In the hot glove of a sticky East African night, the last act of the annual Sauti za Busara festival takes place. ‘Local’ outfit FM Academia – with over twenty members in the band – are rocking the open-air venue (an old walled fort in the centre of Zanzibar Town) with their unique ‘muziki da dansa’ rumba style, when, suddenly, on stage come literally dozens of the festival’s crew. The now over-crowded hugely enthusiastic stage dances out the last number of the 2012 event. Mark Stewart reports… Continue reading Busara Festival to leave its Zanzibar home?
Irreverance, wry wit and social rebellion are not characteristics usually associated with Fado, Portugal’s melancholy national song. Yet Deolinda, the quartet led by vocalist Ana Bacalhau has blossomed by combining lusty tunes rooted in the sound of Fado with frothy and even downright caustic contemporary lyrics.
The John Butler Trio’s first album in 3 years that’s appropriate released in the same week as the Grand National, why is that you ask?
En anglais this translates as No One Knows About Persian Cats and the film by Bahman Ghobadi won a special jury prize at Cannes Film Festival last year and this is the equally good soundtrack with the film on release later this week.
If you’ve read the latest edition of Jungle Drums you’ll have spotted we’ve review all the album they have apart from this one which they didn’t like too much; will the Cubanistas fare any better on the FLY sound system with Hectic?
Now-Again have done the impossible, they’ve hit on a combination that can challenge their own Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke as they put the Sun Ra and James Brown in the Sahara
Drawn from the broad panorama of Songlines’ 50 best African albums, The Essential African Album scrupulously includes East, West, North, South, traditional and modern music from the giant continent.
Continue reading V/A – Songlines: The Essential African Album
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.
Continue reading V/A: Essential Asian Flavas Vol. 2 (Outcaste)
