Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers Spirit of Music (Elektra) Move over Ames Brothers, Kim Sisters, and Staple Singers. Another musical family has hit its stride. In past years Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers have been as long on talent as the Carter family, but as short on memorable…
Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers Spirit of Music (Elektra) Move over Ames Brothers, Kim Sisters, and Staple Singers. Another musical family has hit its stride. In past years Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers have been as long on talent as the Carter family, but as short on memorable…
Yat-Kha Dalai Beldiri (Wicklow Records) I think I can save George Lucas some pain when scoring his next Star Wars installment. Instead of continuing his steady diet of John Williams, he should look to Tuvan folk rockers Yat-Kha. For example, scenes of Darth Vader assembling his first legion of stormtroopers…
Shubha Mudgal may not have been dragged kicking and screaming into Indian pop-music stardom, but she is decidedly reticent about her newfound status as the diva of MTV India. “So far I have sung three albums of popular music, and on each occasion, the initiative to do so was not…
In the rich, varied, and bizarre history of African pop music, the absurd tragedy of the Ethiopian pop recording industry stands alone. Less than a decade separates cradle from grave. When 24-year-old Amha Eshete took the gutsy move of founding Amha Records in Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Ababa in…
Juan-Carlos Formell Songs from a Little Blue House (Wicklow) This isn’t your father’s son. It isn’t Juan-Carlos Formell’s father’s son, either. On Songs from a Little Blue House, Juan-Carlos takes the kind of wide departure from the traditional Cuban son, charanga, and “feeling” genres that daddy Juan Formell probably never…
Decades before the sampling-based, cut-and-paste genre of hip-hop took hold, Jamaican dub was recycling recorded riffs like crazy. And “crazy” is the appropriate word. Extrapolating from reggae’s repetitious, hypnotic intensity, beginning in the early Seventies the Jamaican granddaddy of dub, King Tubby, was not only assembling the most psychedelic pop…
Various Artists Roosevelt in Trinidad: Calypsos of Events, Places, and Personalities 1933-1939 (Rounder) The 1930s were a tumultuous decade. The Great Depression took hold. Hitler rose to power. King Edward VII abdicated. And Atilla the Hun invaded New York City. Along with Atilla came Roaring Lion, Growling Tiger, King Radio,…
Van Morrison Back on Top (Pointblank/Virgin) Van Morrison can only blame himself for the daunting expectations that greet his every move. How else to approach a man who penned the all-time garage classic “Gloria,” wrote one of the most distinctively soulful singles of the ’60s, “Brown Eyed Girl,” then created…
Mr. Airplane Man Mr. Airplane Man (Altitude Records) Digging into the old school for inspiration and authenticity is increasingly popular, but the Boston duo Mr. Airplane Man need make nary a scratch: They’ve already found some deep roots. With one foot planted in the hazy dissonance of art-punk and the…
