dizzi Act. ![]()
Saturday 6 September 2008
The Black Seeds - Solid Ground
The Black Seeds were a revelation on tour last year along with Eva Be so to say the new album is eagerly awaited is an understatement; thankfully Solid Ground is now here and sets the new foundation.
Sunday 17 August 2008
J.A.M - Just A Maestro
Hot on the heals of their appearance at Death Jazz, the debut album from a trio plucked out of Soil & “PIMP” Sessions is a maestro performance to the power of three. ![]()
Saturday 26 July 2008
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions - Planet Pimp
Soil & “Pimp” Sessions decide that for their third album, it’s time to take over a whole planet with their on full on death jazz attack.
Sunday 13 July 2008
Shimon & Nixon - Sexy Beast
This unlikely combination is as hot as a sexy beast right now as we get an early look at a dance floor monster; always a good thing if you ask me.
Wednesday 25 June 2008
V/A - The Rough Guide To The Music Of Japan
With that uncanny timing of things, whilst the Roundhouse host a night of with the SOIL & “Pimp” Sessions, The Rough Guide guys decide to go back to a time before Death Jazz! ![]()
Thursday 5 June 2008
Ravi Shankar - Barbican, London (Live Review)
Billed by the promoters as the great man’s final concert and by Ravi Shankar himself as hopefully just a semi-final, this gig was as much a homage to the man as a chance to hear him play one more time
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Unreleased Gems - Daisuke Tanabe
CD-R is a night run at London’s famed Plastic People club, giving budding producers and artists a chance to hear their work on a prized sound system among their peers, and under the tutorage of industry stalwarts Tony Nwachaku and Gavin Alexander…
Friday 16 May 2008
Trickbaby - Chor Bazaar
Evolving from the more gentle pop of the first album, the new Trickbaby is signed to canny label Wrasse (home of Rachid Taha) and features a harder version of the catchy Asian fusion we loved the first time round
Saturday 19 April 2008
Lyrics Born - Everywhere At Once
I’ve said it before, Lyrics Born, one of our favourite artists comes back big with his first studio album since 2003’s highly praised Later That Day
Sunday 9 March 2008
DJ Kawasaki - The Tokyo Crossover EP
DJ Kawasaki shows us his metal with this new EP, The Tokyo Crossover.
Thursday 31 January 2008
Fiona Soe Paing - No Man's Land
A short, intriguing debut release of world music electronica from a talented new singer from Scotland, by way of Burma.
Thursday 22 November 2007
Ustad Shahid Parvez & Shashank Subramaniam - Josh
North and South Indian traditional cultures connect to develop an entrancing dialogue between sitar, flute, mridangam and tabla which is beautifully fresh and enthralling from start to finish
Thursday 22 November 2007
Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty - St. Luke's Church (Live Review)
Relaxed and playful recital full of magic, from inside the beautiful St. Luke’s Church in London on November 13
Monday 19 November 2007
Ravishankar Upadhyay - Pakhawaj
The deeply rich tones of the pakhawaj, a highly revered North Indian barrel shaped drum, ring out clearly and mesmerise in this wonderfully recorded live setting
Friday 2 November 2007
Kaushiki Chakrabarty - Kaushiki
She won a BBC Award for World Music in 2005 for her breathtaking Sense Records album Pure, and now Kaushiki Chakrabarty is back with a follow-up every bit as stunning as that live album.
Sunday 30 September 2007
Cookin' On 3 Burners - Baked, Boiled & Fried
Cookin’ On 3 Burners are hot stuff in the kitchen of underground down under funk.
Thursday 27 September 2007
Sa Ding Ding - Alive
One of the hardest things to get right in this non-existent genre that we insist on calling ‘world music’ is the marriage between modern arrangements and traditional instrumentation and melodies. On Alive, China’s multi-million selling singer Sa Ding Ding has achieved just such a marriage with exceptional style and grace
Saturday 8 September 2007
Breakthrough - Breakthrough
Breakthrough may be a bit of an obvious title but don’t go overlooking the latest album to come out of Japan via Pantone as it’s got some Fly favourites on it.
Wednesday 5 September 2007
Toshio Iwai & Yamaha - Tenori-on
The worldwide launch of Tenori-on was held at the Vinyl Factory last night. Not one to miss an opportunity to be at the start of a revolution, in true suit marketing speak, I can announce, “The future has arrived!”
Friday 31 August 2007
Sevara Nazarkhan - Sen
Is this really the same Sevara that made the gorgeous album of traditional Uzbek music and modern beats, Yol Bolsin, a few years ago? Many of the same appealing elements abound on Sen, but there’s a considerable move in a modern, Westernised, direction
Friday 31 August 2007
Max Grunhard Quintet - Vortex
Fans of Impossible Ark Records will be going into spirals of ecstasy at the thought of a new release on the ever-improving label. Vortex is out now!
Sunday 19 August 2007
V/A - Sound of the World 2007 (Charlie Gillett)
Charlie Gillett mixes the well-known with underground discoveries, crosses continents, sifts thousands of songs, balances the sexes and blends contemporary and traditional on this year’s crop
Tuesday 14 August 2007
Setsubun Bean Unit - Setsubun Bean Unit
Banishing demons through funk and electronics is the agenda here, spread out over a diverse album filled with intriguing and inventive sounds.
Tuesday 17 July 2007
Rainforest World Music Festival - Sarawak, Malaysia (Live Review)
Picture steep-sided mountains covered in lush tropical rainforest with clouds forming in front of your eyes. The warm night air is filled with tantalising smells from the food stalls and above the sound of chirping cicadias, global sounds fill the natural bowl — the crowd turns its head as a flying fox is silhouetted against a giant floating globe light
Tuesday 10 July 2007
Shirley Eubanks Ensemble / Sexteto Excelencio - 'Blessing Song'/'Fire Eater'
As a preview to a new compilation on Freestyle, Black Feeling, here’s a stormer of a 12” to practice our jazz dance routines to
Sunday 8 July 2007
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions - Pimpoint
Death jazz gets funked up with the new album from the ultra-stimulating figureheads of the Japanese jazz scene
Sunday 24 June 2007
Fat Freddy's Drop - Fantastic Voyages Vol.1 (DVD)
This DVD of selected highlights of last year’s World Cup Tour captures FFD on their Fantastic Voyage around Europe with a cheap-as-chips bargain price tag.
Wednesday 20 June 2007
The Black Seeds - The Black Seeds EP
Wow! The mighty New Zealand crew, Fat Freddy’s Drop are in the country at the moment but the Best Seven guys have found another dope reggae band from the antipodes: The Black Seeds
Monday 18 June 2007
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions - 'Sahara'
Soil & ‘Pimp’ Sessions blow hot jazz from Tokyo like the merciless winds of the Sahara
Sunday 17 June 2007
OKI Dub Ainu Band - OKI Dub Ainu Band
Two years ago, OKI and his Dub Ainu Band burst onto the UK world music scene with a storming performance at WOMAD, taking the traditional North Japanese folk melodies played on the tonkori (a long, flat, unfretted guitar) and beefing them up with vocals, electric bass, percussion and occasional electric guitar to produce an exhilarating sound ranging from rock to dub to funk, without quite being exactly any of those things
Sunday 3 June 2007
Samon Kawamura - Translations
If you’re not into atmospheric cosmic hip hop beats, you soon will be as the half German, half Japanese Samon Kawamura releases his début album next month
Tuesday 8 May 2007
Regal - Loop Dreams
Original Wiseguy & Bronx Dog, highly regarded DJ Reggie ‘Regal’ Jackson delivers an album of smoked out bliss with supreme drums.
Tuesday 20 February 2007
Solaa - Steps In Time
We’re now quite used to getting good stuff from New Zealand and Solaa is no exception
Thursday 25 January 2007
V/A - Merdeka
West Papua is a country of surprising and hidden depths, which is echoed well in Merdeka, an album raising awareness of the plight of its people.
Tuesday 2 January 2007
Gianmarco Liguori - Stolen Paintings
New Zealand’s recent reputation is for developing roots reggae bands but this album, with some help an ex-member of Ian Carr’s Nucleus, is something of a revelation.
Wednesday 6 December 2006
Fdel - AudioFdelity
Rooted in the old school but bursting with fresh energy, Perth’s faithful beatmonger serves up eleven lively helpings of the kind of funky breaks we all love to get down to, cementing his position as champion of Australia’s ‘sampling renaissance’ — but could it be even better?
Wednesday 29 November 2006
Fat Freddy's Drop - DNB & DUB remixes
It all began when ‘Midnight Marauders’ leapt out of my radio and into my enthused ears: DJ Fitches’ finely crafted dub-heavy beats topped with Joe Dukie’s silver-tongued vocals all backed by horns & keys supreme.
Wednesday 29 November 2006
Kila and Oki - Kila and Oki
The infectious energy that starts in the opening bars of ‘Topattumi’ doesn’t let up for a second and for this reason alone should Kila and Oki be on your immediate shopping list
Wednesday 29 November 2006
MoShang - Chill Dynasty
If you love your oriental chill out, you’ll love this! Coined as being a new breed of “downtempo electronica with a Chinese twist” this album is heavily influenced by all things oriental
Tuesday 28 November 2006
Solo Andata - Fyris Swan
The cover of this CD is ‘Study for Samson St. Series’ (1998) by Eveline Kotai and it really suits the ambient feel of Solo Andata’s debut release…
Monday 30 October 2006
Miho Hatori - Ecdysis
Like a quick-growing vine, the songs will travel way up your legs, over your protesting hands and sink into your ears, growing and taking over you all the while. These tracks are a favourite poison that originates from a forest of danger and sex
Thursday 26 October 2006
Bakura/DJ Kawasaki/Bossa Free - 'Essence Of Especial'
This EP could easily have been called Essence of Dingwalls as it’s a mini masterpiece of modern jap jazzdance
Saturday 21 October 2006
Pitch Black - Frequencies Fall (Remixes)
Dubmission Records tend to be a little low key with there releases so it’s little wonder that their latest album from New Zealand’s Pitch Black has been hiding behind the bass bin.
Sunday 8 October 2006
Desert Slide - Desert Slide
Desert Slide is a Sense super group featuring Vishwa Mohan & Musicians of Rajasthan combining powerful desert grooves, slide guitars and transcendant vocals
Thursday 5 October 2006
V/A - Rough Guide To Planet Rock
Continuing the global trip, Rough Guides get in touch with Planet Rock
Wednesday 13 September 2006
Deepchild - Lifetime
Have you been thinking what happened to the “sophisticated dancefloor sounds from Australia” that we heard last year?
Friday 8 September 2006
V/A - World 2006
In a world awash with free cover-mount compilations and triple CDs for a tenner, why on earth would you buy Charlie Gillett’s latest round up? Perhaps because you really do get what you pay for…
Friday 25 August 2006
Theodore Levin - Where Rivers and Mountains Sing (Book)
Ted Levin is the scholar who, to his own surprise, brought the little known throat singing tradition of Tuva to a global audience in 1990. This thought provoking book, investigates the profound consequences for the musical ecosystem of this remote, mountainous republic and attempts to recontextualise the music from the point of view of its practitioners
Friday 4 August 2006
V/A - Radio Thailand: Transmissions from the Tropical Kingdom
Describing itself as ‘a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers’, Seattle-based label Sublime Frequencies has spent the last three years carving itself a niche as one of the world’s finest purveyors of hard-to-find music.
Friday 28 July 2006
Taku Ishizaki / Koichi Ozaki - 'Eurasian Suite' EP
This 12” has been out a while in Japan but has only recently hit UK shores. It turned up in Simon Harrison’s chart not so long ago and as quirky electronic jazz from Tokyo, it’s definitely worth a listen.
Monday 19 June 2006
Zane Lowe & Breaks Co-Op - The Sound Inside
It’s not often that Hectic hangs out with stars of radio and TV but as Zane Lowe was in the house today, I took the chance to grab a few words with the man of the brown couch fame.
Friday 16 June 2006
Soil and "Pimp" Sessions - Pimp Master
Marking Gilles Peterson’s long-awaited return to the record label business, is this amphetamine jazz dazzler from the land of the rising sun
Saturday 20 May 2006
JBP - Aphrotalk / Amongstone
Soul Jazz are on top form at the moment and JBP are but a small part of their success.
Saturday 6 May 2006
Rhombus - 'Mile High' EP
Fans of reggae outta New Zealand will be well aware of Rhombus but their latest 12” has only just arrived in Hectic’s greedy hands.
Thursday 20 April 2006
DJ Drez - Jahta Beat
Somewhat of an unknown quantity DJ Drez, proves himself to be quite a talent recording, arranging, mixing and producing Jahta Beat in its entirety
Monday 27 March 2006
Blue Asia - Hotel Bangkok
Despite high profile champions like Charlie Gillett and great word of mouth, Blue Asia is yet to get a UK release — fret not though — Conon Murphy knows where it’s at…
Wednesday 8 March 2006
Guo Yue - Music, Food and Love
Guo Yue’s latest Realworld release is a journey through the backstreets of a Beijing that no longer exists via Bath and Budapest.
Friday 10 February 2006
Jafrosax - New Standard of the Future
Jafrosax raises the flag of future jazz.
Saturday 26 November 2005
Susheela Raman - Music for Crocodiles
Music for Crocodiles breaks away from the pack and heads for the lucrative world of big name female vocalists but it does so with charm and a sultry flavour all of its own
Saturday 12 November 2005
Thione Seck - Orientation
The word ‘Orientation’ derives from the practice of aligning churches to point eastwards and carries the added connotations of a direction to travel in, knowledge of where you came from and the beliefs that one holds dear. Thione Seck has made explicit his love of Bollywood and Egyptian music and made one of the most important records of the year in the process
Friday 9 September 2005
V/A - Sound of the World (Compiled by Charlie Gillett)
If you wanted to make a CD of the last year of tunes for Fly from a global perspective, you would struggle to do better than this outstanding compilation. A vast amount of music goes to Charlie, gets listened to and filtered for his shows and then filtered again for his compilations. This really is the best of the last year and a good few pointers for the next one too
Monday 29 August 2005
Ronu Majumdar - A Sacred Space
The wonderful, sonorous sounds of Pandit Ronu Majumdar’s inspired bansuri (flute) transport you to a world far away from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, his adopted city, and take you on a journey that begins with an achingly mournful sound
Monday 29 August 2005
Purbayan Chatterjee and Shashank - Rasayana
Sense World Music have been extremely prolific of late and this is one of the latest releases on its mission of matching great musicianship and top notch recording. Purbayan Chatterjee and Shashank have produced a CD that develops from the ethereal to the earthy and then to the skies
Wednesday 24 August 2005
Manickam Yogeswaran - Peace for Paradise
Manickam Yogeswaran (better known as Yoga) is a long-time member of classical vocal group Shout and German crossover outfit Dissidenten (with whom he has appeared at Glastonbury and the Montreux Jazz Festival). He’s also increasingly familiar to movie audiences following excursions on the soundtracks for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour
Wednesday 17 August 2005
Yukihiro Fukutomi - Equality
This is Mr. Fukutomi’s ninth album. It’s said to be his most broad reaching so it should appeal to more than his established fanbase such as: Norman Jay, Danny Krivit and Dimitri from Paris
Wednesday 10 August 2005
Tessa Drummond - Days Like These
I’ll admit early on a weakness for breathy, falsetto female vocals a la Sarah McLaughlan, something New Zealand singer-songwriter Tessa Drummond uses in abundance
Sunday 26 June 2005
Fat Freddy's Drop - Based on a True Story
New Zealand sportsmen have been in the news frequently in the past few days. However, you don’t hear too much (if anything) about their popular music prowess. Fat Freddy’s Drop is now going to redress the balance with the release their first album called, Based On A True Story
Friday 24 June 2005
V/A - The Very Best Asian Flavas
Outcaste celebrate a decade of redefining what British and Asian music is, will be and might have been. If many of the tracks seem familiar that is because they are
Friday 29 April 2005
Amjad Ali Khan - Moksha
"There is no essential difference between classical and popular music. Music is music. I want to communicate with the listener who finds Indian classical music remote." Amjad Ali Khan
Tuesday 26 April 2005
Steve Tallis and the Holy Ghosts - Loko
Warning, an angry hippy has just walked in... Steve Tallis and the Holy Ghosts have released Loko and I wished they hadn't to be honest.
Saturday 23 April 2005
Trickbaby - Hanging Around
Every now and then you get a CD so immediately lovable and interesting that you wonder if the rest of the country has been listening to this on Top of the Pops while you have been tuning in to Radio 3. You would have to be very po-faced not to love Trickbaby.
Sunday 10 April 2005
Nitin Sawhney - Philtre
By an artist's seventh album, you may think the ideas would be harder to come by, inspiration a little lacking perhaps, but Philtre blows that theory right out, and Nitin Sawhney comes through with his best album to date.
Monday 4 April 2005
Jazztronik - Samurai
Jazztronik (a.k.a. Ryota Nozaki) has produced an album at a consistently high standard throughout to match the title track's brilliance. In true Samurai fashion, there are ten cutting-edge killer tracks
Sunday 30 January 2005
V/A - The Rough Guide to the Music of Central Asia
Subtitled 'Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan: Sounds of the Silk Road', The Rough Guide to the Music of Central Asia celebrates the enormous musical wealth and diversity coming out of these rarely visited lands.
Friday 21 January 2005
Lalgudi G Jayaraman - Paddhatti (The Tradition of Burnished Gold) Volumes I, II & III
This 3 CD set of Carnatic music virtuoso Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman is a real find. Expect exquisite violin playing with skilled accompaniment
Sunday 28 November 2004
Abantu - The Mighty Zulu Nation
It is hard to imagine a more powerful vocal form of music than the massed power of a Zulu group in full swing. But how would it fare when mixed with an eclectic range of beats and music?
Friday 17 September 2004
Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbetts - Selwa
Did my heart lift when I saw a collaboration between a Western guitarist and a Tibetan nun in the post awaiting review? No, it did not. And yet, I feel curiously charmed.
Monday 13 September 2004
Last Voices from Heaven - Siva Pacifica
"The most dangerous journey ever undertaken in the search for indigenous music," according to National Geographic. Anthony Copping travels to some of the remotest corners of the earth, records music rarely heard more than 10 miles from where it is made and then puts out an album that hides it all away under a blanket of studio slickness.
Wednesday 8 October 2003
V/A: Essential Asian Flavas Vol. 2 (Outcaste)
Outcaste continues to explore the new Bhangra scene with a collection, which, although not as strong as its predecessor, is still going to inspire a new generation.
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