Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Segun Bucknor fell in love with American soul music as a student at New York’s Columbia University. Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles hadn’t made much of a splash in Africa at the time and when Bucknor returned to Nigeria in 1968, he was determined to bring the sound to a wider audience.
The result was brand of Afro-Soul that in turn became a proto-type of Afrobeat. With his bands, The Assembly and The Revolution, he released a few politically charged tracks, but even with his energetic dance trio, The Sweet Things, turning up the heat, Bucknor couldn’t compete with Fela Kuti.
This self-titled album, the last he released, sees Bucknor go back to his soul roots. Released after The Revolution were disbanded,…

90 MB  320 ** FLAC

…the Afrobeat affectations are scaled back and his soulful voice brought to the fore. The concerns are more personal than political. It’s the sort of music the Sweet Things would nod their heads to rather than shake their booty.

That’s not to say the African beats aren’t still there. On songs like ‘The Price of Love’ and ‘See and Believe’ they form an intriguing bedrock for the songs to be built upon. On Segun Bucknor the sound sophisticated not sweaty, comforting rather than confronting.

320 kbps | 101 MB | LINKS

Raining In Baltimore is a strong statement that Kim Robins deserves to be taken seriously as a vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader in bluegrass music.

Some of the tracks here will be familiar to folks who have followed bluegrass and country radio for some time. My Baby Thinks He’s A Train was a hit for Rosanne Cash back in 1981, and Kim gives it a funky feel provided by a crack band of Stewart and Wasson, with Adam Steffey on mandolin and Harold Nixon on bass. Blue Yesterdays, an old time country song, was previously recorded by Rarely Herd in 1995. Robins gives it an acoustic country vibe, with a nice twin fiddle intro. Ronnie Bowman inserted Stone Cold Blue into the bluegrass canon on his Starting Over record in 2002, and it’s reprised here with a similar treatment. Fun fact: Ron Stewart played banjo on Ronnie’s cut of it as well.

The album opens with Eye For An Eye, which had been released as the first single back in January when Robins signed with Pinecastle. It’s a spooky-sounding revenge-based killing song, written by Kim Fox, that really sets the tone for the record. Rickey’s daughter, Alicia Wasson, adds a strong harmony vocal, as she does on most of the tracks.

I’ll Be Loving You is a strong, mash-style number from Mike Evans that shows Kim’s voice to good advantage, as does Donna Hughes’ A Dream, a slower, guitar-driven ballad. Heartbreak gets its due on The Love That We’d Once Known, written by Hammertowne’s Dave Carroll, another jaunty, mid-tempo grasser.

Three that Kim wrote are featured on the album. The title track tells the familiar story of someone from the country feeling lost in the big city, far from the one they love. She’s Just Like You warns an ex that they are headed for a heartache with their new love in a fast bluegrass romp, and Bitter Game tells a former lover that she is finally over him. Bluegrass has long been full of songs of this type, and it’s nice to be hearing more of them from the female perspective.

The album ends with Sacred Memories from Dolly Parton, which works a handful of Gospel favorites into the choruses, including Can’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, If We Never Meet Again This Side Of Heaven, and Power In The Blood.

Raining In Baltimore is a rousing success for Kim Robbins, and should see several tracks other than Eye For An Eye make it on to bluegrass radio. She isn’t possessed of the sort of powerhouse voice that some of her fellow female vocalists boast of, but she knows what suits her style and her abilities, and can muster up the emotion to convey the message in most any type of song.

320 kbps | 104  MB | LINKS

Queens of the Stone Age have announced the release of their new album, Villains.The band’s seventh album was helmed by superstar producer Mark Ronson. He’s a somewhat unlikely choice given his reputation for collaborating with big-name pop acts like Adele, Bruno Mars, and Amy Winehouse. However, Ronson and QOTSA’s Josh Homme recently work together on Lady Gaga’s album Joanne, and apparently things went well enough to have Ronson tabbed for the follow-up to 2013’s …Like Clockwork.Homme described the forthcoming record as “uptempo,” and whereas …Like Clockwork was “about making it through, this time we’ve made it through the other side and we’re ready to roll.”

Тема на форуме

Тема на форуме

Avey Tare
Eucalyptus
(Domino, 2017)
more details

Violent Femmes
2 Mics And The Truth: Unplugged And Unhinged In America
(PIAS/Add It Up Productions, 2017)
more details

Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour is making a welcome appearance at Celebrate Brooklyn on Aug. 12. We last saw him around these parts in 2015, and celebrated his visit with our very first “Best of The Beat on Afropop” feature, originally printed in 1987.

The Beat did a follow-up interview with Youssou in 1994, catching him in Los Angeles eight years later. We found him more assured, seasoned, and gaining his footing on the worldwide stage. He was then touring with his latest album, The Guide (Wommat), released on a major label, Columbia. At this point his international career, launched in the ‘80s through the support of Peter Gabriel, was blossoming with mainstream pop and jazz collaborations with artists such as Neneh Cherry, (the crossover duet “7 Seconds”) and Brandford Marsalis, and an album produced with Spike Lee (Eyes Open). We had a good discussion on how his career, and African music, had evolved.

Youssou N’Dour’s current U.S. tour is scheduled for Chicago, Aug. 10 at Millennium Park, Washington D.C.’s Lisner Auditorium, Aug. 11 and wraps up Aug. 13 in Columbus, OH.

READ OR DOWNLOAD PDF: Beat13#5Youssou94

ABOUT “BEST OF THE BEAT ON AFROPOP”

Black Grape
Pop Voodoo
(Universal, 2017)
more details

320 kbps | 234 MB | LINKS

Jimmy Reed’s lazy drawl, high harmonica sound, and tightly constructed blues songs are part of the bedrock of American roots music. For a decade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was the most popular blues artist in America, crossing over to the pop charts with songs like ‘Big Boss Man’ and ‘Baby What You Want Me to Do.’ Blues, country and R&B artists, including Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, Etta James and Elvis Presley, have covered his compositions. Here are his complete Vee Jay singles-his defining body of work-newly remastered with notes from Grammy-winning blues producer Scott Billington.

After a bit of a break, here’s the seventh feature in a series we call “Fresh Cuts.” It’s a selection of newly released tracks and videos from across Africa and the diaspora, featuring established and up-and-coming artists, and everything in between. Today we’ve got, among other things, Colombian bullerengue, Somalian hip-hop, ebullient Ugandan dance music, and some hot fire from the Lusophone world: funk from Brazil and futuristic electronic dance beats from Portugal. In case you missed them, also check out our previous “Fresh Cuts.”

Here’s the full playlist on YouTube and Spotify (be mindful that these won’t include every song listed here due to the variety of platforms artists are using to share their music). Scroll beyond to read all about each artist. Enjoy!

YouTube Playlist:

Spotify Playlist:

Magin Diaz: “Rosa”

At a sprightly 96 years old, Magin Diaz has at last released his first solo album, El Orisha de la Rosa. The nonagenarian Colombian legend has recorded with many Colombian musicians over the years and has written some of the country’s most iconic songs, but this is the first time where he is front and center. This phenomenal, dynamic record is a product of three years of research and recording, made in collaboration with 25 different musical guests from all over, including the legendary Colombian singer Totó la Momposina, Bomba Estereo’s Li Saumet, the inimitable Monsieur Periné and the technicolor music/visual collective Systema Solar. Diaz is a bearer of the Afro-Colombian culture, maintaining the country’s magnificent and tenacious folk music, bullerengue, which, like the country’s Afro-Colombian communities, has survived near constant marginalization and discrimination over the centuries. Diaz says, “Singing for me is as if someone injected me with life… If I do not sing, I’d die.” Keep an eye out on Afropop for more on this record.

Oumou Sangaré: “Kamelemba”

Oumou Sangaré, the star Malian singer repping the Wassoulou region, is keeping the ball rolling. She’s been producing all kinds of new sounds recently, with her album Mogoya, released in March of this year, a seven-year wait from her last album. Afropop covered one of the singles from that album, “Yere Faga,”a collaboration with Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, accompanied by a fierce music video. She’s back with another single from that album, “Kamelemba” and another sleek music video to boot. This one is set in Paris, with an all-female, Afro-futurist vibe, featuring the dancers of the Swaggers Group. The song is a warning to the womanizers (kamelemba) of the world.

Tawiah: “Move With Me”

From South London, we’ve got Tawiah, a singer who’s making a name for herself with her mellow, immersive, soulful sound. Her voice is a powerful thing, dancing between introspection and passionate release. This song is a gorgeous, absorbing piece, weaving subtle, stuttering beats with quiet synths and bass and, most importantly, Tawiah’s voice, layered in warm harmonies. She’s been getting lots of respect from the likes of Gilles Peterson and has worked with Cee-Lo Green, Blood Orange and Mark Ronson, among others. She’s just dropped a brilliant, experimental mixtape, “Recreate”–be sure to listen.

Wizkid: “Naughty Ride” with Major Lazer

That chord progression sounds an awful lot like Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us.” Whether or not, this track is another feather in Wizkid’s starboy cap, a solid groove coming out of a collaboration with international dance producers Major Lazer. The production on this cut is excellent, fitting in all sorts of little sonic details that make it rich.

Emma Nyra: “Jamina”

Here’s an Afrobeats singer we haven’t featured yet–Emma Nyra, born Emma Chukwugoziam Obi in Texas, but living in Nigeria as of 2012, following her musical dreams. She’s done work with Iyanya, Davido and Patoranking, among others, carving a space for herself as one of the top women in the highly competitive, male-dominated industry. Here’s one of her recent tracks, “Jamina.”

Waayaha Cusub: “Durbaan Ka Ii Tuma” with Desiigner

Recently, in response to the travel ban imposed on seven majority Muslim countries by the Trump administration, Spotify produced a series called I’m With the Banned, pairing up cutting-edge musicians from these countries with big-name American musicians to produce tracks in collaboration. This one is from a collab between the Somali hip-hop/pop group Waayaha Cusub, now based in the Netherlands, and the Brooklyn trap star Desiigner. It layers an ethereal synth atmosphere on a slick, minimal beat inflected with Afrobeats–Waayaha Cusub lead singer Falis Abdi sings on top in Somali, trading off with her bandmates’ verses. Desiigner interjects in the middle with a verse in English. Check out Waayaha Cusub’s other great tracks as well on their Spotify page.

Nídia: “Sinistro”

Nídia is a fresh, young Portuguese-French producer, reveling in the relentless, fractured electronic beats, squealing synths and moody, enveloping samples of kuduro, batida and tarraxo, These labels describe some of the next-level, futuristic dance music coming out of Lisbon’s suburbs, projects and slums, bearing a strong Angolan influence. The entrancing rhythms, contorted into gnarly shapes you won’t hear elsewhere, are pumping through clubs across Portugal, Angola and beyond. Nídia, born in Lisbon but now based in France, is adding another dimension to these styles, mashing them together with techno, house and sounds that I don’t quite have names for. This track is one of the most straightforward on her debut album, Nídia é Má, Nídia é Fudida (meaning “Nídia is bad, Nídia is dope”), was released in June by Lisbon-based Principe Records. If you’re getting down to this, check out the rest of her album and the other goodness on Principe.

Chronixx: “Likes”

In this track, the young reggae superstar from Jamaica speaks his mind on the contemporary reggae dancehall scene in Jamaica, criticizing social media obsession and infighting in the community, among other things: “Me do it for the love/Me don’t do it for the likes.” It’s a hot track, more dancehall than the heavy roots reggae sound to which he’s given new life. Chronixx is a righteous inheritor of the pointed, outspoken reggae tradition epitomized by Bob Marley–he’s never afraid to speak his mind, offering a vision that cuts through music industry egotism, abuses of power and the social divides that cultivate disunity. His new release–in fact his first official album– Chronology, is wide-ranging, well-crafted piece of work. See Afropop’s review here.

Jay-Z: “Bam” with Damian Marley

Jay-Z, even from his position at the tippy-top of the hip-hop music industry, says that visiting the fabled Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica made him feel like a kid. As he walks through the streets of Kingston with Damian Marley, he waxes nostalgic about listening to Bob Marley as a kid and draws a parent-child connection between reggae and hip-hop. For his recent album, 4:44, Jay-Z went to Jamaica to work with Damian and record at Tuff Gong, and here’s the product. A solid hip-hop track that pays tribute to some reggae icons: Marley sings the famous verse from Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam” over a sample of the song, then riffs off of Jacob Miller’s “Tenement Yard.” Jay-Z’s verses acknowledge the importance his ego has had in his success, in contrast to another song on the album, “Kill Jay-Z.”

Shatta Wale: “Ayoo”

A bit of a throwback to the spring, but this track is nonetheless still a life-giver. It’s from Ghanaian artist Shatta Wale, who has a healthy dose of Afrobeats and dancehall, pushing Ghanaian dancehall as a hot and very respectable music. As a matter of fact, he actually went to Jamaica to “study” dancehall. One impression of a general consensus in Ghana is that Shatta Wale is the best Ghanaian artist around, a claim backed up by his big success at this year’s Ghana Meets Naija competition. This song, in which Shatta sings in four different languages, will be sure to get you moving.

Da Cruz: “Virose”

This song is leaving us wondering how we hadn’t heard of Da Cruz until now. Fronted by the Brazilian singer Mariana Da Cruz, the group is yielding some deeply funky sounds, bringing together electro-pop, reggae/dancehall, Afrobeat, punk rock, kuduro and loads more into one fiery sound. Check this recent track off of their forthcoming album, Eco do Futuro, due for release on Oct. 6, which you’ll be able to find on their Bandcamp page.

Liniker e os Caramelows: “Louise du Brésil”

Liniker e os Caramelows, coming out of São Paolo, are crafting some deeply funky grooves. They’ve got bits of jazz, samba rock, old-school American soul and Brazilian funk in the vein of Tim Maia. Here’s a recent live performance of one of their songs, “Louise du Brésil,” at a music festival in Spain. Liniker e os Caramelows occupies a distinct and important place in the Brazilian music scene, with Liniker Barros, a black trans woman fronting the band. Barros was heard in our recent “Pride Playlist,” featuring queer and trans artists–she says that being a black trans woman performer is “political, because we need representation…It’s extremely important—not just for me, but for each of us—to be occupying all positions, the stages and the countries to continue to resist and exist.” Listen on to this hot group and keep on eye out for their live shows–they’ve begun to tour beyond Brazil.

Ghislain Dimaï: “On Ne Vous A Pas Laissé?”

This track suggests you don’t need much to make a song groove. Here’s Ghislain Dimaï coming at you from Cameroon with “On Ne Vous A Pas Laissé?” (We haven’t let you down?). It’s a sparse tune, but that doesn’t keep Dimaï from getting the crowd moving at his party in the forest.

Jose Chameleone: “Mshamba”

Jose Chameleone has some seriously sunny energy. The Ugandan pop star churns out hit after hit of shimmering gold, working that tried-and-true sound of Ugandan dance music, kidandali. His sound is somewhere between Congolese soukous, dancehall and the Ugandan guitar style, kadongo kamu. This relentlessly upbeat and brightly textured stuff could get you through dark days or make sunny days even brighter. Chameleone is riding the wave of his music empire, living a high-flying life and touring the world.

Assembled by Sebastian Bouknight, Akornefa Akyea, Morgan Greenstreet and Eli Berman

320 kbps | 110 MB | LINKS

DANNY B HARVEY is best known as the guitarist for the super group HeadCat (a band he formed with Lemmy from Motorhead and Slim Jim Phantom from Stray Cats) but he was also a founding member of The Original Neo-Rockabilly band The Rockats and his dynamic “White Striped of Country” duo The Lonesome Spurs. Danny has produced, recorded, and performed with Wanda Jackson, Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Ramone, Levi Dexter, and The Swing Cats. This past year Danny B released a CD and toured with his Goth’n’Roll band The 69 Cats, which features vocalist Jyrki 69 from The 69 Eyes, drummer Clem Burke from Blondie, and former Cramps bassist Chopper Franklin.

ANNIE MARIE LEWIS is the niece of Jerry Lee Lewis, daughter of Linda Gail Lewis, and cousin of Mickey Gilley–she has the genealogy, the roots, and the direct blood connection to the first family of Rock’n’Roll. Annie Marie has been opening shows for Jerry Lee with her mama ever since she was a teenager and has also sung backups with Van Morrison and toured the world with her mama, Linda Gail. Recently she hooked up with the Texas Rockabilly Vampire Danny B Harvey and has spent the last year touring with him as a duo and a guest singer with his band The 69 Cats. Annie Marie is the real deal-true Rock’n’Roll Royalty.

Тема на форуме