Tuesday, April 19, 2022
The 10 Best New Albums From Around The World (May 2022)
Featuring Sowal Diabi, Şatellites, LYRE LYRE, Riley Family Band, Jembaa Groove, Maya Youssef, Yungchen Lhamo, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Inni-K and Debit
1
Sowal Diabi
De Kaboul à Bamako Accords Croisés
United by their subject, these musicians have managed a feat of collaboration that is rarely heard from bands this eclectic... Tom Newell
2
Şatellites
Şatellites Batov Records
While wallowing in Turkish retro sounds, Şatellites are also the products of a distinctly Tel Aviv milieu, picking up on the same local Oriental harmonies that inform acts like Boom Pam and Dudu Tassa... Robert Rigney
3
LYRE LYRE
Gin and Strathspey Lyre Sounds
Aside from the expected Scottish and Nordic influences, Middle Eastern flavours and suggestions of shape note-sung hymn melodies slip in as pieces such as the addictively marching title-track emerge and develop through variation and improvisation... Rob Adams
4
Riley Family Band
La Vie de Riley Valcour Records
They say, ‘the family that plays together, stays together.’ At the home of Cajun accordionist, fiddler and songwriter Steve Riley and his wife Katie, in Scott, Louisiana, the ties were bound tighter by the restrictions of the pandemic. But the couple was prepared to share a slew of traditional and contemporary Cajun music, as well as numerous accordions, fiddles, guitars, and percussion, with daughter Elise, now 18 years old, and sons Burke, 12, and Dolsy, nine... Jeff Kaliss
5
Jembaa Groove
Susuma Agogo Records
Susuma harnesses the groove engine of West African highlife and hitches it to the sensitive stylings of 1970s soul. The resulting ‘Afro-soul’ concoction is compelling, the taut interplay of bass and guitar pleasantly re-contextualised when paired with Eric Owusu’s plaintive vocals and lush French horn of Merav Goldman... Liam Izod
6
Maya Youssef
Finding Home Maya Youssef
This album includes her commissions for Opera North and the British Museum, but is, she says, a ‘spiritual search for what means home,’ and is remarkable not just for the range of influences but for the intensity and emotion in her compositions and playing... Robin Denselow
7
Yungchen Lhamo
Awakening Tibetan Arts Management
The Tibetan singer and composer has been in exile from her birth land for over 30 years. Awakening is her sixth release and it continues her heartfelt quest to bring the plight of the Tibetan people to attention through art... Michael Ormiston
8
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
Crooked Tree Nonesuch
Want to know what 21st-century bluegrass sounds like? Crooked Tree, Molly Tuttle’s first purely bluegrass recording, is the answer. Recorded live, Crooked Tree was produced by Tuttle and singer-songwriter and dobro maestro Jerry Douglas... Doug DeLoach
9
Inni-K
Iníon Green Willow Records
This album of nine beautifully arranged sean nós songs from the Dublin-based singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Inni-K (Eithne Ní Chatháin) scores highly for its lyricism, understatement and luminosity... Peter Quinn
10
Debit
The Long Count Modern Love
If you kill the lights, lie back and let your ears sink into this soundtrack of machine-learning Mayan-inflected abstraction, you might get a wee bit closer to the past while on the aural equivalent of a peyote trip into our collective apocalyptic future... Chris Moss
