VARIOUS ARTISTS - 80s World Music Classics (Nascente)

A definitive-as-dammit collection mapping the gestation of a genre invented out of the necessity to provide some marketing oomph to a burgeoning scene that couldn’t penetrate the elephant hide of mainstream music industry conservatism despite accruing listeners, artists and movers and shakers swimming against the tide of what compiler Nigel Williamson calls “a cacophony of synths and drum machines”.

This is ‘World Music’ before it was labelled as such, early-to-mid eighties tracks that were hitting curious folkies and discerning “what next?” post-punkers from roughly three angles. Whether it be witnessing Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck’s circular acoustic guitar figures in one of the handful of supportive venues, hearing Jali Musa Jawara’s headily vigorous kora and ghostly falsetto played by Peel, Kershaw or Gillett, or reading here or in City Limits the back story to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s chest-thumping Sufi praise music, there were game-shifting ear-openers aplenty for the trad-seekers.

While those artists celebrated and disseminated their roots, others keen to harness the latest studio gadgetry decamped to Paris or Brussels, availing themselves of the drum-tracks and synths that were all but killing western pop music. Fortunately the likes of Antillean zouksters Kassav’ and soukous star Kanda Bongo Man managed to find the polyrhythm setting and thus kept the dance-floor jumping, while Salif Keita’s searing Islamic wail burst through a mist of studio trickery. And the Chebs and Chabas of Algeria wouldn’t be 80s rai-stars if their guttural yearnings weren’t presented on a bubbling bed of digitised beats and buzzing synths. And the addictive sugar-rush of intertwining guitars that courses through Souzy Kasseya’s mighty Le Telephone Sonne sits in a production of unalloyed 80s clarity.

Finally there were those genres swept up in the general rush for difference, most notably the Latin American sounds that were already a swinging fixture on the club scene. Salsa, samba and cumbia are well-represented here via punchy Joe Arroyo, sinuous Gilberto Gil and super-caffeinated Rudolfo Y Su Tipica RA7.

All that plus Youssou’s epochal Immigres, a trio of hopping southern African gems, and the unadulterated harmonies of the Bulgarian State Choir. The latter are the only purely east European representation, so no room for Hungary’s Marta Sebestyen or Nadka Karadjova’s imperious A Lambkin Has Commenced Bleating. There’s no soca either, no King Sunny Adé or Fela and none of the accordions that shook the ‘world’ world. No matter, this essential snapshot has so much wealth on offer it can afford the occasional unavoidable omission.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Sound of the World Presents: Anywhere On This Road (Warner Classics & Jazz)

The poignant introduction by Charlie Gillett’s daughter informs us that the finishing touches to his eleventh annual scoot around the world’s sounds was one of the final actions the great man took before his sad and far too premature passing. And so we approach the final Sound of the World release with a mixture of loss and celebration that’s reflected by much of the music within.

As for Suzy Gillett, so for many us the joy of these illuminating, ear-opening, occasionally quirky, sometimes even frustrating but always challenging choices lays in the guesswork of that first blind run-through, wherein a solid backbone of world music big-hitters and/or CG-championed semi-regulars (amongst which this time Tinariwen, Ojos de Brujo, Yasmin Levy and Fat Freddy’s Drop) mingle with myriad mysterious, obscure and newly-celebrated names.

And so a shot of Ribot-esque guitar links British Latin-Americana with mid-European art-pop, parping Balkan trumpets bleed into pure African soul, and strummed Argentinean acoustic guitar links to the wild picking of the Colombian harp.

Absorption in the sharply-observed sleeve-notes (ably augmented and gap-filled by Gillett’s assistant Lilly Ladjevardi) imbues new favourites with deeper meaning; almost unbearably so in the case of Lhasa’s eloquently emotive subtitle-track, the Canadian singer having herself been cruelly cut down far too young at the turn of the year. Elsewhere can be found more in the way of celebration, notably the Congolese commotion of Staff Benda Bilili and funky Malawians The Very Best.

It’s not all going to work for everyone. For this listener the album is slightly overburdened with interchangeably pretty, and at times pretty bland, ladies; and certain geographical blind-spots will frustrate others. Conversely, the personal touch brings wonderful surprises such as a hair-raisingly eerie piece of Korean folkloric music. And continental Europe as ever is gratifyingly well-served.

The second of two choices by pianists who summarise the compiler’s broadcasting path is the greatest revelation of all. Allen Toussaint’s inclusion is a decent enough nod back to Gillett’s early days as a documenter of rock and roll’s rich history, but the closing tune - a solo piece by Ethiopia’s Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou - possesses such exquisite poise and melodic sensitivity it seems almost perverse to leave it to the end. It’s a fitting coda to a remarkable life, one which constantly brought magic moments like this to the airwaves.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Sound of the World presents Otro Mundo: Another World (Warner Classical and Jazz)

Happy tenth anniversary to Charlie Gillett’s annual round-up of all that rocks his particular corner of the “world” world. These days each release takes a unique title (rather than the generic “World 20YY” of the past) and possesses a cover picture of a bus with new destination, livery, personnel and shape. But what never seems to change is the existence of trends, threads and patterns in the sequencing that defy the iPod shuffle tendency of today’s listener with their logic and flow. One of the notable trends over the last few compilations is for gentle, insinuating and identifiably rooted melodies set in very modern arrangements. Otro Mundo’s exemplars include the moody laid-back funk of Peru’s Novalima, Brazilian experimentalists Sonantes and the thoroughly modern middle-eastern tones of the ex-pat Iranians that make up Niyaz. Each has a tune whose perfume lingers for long after it’s finished, and each is enhanced by the carefully-sequenced tunes placed either side of them. And every selection is worthy of its place amongst such big-hitters as Rokia Traore, Manu Chao and Oumou Sangare, as well as Belizean ensemble Umalali, whose horn-punctuated Caribbean twister Merua already feels like a classic.
Other highlights and revelations include a mesmeric, rolling Algerian groove by Gaada Diwane De Bechar, an extraordinary Anatolian/Armenian mood-piece from Turkish percussionist Sjahin During alongside the never-less-than-incredible Arto Tunçboyaciyan, and the return of what might be loosely termed Americana (in the form of Calexico and Australia’s C W Stoneking) as well as what seems to have become a perennial rule-breaker, a not-so-recent track from a recently deceased great; and who could begrudge the legendary Miriam Makeba one last swansong from her Sangoma album from 1998?
Asia is the only (broadly) geographical area that seems particularly under-represented, but as a seasoned broadcaster and self-styled DJing jackdaw, Gillett’s focus is on picking what appeals to his and his listeners’ tastes rather than being an exercise in geographical or genre box-ticking. And when you pick up a copy of this double CD from a stall in a festival field somewhere this summer, remember to follow the sleeve-note hints - both textural and pictorial - as to which albums are worthwhile following up; the rest of the time you can be rest assured that what you are getting are the absolute gems hand-picked and ordered for maximum effect.


This review first appeared in fRoots magazine

VARIOUS - Desert Blues 3 (Network Medien)

Compilers Christian Scholze and Jean Trouillet have taken their time in putting together the third of these excellent compilations of African blues-tinted balladry (forgiveness comes easily - they've been busy furnishing us with the similarly well-packaged and engaging Golden Afrique series in the meantime), and in so doing have managed to maintain the exemplary standard and seamless sequencing of the album's predecessors.
The title "desert blues" must be taken with an even larger pinch of sand this time round, as the compilers stretch what had already become a loose theme beyond West and North African countries all the way as far as Ethiopia, even making a brief foray across the Atlantic (American Markus James sounding like a worthy surrogate for desert blues champion Robert Plant).
But the mood is set in the familiar confines of Mali, Djelimady Tounkara's playful Manding acoustica flowing naturally into the cool spaghetti-Western vibe of another ex-Rail Bander Idrissa Soumaoro. And Mali is heavily represented throughout as you might expect, from the best-known (Oumou, Toumani, Ali Farka), to the less-known (guitarist N'Gou Bagayoko, upstaged by guest singer and daughter Ramata Doussou). Senegal and Niger are well represented too, and there's a welcome dash of North African cool (Souad Massi's aching, knee-weakening Raoui gets well-overdue inclusion), and that trip out East pays dividends with two Gigi tracks, plus the Sudanese song Eywat Setenafegagn, interpreted by Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya (it might have been better to have dropped one of the Gigi tracks for a bone fide Sudanese artist, but that's a minor gripe).
If the choices are representative of any trends in this broad musical area, then there has been a move recently to a more experimental approach. Rokia Traoré glides through Bownboï ably supported by the avant garde string ensemble Kronos Quartet; Tunisian oud maestro Dhafer Yousef floats delicate notes around trumpeter Markus Stockhausen and vocals so delicate they might break; and UK-based Senegalese artist Seckou Keita weaves kora, violin and double-bass in and out of the plaintive, bluesy tones of sister Binta Susso. All of which fit in neatly with the more straightforward tracks around them - the mark of a successful compilation, consistently engaging from start to finish.

Network Medien website

This review first appeared in fRoots magazine.