Top of the World

For the past year, I’ve been emailing friends with links to Staff Benda Bilili clips on YouTube. Most members of the band are disabled – paraplegic victims of the polio virus – and homeless, living around the area near Kinshasa zoo. The YouTube clips present them in a bewitching light. Their wheelchairs are huge contraptions that look as if they are made from cast-off sections of Harley-Davidsons, and the group are heard harmonising old-time Congolese rumbas to a backdrop of handclapping and guitars. But the moment that gets everyone is during the song ‘Na Lingui Yo’, when a street kid called Roger launches into a blistering solo on his homemade one-string lute, and a teenage girl sits alongside him and dissolves into a smile. Really, there is nothing so heartening.
We are all going to buy this wonderful record, we are going to share it with our friends, and – hey presto – we will have the Buena Vista Social Club of the brave new Obama age. For Très Très Fort is a gem – dreamy, joyful and full of delicious melodies. Its music is nostalgic for the classic years of Franco and OK Jazz with its Cuban-inspired call-and-response harmonies and lilting African rhythm guitar, yet it’s been reinvented with gorgeously fresh songwriting. Check out the insistently catchy guitar licks of ‘Je t’aime’ (aka ‘Na Lingui Yo’), or the vocal harmonies of ‘Sala Keba’ or ‘Mwana’, and you will find the melodies ringing in your head for days. The production by Vincent Kenis (who also brought us Konono No 1) is a triumph: many of the songs were recorded out in the open, in the zoo grounds, seducing us with the sounds of Kinshasa offstage.
So there you have it: Album of the Year – signed, sealed and delivered.

This marvellous recording of Zanzibar’s best taarab orchestra celebrates their 50th anniversary. The title refers to the original name of the club they performed in, Shime Kuokoana (meaning Hurry Up), affiliated to the Afro-Shirazi political party. As their orientation towards the African, as opposed to Arabic, side of Swahili culture might suggest, the music is driven by a rich texture of drum rhythms (ngoma). There are also a couple of tracks demonstrating the stripped-down, rural style of kidumbak music that the band has often performed on tour. This disc is an excellent introduction to the sublime world of Culture Musical Club.
Taarab music, with its fusion of Egyptian-style oud (lute), accordion and violins with African percussion can be found along the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya and Tanzania, but Zanzibar is its heartland. There are 22 members of the orchestra in the photo in the centre of the booklet. The two vocalists featured on this disc, Makame Faki and Rukia Ramadhani, joined CMC in the 70s and Ramadhani’s warm, languorous voice is perfect for ‘Ni Yeye’ (It’s Him), backed by a female chorus and featuring instrumental interjections on accordion. It’s a love song proceeding, like many taarab songs, at a gentle, sedentary pace. ‘Nuru’ is an instrumental track allowing the soloists on qanun and accordion to shine. The strongly percussive ‘Muziki Ki Kazi Yetu’ (Music is our Domain) is inspired by spirit-possession music with squeaking violin before the punchy, faster-paced kidumbak music, also with violin improvisations, brings the disc to a lively close. A wonderful reminder of the power of Zanzibar’s greatest orchestra.

How is it that vintage rumba-soukous keeps on sounding fresh, innovative and charming decades after it was produced? The answer could lie in the second Ry-Co Jazz compilation released by that 20-year-old purveyor of classic African tunes, the RetroAfric label. Initially a four-piece from the Congo, Ry-Co soon became the rumba genre’s quintessential band on the road, stopping in at Central African Republic in 1958 for some years before docking in Paris in 1964. Three years later, a tour of the French Caribbean, where they regaled lucky cruise-ship tourists with their spicy blend of Franco-leaning rumba and quicker soukous, led to an extended stay where soupçon after soupçon of Caribbean rhythms – meringue, calypso, reggae and Martiniquan beguine – were added to the fiery gumbo.
Bon Voyage!! covers classic Ry-Co from 1965-77. It opens with 1965’s ‘Voyage’, a sweet, hook-lined rumba with exquisite guitar picking by Jerry Malekani, who later played with Manu Dibango. ‘Nostalgie’, in contrast, is a dripping bolero with spooky Hammond organ, typical of the sort of shmaltzy slowies they would be expected to pull out late at night. Things overheat by the time we get to Martinique (in 1971) with the sublime ‘Koumbele’, a tune which foreshadowed the early zouk of Kassav’ and, indeed, which stars Jean Claude Naimro on keyboards. The set draws to a close with some extended mid-70s workouts, ‘Historie d’Amour’, ‘Ebome Africa’ and ‘Mina Kwenda’, which beautifully meld rhythm and melody, topped off with gorgeous harmonies. Ry-Co magnificently showcase the golden age of Afro-Caribbean cultural exchange. Book a cruise now.

‘Calypsonians are the mouthpiece of the nation’ declares Calypso Rose at the beginning of an enchanting version of Lord Invader’s 1940s classic ‘Rhum and Coca-Cola’. The lament to Trinidad’s women ‘working for the Yankee dollar’ finishes a tour de force of a set – incredibly, it’s the first by Rose to ever be released on an international label, and clearly proves that she’s a music diva of the same high standing as Cesaria Evora or Rita Marley.
The eponymously titled album combines songs composed by her and a few evergreens, such as Burt Bacharach’s ‘Say A Little Prayer’, and ‘Underneath the Mango Tree’, written by Monty Norman and used in the 1962 James Bond movie Dr No. Although Rose’s version of the first is rather flat, in the second she performs magic, her warm, rich and reedy voice meltingly conveying the magnificent lyrics. Elsewhere, Rose gets vigorously into ‘jump up’ mode. The title of the song ‘Israel by Bus’ might be rather a tall order from downtown Port of Spain, but the song rockets along. ‘Sweet Brown Sugar;’ has the kind of saucy lyrics to raise a smile, while ‘A Man is A Man’ finds Rose telling her mother that she has no need to marry a barrister, a minister or a doctor because ‘any man could give you satisfaction’. Calypso Rose’s debut on the world stage may well have been a long time coming, but it’s been worth the wait. Don’t try to resist – get winin’.

Jon Boden is a busy man. One half of a superb duo with John Spiers; the singer and fiddler for Bellowhead, and a solo artist whose acclaimed debut, Painted Lady, was a dramatic work darkened by the hues of romantic obsession. Songs from the Floodplain is set on a larger, more epic canvas. It’s an apocalyptic vision of a world gone to hell in a handcart, a ravaged near-future where memory rasps like a collapsed lung over an open fire and whose inhabitants grapple with what has been lost, where they are now, and what they’ve got coming. He’s certainly got his timing right. Recession, depression, ruination, collapse – the four horsemen of the financial apocalypse could be the rhythm section here. Set against a rousing and deeply uplifting musical backdrop that draws on rock textures as well as folk and atmospheric chamber music. Boden plays all the instruments himself – guitars, fiddle, concertina, bass, percussion, bagpipes, banjo, harmonium. His voice is superb: it can carry heavy emotional freight –
all the weighty, dark materials of his vision – but it can also rise above it with a declamatory ring of defiance, remembrance and confession.
This ambitious album captures the current zeitgeist of collapse, uncertainty and dread. Lyrically and musically it’s a tour de force, deeply atmospheric and resonant of common fears and escalating anxieties, but with an imaginative force that makes it an uplifting and deeply satisfying experience. Yes, things could turn out this bad. But there’s no doubt that Boden has turned out a consoling, classic album for troubling times.

The rocker turned film composer and bandleader can shift albums in their millions in Eastern Europe. He’s best known internationally for his atmospheric soundtracks for Emir Kusturica’s Time of the Gypsies and Underground. But he’s a contentious figure: there are those who accuse him of taking more than just inspiration from original Roma songs by the likes of 'aban Bajramovi', and of re-branding them as his own. Bregovi has certainly stamped his own vision on the music of the region, and proved himself a brilliant live performer. His latest album is a live set featuring the smaller, ten-strong version of the Wedding and Funeral Band he's led since 1998. They tackle a repertoire of 13 fiery songs with an unquenchable dedication to rhythm and booze to rival the rowdiest of Friday nights. It's drawn largely from the Gua festival, the battle of the brass bands held each August in southern Serbia.
Bregovi’s opening cry of ‘Alkohol!’ says it all. The band’s intoxicating polyrhythmic spree goes to the head faster than a bucket of schnapps, powered by a crack ensemble of twin trumpets, baritones and sax, a busy rhythm section and Bregovi’s touches of guitar. Vocals are shared between Bulgarian sisters Daniela and Ljudmila Ratkova (who have worked with Bregovi since the mid-90s) percussionist Alen Ademovic and Bregovi himself. The plaintive vocal on the lyrical ‘Ruzica’, cushioned on a pillow of fat brass, is one of the slower-paced highlights, but for the most part Alkohol is a boiling maelstrom of brass that, unlike its inspiration, does not come with a hangover.

Founded in 1994, Di Naye Kapelye (The New Band) are not so new anymore. But they are still outstanding at finding fresh klezmer material in Central and Eastern Europe. Based in Budapest and led by American-born fiddler and vocalist Bob Cohen, they’ve gathered much of their repertoire from old Jewish and Gypsy musicians in the region where, unusually, there was a large rural as well as urban Jewish population. On this disc they’re joined by a band of Hutsul musicians (on fiddle, cimbalom, accordion and drum) from the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine. The Cernavec family of Gypsy musicians in Tjaciv still play tunes for the few surviving Jewish communities of the region (as featured in the ‘Baj Van Medley’). Alongside songs and dances, there are several Hassidic nigunim (religious songs) and the title-track is a 1950s Communist song in Yiddish: a farmer’s paean to his tractor and the five-year plan.
Even familiar klezmer tunes recorded in the early 20th century by Abe Schwarz, Naftule Brandwein and Belf’s Romanian Orchestra are performed here in earthy rural versions. Two established North American klezmer musicians, Josh Dolgin (piano) and Michael Alpert (vocals and violin) also guest and the album finishes with Alpert’s extraordinary ‘Chernobyl’ song (from the first Brave Old World album in 1990), which links the Hassidic belief in a holy radiance in the area to the nuclear disaster. It’s performed by the Tjaciv band, whose village is some 500 kilometres from Chernobyl. This is a fresh, valuable, ear-opening disc.

The city of Berlin has always had a quirkily alternative cultural streak that has set it apart from an otherwise conservative Germany. Whether it was Kurt Weill’s cabaret in the roaring 1920s or the 70s punk scene that saw David Bowie and Iggy Pop move to Schöneberg, Berliners have relished a healthy dose of anarchy. Today, you need look no further than world-folk collective 17 Hippies to continue this tradition. Following the success of their previous album Heimlich, 17 Hippies continue to play music that is at turns humorous, chaotic and moving. Sung in French, German and English with the 13 band members playing instruments ranging from accordions and banjos to clarinets and trombones, the band present a baffling variety of music.
Nobody could accuse El Dorado of being a homogenous set of songs. ‘Arcanul’ and ‘Kaukapol’ are instrumental tracks of yearning Middle Eastern and klezmer melodies set alongside Cajun brass, while ‘Adieu’ and ‘Solitaire’ are reflective and beautifully sung chanson. Then there are wistful and witty folk-pop songs, of which those with vocals in German are particularly crisp and striking, such as ‘Stern am Ende der Welt’. Not all the tracks work – the perky ‘Six Green Bottles’ grates – but at the heart of the album is the human warmth to be found in all 17 Hippies’ music. El Dorado is charming precisely because 17 Hippies do not attempt to self-consciously force together the styles of music they love. Instead their genial curiosity for sounds from other cultures allows them to make music that is comfortable in its own skin.

The Laya Project is a visual and musical journey across the coastal communities of South and South-East Asia that were so devastated by the December 2004 tsunami. Producer and composer Patrick Sebag has teamed up with Chennai-based EarthSync and musicians from across the region to create a tribute to the spirit and musical traditions of those who survived the tragedy. This documentary-cum-music video-cum-travelogue does not dwell on the actual tsunami and its awful consequences, but rather on the people who survived and their determination to return their lives to normality. The film is gorgeous to watch, with its footage of brooding skies, stunning sunsets and misty mornings, and is peopled with fishermen, street vendors, farmers, teachers, monks and priests all going about their lives in their communities in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
There is no narration to the film, and much of the music was recorded on location in huts, classrooms and even under a Bo tree (a tree of great spiritual significance in the region), before being mixed and sequenced by Sebag. The result is brilliant on film, as Sebag’s keyboards provide a seamless link between musical performances. The synth sounds work less well on some tracks on the two accompanying audio CDs. But that is a minor quibble, for there are some amazing folk songs to be heard in both formats, led by the standout opener ‘Glorious Sun’, sung by Shwe Shwe Khine and Khine Zin Shwe and recorded in a classroom in Myanmar. Just as haunting is a song from the Maldives, ‘Farihi’, while the funky call-and-response singing on ‘Katalu Talu’ is accompanied by a rhythm beaten out on small cushions and handclaps.
As the project is based in Chennai, South Asian sounds from India, Sri Lanka, the Nicobar Islands and the Maldives feature strongly in the track selection, and there are some gems like ‘Hai La Sa’, ‘Ya Allah’ and ‘Tapatam’. It’s worth watching the film first because it provides the social context for the music in a way that the two audio CDs cannot; if you are not familiar with the region, this is the best way into the music. The best music project to emerge from the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami

Through largely traditional Asian forms such as semi-classical Indian thumri, techniques like the syllabic vocal bols of the North Indian kathak classical dance and texts from 17th century Punjabi Sufi poet Bulleh Shah, Niraj Chag assembles a polished collection of melancholic pop featuring his remarkable production to the fore.
This UK Asian Music Award-winning composer and producer has followed on from his 2006 album Along The Dusty Road and its breakthrough single ‘Khwaab’ with this heavily stylised album. It has a careful blend of sweet vocal songs sung in Hindi, Punjabi and Braj Bhasha – a central Indian language (and the dialect of Krishna) – with atmospheric backdrops of resonant South Asian hand percussion, subtly processed pianos, acoustic guitars and violins showcasing a range of imaginative melodies. The comparatively simple Hindi pop of ‘Ur Jaa’ and ‘Baavaria’, both of which feature classically trained Japjit Kaur [pictured], who was also in Chag’s musical Baiju Bawru, are delightful while the expansive ‘Trace’, featuring Sufi qawwali singer Faheem Mazhar (who also appears on Nitin Sawhney’s new recording) and long-time collaborator Melissa Baten’s particularly breathy classical sargam improvised style hint at Chag’s more dynamic work for TV, radio and the stage.
Setting emotive and vibrant Asian songs alongside typically European sensibilities, Chag manages to successfully unite a lush yet direct record without too much smudging and in doing so shows himself to be an eloquent and dynamic artist in the process.