European World Music Charts

Welcome to another GondwanaSound around the world music adventure and our new style playlist, as we take a look at some new releases and the European World Music Charts for August. Click on the date to open the page for more details about the tracks, the full playlist and the opportunity to listen again for upto four weeks.

We start our round the world music adventure in Kenya with a new band to GondwanaSound, Rateng which means black in Luo. A Kenyan vocal group, Issac Gem, Moses Njuguna and Shiphton Onyango sing Sulwe ( shining Star) from their album Thumology. "The sun has finally gone home, the kids are dozing off on their mothers laps by the fire and the elders are chatting. At the horizon’s edge the sky meets the land with this bright shining star dancing to the chirping of the cricket".

In keeping with stars and the universe we move to Canada and a track form Buffy St Marie's latest album Running for the Drum recorded in her Hawaiin home it took the Juno Best Aboriginal Album award for 2009 and is unbelievably her 18th album. In 'Little Wheel Spin and Spin', she tells us, like gears that crank up the stakes, our individual actions influence the outcomes of everything.

We finish our opening three in a row in Russia with 'Siberian Abracadabra' from German Popov better known as O.M.F.O. Born in the Russian seaport of Odessa in 1966 he began his musical career playing gangster ballads and prison epics in caviar restaurants before he shifted his focus of interest to space and cosomonauts forming a band called Sputnik before leaving Russia to travel the world eventually settling in Amsterdam. Nice looking album, Omnipresence has the cd printed up to resemble a star chart from on board the starship enterprise.

As it is the first broadcast of the month we take a look at the European World Music charts. From number 20 to no 1.
There's a new number one this month with a strong Sheffield connection........ but first at no 20 the second month in the top 20 for Yuriy Gurzhy's RotFront and Emigrantski. We play the title track before moving onto Greece and as they say, something entirely different.

From Georgia Dagaki who's voice sounds more mature than her years. Born in Athens in 1982 Georgia Dagaki from a family who's history stretches back to the northern
Coast of Crete where her great grandfather was a lyra player. Georgia plays the three stringed fiddle lyra which is supported on the knees and instead of pressing the strings down they are merely touched at the side by the players fingernails. We recount the ancient Greek myth that tells how the lyra was invented. At number 19 its the second release on the World Music Network offshoot Raki records, Secret Love The first of the new entries.

At 18 is Lhasa with a self titled release Lhasa following on from Llorona and the Living Road with a number of years in bewtween. Seemingly releasing an album every six years its available on itunes now with the full physical cd release available on 15th September in the States at least.

We move on to our favourite track from DuOud's album, Ping Kong and Johnny Guitar. It has a sound which reminds me of Spaghetti Westerns and also the very fine film of the same name starring Joan Crawford as the property pioneer in the pre railroad 'wild west' of America.

Whilst we await receipt of Dreams from Tea Productions based in the States, we skip to a new entry at no 15, Frozen Roses from Ljiljana Buttler who has a voice to die for. Deep and full of emotion, I was moved to tears when I first heard her singing at WOMAD the year in which the Mostar Bridge was rebuilt uniting two Balkan communities ravaged by war and unrest. She's back with her third album produced again by Dragi Ristic with just a hint of the ballroom's strict tempo style.

Three months in the chart and subject of a World Circuit remix project, the heartbeat of Afrobeat, Tony Allen with Secret Agent This gets us wanting more....

With this being the twentieth year since Franco's death we can expect plenty of tributes. Straight into the charts at no 10 is Syran Mbenza and Ensemble Rumba Congo with Immortal Franco Franco was Africa's unrivalled guitar legend whose music changed the sound of a continent. Twenty years after Franco's death, Congolese guitar maestro Syran Mbenza brings together a host of stars to celebrate his incredible musical legacy in an album entitled Immortal Franco . Led by Mbenza, widely acknowledged as one of Africa's best guitarists, this album features the honeyed voice of Wuta Mayi and bassist Flavien Makabi from Franco's OK Jazz band.

Staying in DR Congo for perhaps this year's sensation, Staff Benda Bilili. With music recorded in the band's regular meeting place, Kinsha's zoo, using pilfered electricity and topped off with the youngest member, Roger's amazing one stringed handmade instrument on which he performs viruoso guitar like solos. My copy of the album, Tres Tres Fort still remains with Melstar, so captivated by the music is she. However, to the rescue came the Songlines covermount disc with picks by Andy Kershaw including Marguerite from Staff Benda Bilili.

Thanks to Le Comptoir du Disque in Montpelier, the Best record store int he South of France we now have a copy of Ghana Fenou, Kamel el Harachi's tribute to his late father's songbook. But we had to go to broadcast with nothing other than Rachid Taha's version of his Dahmane El Harachi's now legendary song Ya Rayah. Expect a track or two over the coming weeks.

Yet another new entry at no7 unites bluesman Gary Lucas with Leicester's finest Ghazal singer, Najma Akhtar in a collaborative project Rishte on World Village.

An album that's staying in the tray quite a bit back at GondwanaTowers particularly as its useful for getting small babies to sleep, Mawaca's Rupestres Sonoros, a trip into the ancient music of the Brazilian rainforest, the music of our ancestors, inspired by rock carvings.

One track that caused a lot of response for the way that it sounds very familiar yet difficult to pin down, came from Ti Coca & Wanga Neges from Haiti. Twa Fey comes from their myspace site but next week I'm hoping to have their album as my album of the week. The rythm that seems to have created the interest is Mereng which was superceded by Konpa. In the sleeve notes it says that, "the mereng has a lot in common with the merengue of the neighbouring Dominican republic although a lot slower and more relaxed. The true origin of the music is not known but it is generally attributed to Africa. The Haitian historian Jean Fouchard associated it to rythms originating in East Africa".

After soaking up the varied influences of Panama’s diverse population, the dancefloors and bars spat out a heady mix that took in the raw Vallenato of neighboring Colombia, the Soul and Funk of America, the Calypso of Trinidad and the Son and Rumba of Cuba, all combined and re-styled in a uniquely Panamanian fashion - making Panama a central spoke in the wheel of Caribbean music. Panama’s lust for the freshest sounds led to it being a testing ground for Latin music giant Fania Records, who would send advance copies of albums to Panamanian DJ’s to road-test and gauge reactions – if the crowds in Panama liked it, the record would surely be a hit in the US too! Some great music was being played in the 60-70’s in Panama and here one of the cream of the crop The Exciters with a tropical soul version of a lament about a man falsely accused of murder
Ese Muerto no Lo Cargo yo with Ramon Davidson and Enrique Stevens on horns.

There's twenty tracks in all on Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical and Calypso Funk on the Isthmus 1967-77 and with time on our hands it would be ruide not to play another cut. I called down the corridor to ask our station controller to pick a number from 1 - 22. He came back with 17 so Lord Cobra it was and a suprise hit for some of you.

As we draw towards the end of the broadcast we play a track from Baba Maal's Television where the 21st century griot collaborates with electronica's the Brazilian girls but comes full circle back to his roots in Tinto Quando a delicously hypnotic track.

Then onto our new number one from Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara with Sheffield resident Mim Suleiman on backing vocals.This one has a rather familiar Big Bopper Chantilly lace feel to it, what do you think ? We conclude the broadcast with an earlier collaboration from Justin and Juldeh as the Soul Scientists with Sanukubay.

Hope you hear something you like.

My thanks to Joahnnes Theurer for permission to run with the European World Music Charts - more information about the charts can be found at www.wmce.de