320 kbps | 104 MB | LINKS
Dirtmusic return for their fifth album, a full-scale collaboration with Turkish-psych visionary Murat Ertel from Baba Zula. Recorded in Istanbul, the album navigates hypnotic rhythms, cinematic atmospheres and dark political realities.
The striking figure of Murat Ertel is standing at the door of his home studio, a converted mechanic’s garage in a suburb of Istanbul. The Turkish capital is a tense and conflicted place these days, but Baba Zula’s leader and saz man is on fine form. Before him stand those current and former musical nomads, Chris Eckman and Hugo Race, guitars in hand. Dirtmusic are about to take on their latest, and perhaps most thrilling, form.
But let’s rewind a little, for Dirtmusic’s story is worth your time (although it perhaps makes more sense to talk about Dirtmusics plural).
Originally a straight-talking, mainly acoustic trio mining blues and country for 21st century gold, the band’s first happy accident was to stumble upon Tamikrest at the fabled Festival au Désert in Timbuktu in 2008. A musical love story began, running through that joyous first collaboration with Tamikrest in BKO (2010), followed by Troubles (2013) and Lion City (2014), which expanded the roster to include Ben Zabo, Samba Touré and a host of other superb Malian musicians. In the meantime, however, the Islamist takeover of Northern Mali in 2012 had darkened the sound and the songwriting, giving them a tone that continues to resonate through the new record.
Hugo Race: vocals, guitars, bass, loops, programming
Chris Eckman: vocals, guitars, loops, kalimba
Murat Ertel: vocals, electric saz, divan saz, bağlama rhythm machine
Ümit Adakale: darbuka, davul, bendir, percussion
Featuring:
Gaye Su Akyol vocals (4)
Brenna Mac Crimmon vocals (1,5)
Görkem Şen: yaybahar (6,7)
Richard Skelton
Towards A Frontier
(Aeolian, 2017)
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There’s music for partying, music to sternly contemplate and then there’s music that you curl up with. Toto Bona Lokua’s new album Bondeko, released by No Format Records, is in that last category. The album’s title is the Lingala word for “friendship” or “fraternity,” which perfectly captures the record’s considerable warmth and the easy interplay of its musicians, who have reunited over a decade after their first album together. It’s a record of mellow, mostly acoustic songs that amble along under layers of Bobby McFerin-esque scat singing, with the singers taking turns on leads and warm, nimble harmonies.
In 2004, Gerald Toto, Richard Bona & Lokua Kanza, from France, Cameroon, and Congo respectively, got together to record a self-titled…
…record and then parted ways. They didn’t plan a follow up or even a tour to promote the album, which makes its success all the more surprising. Based on word of mouth it sold well in France and rose to sixth on the Billboard World Music charts in America.
Rather than capitalizing on the album’s success, a decade passed. They churned along on their own careers until the time was right, and that time appears to be now. Bondeko came out in France in November and gets a full North American release in January, but it feels appropriate for the holiday season—it’s without cynicism or roughness, as comforting and welcoming as a tray of cookies coming out of the oven.
There’s virtuosity all over the album, but never used to ostentatious ends. “Youwilé” is a fairly plaintive and beautiful singer/songwriter piece. “Thitae” is driven by a plucked bass, as much a percussion instrument as it is a harmonic one. “Tann Tanbou A” seems to have been an idea that the universe intended for Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, but that ended up with Richard Bona instead. “Love Train” takes the Bobby McFerrin patter as its tracks and runs a melody as sweet and lilting as the most delicate of doo-wop along them. The ride there, as elsewhere, is smooth.
Tarawangsawelas
Wanci
(Morphine Records, 2017)
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128 kbps | 51 MB | LINKS
I Dreamt I Was An Astronaut is the dedut album of London-based singer-songwriter Jeremy Tuplin and follows 2 independently released EPs: Open Letters (2016) and Carry The Fire (2014). His voice has a uniqueness expressing itself through the less commonly used, lower register and his song-writing extends beyond the conventions of the genre. In the wordsof BBC 6Music’s Tom Robinson, his music is: “Unconventional, conversational and intimate.” The Telegraph Culture Section described his music as, “Stunningly candid…A distinctive deep vocal that has hints of Leonard Cohen and Bill Callahan.” Clash Music observed, “A cosmic gem…” with Tuplin “Cooking up something special.,”
Recorded with long-time collaborator Mark Estall at Marketstall Studio, South Bermondsey with some recordings taking place in both Tuplin’s and Estall’s living rooms, the album combines electronic and synthesised sounds with acoustic and organic instruments for a ‘retro-futuristic feel’ branching into a genre which could be described as ‘space-folk’.
![VA - MidWinter: A Celebration of the Folk Music & Traditions of Christmas & The Turning of the Year [4CD Box Set] (2006)](http://www.israbox.cc/uploads/posts/2018-01/1515239147_01.jpg)
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