Jan/Feb fRoots, poll results, compilation etc.

[fRoots]

fR355/356, the January/February 2013 double issue
Is despatching to subscribers today. Street date 20th December.

http://www.frootsmag.com

This is our annual Winter Double Issue. It has a major focus on the fRoots Critics’ Poll for Albums Of 2012 - you can find the winners on the web site - and a look at the nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. We’ve also got features on Korea’s remarkable Geomungo Factory; Scotland’s The Campbells (Mary Ann Kennedy’s family band) and Ewan McLennan; Womex 2012 in Thessaloniki; last summer’s triumphant tour by Nic Jones; Canada’s Bruce Cockburn and Old Man Luedecke; duos Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, Cath & Phil Tyler and Cavez & Montanaro; hot Zimbabwean band Mokoomba; Narasirato from the Solomon Islands; fine young English singer/songwriter Lori Campbell; Greek politiki lyra master Socratis Sinopoulos; a great spread of 1980s archive photos; and lots more including recent Bellowhead support band Mama Rosin answering our monthly questionaire. Plus our regular colums by Tim Chipping and Elizabeth Kinder, BIFF, our usual unrivalled news and review coverage and much more – including a chance to WIN 90 CDs, all our playlisted ones of 2012!




And! Our latest exclusive free-to-download album fRoots 42 with 16 great tracks from Sekouba Bambino, Sproatly Smith, Kathleen McInnes, Robin Williamson, Geomungo Factory, Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze, Three Cane Whale (preview!), Hladowski & Joynes, Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis (exclusive, otherwise unreleased!), Mama Rosin, Rachel Newton, Serafina Steer (preview!), Monoswezi, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, Mavrika and Kathryn Tickell. The download includes booklet and label artwork and sleeve notes for those who want to burn to CD.




And! in this issue’s up-front fRoots Playlist, our current favourite new albums on the fRoots player: Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer Child Ballads; Sproatly Smith Times Is 'n' Times Was; Alasdair Roberts A Wonder Working Stone; Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze Amanké Dionti; Sekouba Bambino The Griot's Craft; Serafina Steer The Moths Are Real; Rupa & The April Fishes Build; Malick Pathé Sow & Bao Sissoko Aduna, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West Our Lady Of The Tall Trees and Monoswezi The Village.




Tracks from all those Playlist albums above, plus more from this issue's featured and reviewed artists can be heard on the January fRoots Radio now available via Podomatic - see http://www.podwireless.com.

[Nigel w]

From the blurb accompanying the poll results:

''With the fRoots Critics Poll results, we get confirmation of the unravelling of the World Music record business...this year, the highest placed world music album is previous winner Staff Benda Bilili’s Bouger Le Monde at equal 5th, there are only two more in the Top 10 and there isn’t a West African record to be seen in the Top 20. Seven of the Top 10 are from the UK.''

I don't know, but might that have something to do with the make-up of the electoral college?

I had a quick look at the list of who voted and it seemed that many of the most prolific and knowledgable world music writers - and the ones I tend to enjoy reading most - weren't polled.

Phil Meadley, Lucy Duran, Garth Cartwright, Pete Culshaw, Rose Skelton, Chris Moss, Jane Cornwell, Andy Morgan, Clive Davis, David Hutcheon, Jon Lusk, Andy Kershaw ?

That's just a dozen names off the top of my head whom I don't think I saw on the list.

It's fair enough and I think the poll accurately reflects the magazine's current strengths and interests. But regardless of the whys and wherefores, I'm very sad to learn that the world music record business has ''unravelled''.

[fRoots]

the make-up of the electoral college?

I had a quick look at the list of who voted and it seemed that many of the most prolific and knowledgable world music writers - and the ones I tend to enjoy reading most - weren't polled.

Phil Meadley, Lucy Duran, Garth Cartwright, Pete Culshaw, Rose Skelton, Chris Moss, Jane Cornwell, Andy Morgan, Clive Davis, David Hutcheon, Jon Lusk, Andy Kershaw ?

Every year we poll around 300. Every year around 130-140 out of them respond. Nothing's changed except the records they're voting on. We've had pretty much the same panel over the past decade (throughout most of which the poll was inevitably topped each year by a West African album), replacing ones who've dropped out with newer people to keep the same balance. 9 of those on your list were polled, of course. I have no idea why they chose not to vote this time, but quite a few in what some people might ghettoise as the "world music" part of the panel said they couldn't think of much to get enthusiastic about this year. For the first time in living memory there was no consensus among the ones who did vote. None of the world music albums I voted for made the top 20. None of the world music albums that got the mainstream hype - Amadou & Mariam, Baloji, Spoek Mathambo etc - got any significant votes (but then again, neither did Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman or Show Of Hands out of the 'big' folk names with new albums out). You can probably construct any conspiracy theory you like out of it. We live in interesting times. I encourage people to read the full piece and results, not just selective quotes.

[Nigel w]

I have had a quick look back to the last time when I was invited to vote a few years ago and I'd say it is clear that it is not only me and the dozen names above who are no longer participating - the alignment of the electoral college has changed substantially.

Otherwise, are we really expected to believe that just as the Census shows that only 45 per cent of Londoners are now of white British ethnicity, the resurgent artistic supremacy of predominantly white British folk music has suddenly reduced music from the other 190 plus countries of the world to also-rans?

Logic tells me that the musical interests of those voting is a major contributory factor in the domination of English/British records - 70 per cent of the top ten?

I'm not knocking it at all. We need a magazine that champions English/British music, and thanks to fR for waving the union roots flag in the way that it does. But it would be tragic if it is genuinely true that the world music record business has ''unravelled'' any more than the rest of the industry has.

I honestly don't know. I went to a Christmas party earlier this week at which almost all of the UK-based 'world music' labels were present. Perhaps they were dissembling, but they seemed fairly bullish.

Some claimed they saw the new digitial platforms like Spotify as a huge opportunity for world music. Some admitted they were in a period of retrenchment. Most were probably somewhere in the middle. But none said they were in retreat.

But then they would say that, wouldn't they?

Now that fRoots has officially declared that the world music record industry has ''unravelled'', I no longer know what to believe!

[Gordon Neill]

This does all have the whiff of the Judean People's Front versus the People's Front of Judea. I really don't care what any self-appointed experts declare to be the best of the year, they'e always wrong. (Although I would have thought that it was highly unlikey that 7 out of the 'best' 10 albums this year could possibly come from a tiny island off the coast of Europe. There's clearly something odd about how these things get 'decided').

But, in the spirit of an open mind and wanting useful tips on how to get rid of my money, what are your top 10 World Music CDs for the year, Nigel. I reserve the right to not care. But not at the moment....

[Nigel w]

Sorry, Gordon. I hate lists so you won't get one from me.

I rather agree with my colleague John Mulvey who posted on the Uncut website his 112 albums of the year. He explained that he had simply made a list in no particular order of all the records he had enjoyed in 2012 and it came to 112, and he refused to drop 12 of them for arithmetical convenience, let alone cut them down to 10 or 20 or even a festive 50. I thought that was rather admirable.

So you can have a list of all the records I've enjoyed this year but it will probably be an odd number and won't be a countdown-style top ten. I don't have a 'best record of the year' because I don't know how to evaluate between my favourite west African kora record (Malick Pathe Sow & Bao Sissoko), my favourite record from southern Africa (Mokoomba), my two favourite rock albums of 2012 (Neil Young's Psychedelic Pill and Dylan's Tempest), my favourite uncategorisable hybrid (Damon Albarn's Dr Dee 'opera') or my favourite classical recording (Barenboim's complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra).

How can you rank those and say one is 'better' than another? What criteria does one apply?

The fRoots list is excellent. It fully reflects where the magazine's strengths and interests lie. But as you say, it seems ''highly unlikey that 7 out of the 'best' 10 albums this year could possibly come from a tiny island off the coast of Europe''. And I would be more than a little wary of constructing from that a theory that the world music record business has ''unravelled'' to any greater extent than every other aspect of the record industry.

But I honestly don't know. fRoots tells one narrative , and it's a grim one for world music. The bods who run world music labels whom I met at an industry party earlier this week had a rather different narrative.

But then they would.

I simply don't know how to evaluate these contraditory narratives and I'm not saying that fRoots is wrong. Merely that if it is true that the world music record business has ''unravelled'', that's very sad when the Census has just shown that Britain is now a dramtically more culturally diverse place than ever before.

[Gordon Neill]

Thanks Nigel. I'd already clocked the Mokoomba CD and (after a very positive fRoots review) you've just confirmed that I need a copy of Malick Pathe Sow & Bao Sissoko's 'Aduna' in my life. So that's a good start. And I'm not a top ten (or, indeed, a top 100) nerd. Pick a number, any number. As long as it's not just six (surely more than six people bought you a drink at that party!). If things are so buoyant, there must be more than six that springs to mind, in whatever order, up to whatever number. Persuade the world that it's still producing great music. Although the inclusion of fossils like Neil Young or Bob Dylan won't give it a lot of confidence in your argument. The way things are going, the planet might need to try and like UK folk music...

I'm showing my ignorance, I know, but does Songlines suggest a list of the best CDs of the year? Or, indeed, does someone else who doesn't stay on a small island off the coast of Europe have some reasonably authoritative list of suggestions?

[fRoots]

does Songlines suggest a list of the best CDs of the year? Or, indeed, does someone else who doesn't stay on a small island off the coast of Europe have some reasonably authoritative list of suggestions?

Yes, Songlines has just published a list of their ten best. It's compiled by their two editors. Mind you, both of them (plus two more Songlines staffers and a number of their writers) voted in the fRoots poll. Of course, if you own abacus and anorak you could delete all the non-authoritative UK voters out of the fRoots panel and come up with a completely different list. In fact you could delete all the people who voted for records you don't like, or suspect you may not, and produce as authoritative a list as works for you . . .

Anyway, democracy is over-rated. Look who's running the country.

[Jamie Renton]

my favourite west African kora record (Malick Pathe Sow & Bao Sissoko), my favourite record from southern Africa (Mokoomba),

My feature on the latter is in the new issue of fRoots and my piece on the former should be in the next issue (I went all the way over to exotic Belgium to interview them too)

So while I may not be part of the elite world music journos club that no longer votes in the fRoots critics poll and gets invited to fancy Christmas parties with record label reps ("I never made the first team, I just made the first team laugh" as Billy Bragg sang) I reckon me and the mag wot I write for must be getting something right.

[Andrewq]

As an "alternative" review of 2012 you may wish to have a listen to Mark Coles at http://markcolesmusic.com/uploads/week_ ... f_2012.mp3
I'm surprised he is not the subject of more chat here and I certainly admire his tenacity and enthusiasm for giving us a regular and professional airing of the type of music we all enjoy, despite the limitations of shedcasting.
It may not have been a stellar year for musical discoveries but that's probably down to me to get out there and make the effort to see more live shows which reminds me to mention Sauti Busara - just been sent the line up - http://www.busaramusic.org. not to mention Womex in Cardiff next year and Womad in the summer. I'm already looking forward to 2013.

[Jamie Renton]

As an "alternative" review of 2012 you may wish to have a listen to Mark Coles at http://markcolesmusic.com/uploads/week_ ... f_2012.mp3
I'm surprised he is not the subject of more chat here and I certainly admire his tenacity and enthusiasm for giving us a regular and professional airing of the type of music we all enjoy, despite the limitations of shedcasting.

I for one am a regular visitor to the The Shed and have made many interesting musical discoveries there. Mark's style was memorably described by a reviewer as "like a cross between John Peel and David Mitchell". Although I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

[Gordon Neill]

Going back - briefly - to the fRoots list. I don't take these lists too seriously. After all, nobody else has my good taste. But a list with 7 out of 10 albums coming from nearby would suggest that the fRoots strapline of 'local music from out there' might need to be rewritten. I don't mind that 7 of the top 10 CDs are from the UK. I don't much care, to be honest. It's just a list. But it feels like a a narrowing of the horizon and of ambition. A lost opportunity to promote music from 'over there'. I can't believe that the rest of the world has run out of good tunes. It hasn't, just red the reviews in every issue of fRoots.

Actually, I think good old Mr fRoots hit on the problem, when he said there was 'no consensus'. World music has never been a genre, it's a box for all sorts of stuff. Votes for world music are spread thinly across all sorts of albums. In contrast, I suspect that votes for UK folk/roots music is more focused on a tighter range of contenders. It's all fair and unrigged. But the end result resembles some ancient Briton's attempt to draw a map of the known world, with not much beyond the English channel apart from 'there be dragons'.... (Sorry, I did say 'briefly'. I got a bit carried away).

More positively, I thought Mark Cole's Shed show was rather wonderful. This week's show covered the first part of his top 20 Cds of the year.I didn't like everything he played, but that''s not against the law. I did like his style and wit. I shall be listening next week for the top 10.....

[fRoots]

Votes for world music are spread thinly across all sorts of albums. In contrast, I suspect that votes for UK folk/roots music is more focused on a tighter range of contenders.

Yes but . . . this excuse might conveniently explain this year, but how does it explain the whole decade when the winner was always a 'world' album and few UK folk ones got in the top placings, when we had pretty much the same balance of people invited to vote. It doesn't, does it? Seems to me there's an element of messenger shooting going on here.

[Gordon Neill]

The mystery person from fRoots said:

Yes but . . . this excuse might conveniently explain this year, but how does it explain the whole decade when the winner was always a 'world' album and few UK folk ones got in the top placings, when we had pretty much the same balance of people invited to vote. It doesn't, does it? Seems to me there's an element of messenger shooting going on here.

Actually, for almost a whole decade the winner was an African album, with the rest of the planet (apart from UK folk) rarely getting a look in. So the map has always been strangely skewed.

But why the change in recent years? You're closer to it than me, so you might have a better explanation. But it seems to me that the dramatic reduction in recent years in acts from 'out there' being able to tour the UK in their bandwagon has had an impact on their profile. I fear that for many music journos, it's a case of monkey see monkey vote.

Whatever the explanation though, the thought that 7 of the world's best 10 albums in 2012 came from the UK is clearly wrong. I'm not talking about personal taste here. Just logic. Whatever the mechanics of the polling, it's produced a daft result. It's a bit like a calculator telling you that one plus one is eleven. Time to put a new battery in it, maybe?

[Nigel w]

To be fair to the ''mystery person from fRoots'' or someone rather like him, he was very brave when he opened up the magazine to music from around the globe, because a core part of his readership was quite resistant.

Perhaps what is happening is that now there is so much (too much?) choice at the touch of a screen, people retreat in confusion from the mind-boggling diversity on offer and go back into their favoured traditional comfort zone. The result is a music scene that may offer huge diversity, but can actually be highly atomised - or with a ''silo'' mentality in the current jargon. Mods in the red corner, teddy boys in the blue. Hippies over here and skinheads over there.

Hence we end up with a fRoots 'local music from out there' list with 70 per cent white British folk music in its top ten and an Uncut top ten list which would have you believe that 60 per cent of the best rock music of 2012 was made by white males over the age of 60. IN their way, both accurately reflect the two magazines strengths.

Of course you are right, Gordon, that ''the thought that 7 of the world's best 10 albums in 2012 came from the UK'' defies logic. But it's not merely that seven of them came from the UK - it's that those seven come from a white British tradition which might occassionally toss the odd non-British instrument into the mix, but otherwise almost totally ignores the 2011 Census results (ironically published in the same week as the fRoots poll) and which reveal that Britain has become a quite dazzlingly pluralistic society.

The only nod to that in the fRoots list is the presence in 16th equal place of the London-based Krar Collective (who were part of this autumn's Africa Express tour, an event which attempted to break out of the 'silo' mentality and unite musicians from different cultures and traditions and genres and take them to new venues - an initiative which fRoots attacked vigorously in its editorial columns).

It doesn't matter. It's a list, nothing less and nothing more, and it reflects the strengths and virtues of fRoots. My only objection was to our mystery person stating that the poll was ''confirmation of the unravelling of the World Music record business.'' Not a hint or a suggestion or an interpretation, mind - but irrefutable, proof beyond doubt confirmation of a line fRoots has been peddling for a long time now.

For all I know, the world music business has''unravelled' and is now totally f***ed. But to claim that the fRoots poll is somehow proof of this (or anything else) is self-serving nonsense.