We’re backstage at WOMAD 2016 drinking mint tea with Kel Assouf, a group of musicians who describe themselves as playing ‘Stoner Rock’ from the desert. But this is not the Californian desert of Palm Desert Rock acts like Queens of the Stone Age- we’re talking about the Sahara desert. The...
Interview
Articles
The Grit Orchestra was an unusual treat for the WOMAD 2016 audience on the Open Air stage on Friday afternoon. The story of how this orchestra came about is complicated. Grit (released on the Real World label in 2003) was the last album of the hugely influential Scottish musician Martyn...
If baile funk has invaded Europe and become a thing on the Old Continent too, you need to look at and listen to these two Rio de Janeiro born and São Paulo based DJs and producers. Six years ago, Gustavo Gomes and Pedro Fontes, known together as Marginal Men, started to play,...
I recently spoke via email with Franketienne about Haitian music through an intermediary, his wife Marie-Andree. Franketienne is Haiti’s greatest living writer, and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Franketienne is also a singer and though he has not recorded much other than a phenomenal musical adaptation of...
On 13th June Italy played its first match of the European Championship 2016 against Belgium. The football was the perfect excuse for Rich Mix, the Shoreditch independent multi-arts venue stretched over five floors, to organise an all-Italian event, inviting Amaraterra to perform on stage after the match, either to celebrate...
One of the most exciting names on the UK music scene is also one of its most indefinable and difficult to pigeonhole. That’s because the musical ‘dirty’ dozen Nubiyan Twist (in honour of its front woman) dislikes definitions, labels or borders. The band, originally from Leeds, London, Oxford and Dublin...
How does one successfully blend the sounds and instruments of several cultures in order to produce something new? It’s a question that has puzzled many great musicians from Gilberto Gil to the Rolling Stones. What we do know is that it includes putting together a great band and the art...
Uganda, in east Africa, is also known as ‘The Pearl of Africa’. The three day Nyege Nyege festival, this year on September 2nd-4th, is establishing itself as the new African home of global bass and contemporary world music. Set in the lush, tropical environs of Jinja town, near the source...
Please don’t call him the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the accordion’ and don’t try to associate his name with the one of Bjork or even Vin Diesel… because, after thirty years of illustrious music career, Kimmo Pohjonen can be deservedly and simply defined as a unique accordionist. His musicianship has brought...
The South-Korean music scene is much more lively and diverse than one might think. There is much more to it than the dozens of girl and boy-bands in glittery clothing who are to be seen dancing daily on their national TV channels. In the alleys of Hongdae, the Seoul neighbourhood...
