The noble attempt to fix the shifting sands of music from around the world has been likened to the book equivalent of Apocalypse Now. A project whose twists and turns continually threaten to overwhelm its resources makes it all the more welcome and cherished as it arrives
Continue reading Rough Guide to World Music: Europe, Asia & Pacific (Volume 2)- Book Review
How hard can it be to pick 16 of your favourite reggae tracks for a compilation album? Well if your after a Primer 101, look no further than Ziggy Marley’s selction on this new CD for the near perfect choice.
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.
The new Bobby Digital album comes in a explicit version and gets released at the same time as Wu-Tang Clan play a couple of London dates at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
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!
Continue reading V/A – The Rough Guide To The Music Of Japan
Full marks to Keith LeBlanc for remixing these blues tunes from the vaults of Chess and bringing them some new attention
Continue reading V/A – Chess Moves – Chess Reworked (with Keith LeBlanc)
It’s not that often we get to hear a new blues album that features a real harmonica player with tunes to match, so when we do, we like to go press the Code Blue emergency button
The original Wild Style comes in at No 1 in Peter Shapiro’s The Twenty Best Hip Hop Albums Ever Made. You know that the author of The Rough Guide To Hip Hop knows what he’s talking about and so now is a good time to get it as the album gets re-issued on its 25th Anniversary
Continue reading V/A – Wild Style – 25th Anniversary Edition
Lucky Dube is the great reggae man from the African continent — surpassing Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly. With his epic sound, Dube has been at the forefront of the musical genre for over 20 years, releasing almost as many albums during this career
Obviously, the “conditioned reflex” to the news of a second release on Scribble Records is to dash out and buy it; especially as it’s by Palov & Mishkin
On-U Soundman Adrian Sherwood is reunited with Little Axe for more off-kilter adventures in sound
You’ll know the history of the blues as it progressed from the sharecroppers in Mississippi Delta, the electrification of the blues with the migration to Chicago and Detroit and the influence on young British rock/pop bands in the sixties. Even so, this compilation by Nigel Williamson is a reminder of how very great the greats were
Iconic, essential, quite possibly still a ‘work of lunatic scholarship’, The Rough Guide to World Music is back but what kind of shape is it in all these years later?
Continue reading The Rough Guide to World Music: Africa & Middle East – Volume 1 of 3 (Book review)
