Hot Tips

[Jamie Renton]

Sabor de Gracia have a new one out soon which looks good to me based on this
http://www.sabordegracia.com/home/?lang=en

There's some fine stuff on there, I put a track on my latest playlist mentioned elsewhere on this forum.

But, especially after Rob demanding payment in beer from me for failing to mention that a Ruthie Foster tune was the best on her album, I think I should point out that the SdG CD is a bit curates egg-y.

[AndyM]

I think I should point out that the SdG CD is a bit curates egg-y.

Aren't they all, though? Can't remember the last time I heard a CD without a few duds.

[Jamie Renton]

I think I should point out that the SdG CD is a bit curates egg-y.

Aren't they all, though? Can't remember the last time I heard a CD without a few duds.

Yes, but some curates are more eggy than others

[taiyo no otosan]

Mr Jackdaw, have you picked this up yet?

Quantic Presents Tropical Funk Experience

I heard some snippets and was a little disappointed, but perhaps my expectations - already high when I first heard about its release - have just gone up and up over the intervening few months.

I'd be interested to hear your (or anyone's) opinion on it.

[Jonathan E.]

I ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. I hope your expectations had just gone a bit over the top with the passage of time, but I got it for under $10 so won't be a major financial catastrophe if it's a bit limp — unlike Soundway's The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria which I find virtually unlistenable. Really removed the bloom from the rose of that label.

Personally, I like the new King Sunny Ade release, Bábá mo Tundé, with some slight reservations due to its sounding as though the mastering was just a little . . . cramped. But fine music — as Nigerian music should be — and a pleasure to hear some very long and stretched out-tracks with some lively percussion work-outs. Even the remix track has some agreeable qualities.

[taiyo no otosan]

I ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. I hope your expectations had just gone a bit over the top with the passage of time, but I got it for under $10 so won't be a major financial catastrophe if it's a bit limp — unlike Soundway's The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria which I find virtually unlistenable. Really removed the bloom from the rose of that label.

I will most probably order it eventually; as you say, it won't break the bank. Still be interested to hear your thoughts though. I wasn't so taken with Palenque Palenque when I checked the clips online, but once I heard the whole set, I was totally blown away. Love it.

I decided to steer well clear of that recent Soundways Nigerian release. Somehow I could tell it wasn't for me, and it seems I was right.

When will there be a new Tumbele comp, eh? Now that was superb!

[Jamie Renton]

I wasn't so taken with Palenque Palenque when I checked the clips online, but once I heard the whole set, I was totally blown away. Love it.[/quote]

I agree & the story behind it is very interesting too. I interviewed Lucas Silva, the compiler & have written it up for a feature in the next issue of fRoots.

[Jonathan E.]

Mali Latino from Madou Sidiki Diabate, Ahmed Fofana, & Alex Wilson — own page at http://www.malilatino.com, Amazon page at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mali-Latino/dp/B003V54WW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1288633339&sr=1-1. If I'm not mistaken, distinctly superior to what turned out to be the overly precious AfroCubism.

Mulatu Astatke's new live recording, Timeless, has some superb moments, adds colour to the previously heard studio versions, and is damn near indispensable for those addicted to Astatke. The Amazon page is at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mochilla-Presents-Timeless-Mulatu-AstatkeCD/dp/B003ZWRBL6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1288634931&sr=1-6 for those too lazy to do their own search. There's a video from the show at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ox2YA3bLc.

In other news, Quantic Presents Tropical Funk Experience arrived and it's a somewhat mixed bag. A dynamite version of the Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" by Little Francisco Greaves slightly retitled as "Hiko-Iko" — almost worth the price of admission alone. Some slightly hokey and cheesy tracks that mostly manage to redeem themselves in the end — and some plain flat-out Latin weirdness that wrecks houses and holds the mind hostage. A couple of very bass heavy tracks are either from bad recordings or poorly mastered — or are revealing new-found deficiencies somewhere in one of my systems (only one . . . so?), which is naturally a bit disappointing but I'm not quite sure whether I can blame the CD or my stereo. All told? Essential for Colombian or Panamanian minded.

[Nigel w]

Mali Latino from Madou Sidiki Diabate, Ahmed Fofana, & Alex Wilson ...distinctly superior to what turned out to be the overly precious AfroCubism.

Decent album and I reviewed it favourably. But you're kidding about the comparison. Surely?

[Jonathan E.]

Could be personal taste, which I still claim to have — but, yes, I prefer Mali Latino to AfroCubism by a considerable degree for the very reason I gave. AfroCubism is to my ears overly mannered, prissy, precious while Mali Latino has some verve, some guts, some "let it go where it will" plus, I think, integrates Malian and Cuban styles more successfully and with less yawning chasms.

Of course, you're welcome to maintain your own critical stance, as are all other fans of AfroCubism — but I'm not "kidding" with mine. Perhaps I'm just a little tired of the World Circuit "factory" or ethos. They've been doing what they do very well for a while now, but let's freshen things up a bit. And I felt that the publicity re AfroCubism being the album that got away when Buena Vista came about just a little . . . suspect. You know me — I don't like the conventional narrative.

[Nigel w]

Perhaps I'm just a little tired of the World Circuit "factory" or ethos. They've been doing what they do very well for a while now, but let's freshen things up a bit. And I felt that the publicity re AfroCubism being the album that got away when Buena Vista came about just a little . . . suspect. You know me — I don't like the conventional narrative.

Given the album was recorded more or less spontaneously in a few days, playing live in the studio, I must say I don't quite get the ''factory ethos'' reference. And as WC has only put out about 20 albums in the last ten years (and in some years has gone an entire 12 months without releasing anything at all), the conveyor-belt suggestion seems somewhat inappropriate.

Far from being prissy or precious, I felt that Afro-Cubism had a real tension, born of the creative (and positive) clash between the tightly structured count-every-crotchet-and-quaver approach of the Cubans and the laid-back, let-it-all-hang-out attitude of the Malians.

As someone who was in Havana in the 1990s for the Buena Vista experience, I can also tell you that the story behind the record is absolutely true and in no way ''suspect''. As I wrote in Billboard this week, prequels are usually associated with the film industry; this may be the first example of the phenomenon in the music biz - and it is an entirely genuine one.

Still I'm glad you like Alex's record, because he's a personal friend and a charming guy as well as being a genius keyboard player, so I ain't going to knock anybody who praises his album !

[Jonathan E.]

Ain't diversity grand?

My comment about "suspect" referred to the PR for AfroCubism not BVSC. I am well acquainted with almost all of World Circuit's releases. As one might expect, there is a unifying ethos to many of the recordings, although perhaps my "factory" comment overstated the situation. Certainly, I did not intend "conveyor-belt" (nor did I say It) and it's far from a Motown situation. Clearly, my opinion of World Circuit is formed from a greater distance and with less personal intimacy than Nigel's. Nonetheless, it's my opinion and I'm fine with it. I maintain my independent thinking on the issue.

Nigel's review of Mali Latino may be read at http://www.malilatino.com/review-uncut/. "This dazzling excursion" is how Mali Latino is referred to, which is a bit of a leap from "decent album" in my book.

[taiyo no otosan]

In other news, Quantic Presents Tropical Funk Experience arrived and it's a somewhat mixed bag. A dynamite version of the Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" by Little Francisco Greaves slightly retitled as "Hiko-Iko" — almost worth the price of admission alone. Some slightly hokey and cheesy tracks that mostly manage to redeem themselves in the end — and some plain flat-out Latin weirdness that wrecks houses and holds the mind hostage. A couple of very bass heavy tracks are either from bad recordings or poorly mastered — or are revealing new-found deficiencies somewhere in one of my systems (only one . . . so?), which is naturally a bit disappointing but I'm not quite sure whether I can blame the CD or my stereo. All told? Essential for Colombian or Panamanian minded.

Thanks for this, Jonathan. I'd formed a similar impression from the clips I've heard. I thought perhaps it was the quality of the clip, not the track that was lacking. And, yes, a little too cheesy. I guess it'll stay on the virtual shelf a while longer.

[Nigel w]

My comment about "suspect" referred to the PR for AfroCubism not BVSC.

I know. And I was responding by saying that the AfroCubism story/pr is true. It was the record they planned to make in 1996, as anyone who was in Havana at the time will confirm. More than that, Al Vaiven De Mi Carreta, now on the new album, was meant to be the first number on what became BVSC, but was dropped when the plan and the personnel changed.

Had the Malians made the trip, Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer would almost certainly not have been recruited and would have remained in obscurity. So all's well.

The only dispute, I think, is over whose idea it was to revive the original plan 14 years later. Before the first AfroCubism gig in Cartagena in July, Eliades Ochoa proudly told me it was his idea. Toumani insisted to both me and Will Hodgkinson that it was his idea: said it was a direct result of his search for new collaborators after the death of Ali Farka. And Nick Gold says they're both wrong and it was his idea (although he did admit Eliades had been agitating over the years to get the project underway...)

[garth cartwright]

I'm with Jonathan on both Afrocubism and World Circuit - the album is pleasant but feels formulaic, lacking surprises. WC has, for many years now, seemed to focus on making world music for the coffee table: acoustic, well recorded, nicely packaged but very predictable. The fact that it has become world music made for a middle class white Western audience is a bit depressing. Surely Nick Gold is wealthy enough to take a few chances, record a few things that don't fit so tightly to the WC format?