Rebels on the Road
Tinariwen and Vieux Farka Toure kick off a month-long North American tour in Aspen tomorrow night. Their stop in Boulder has the potential to be the concert of the year for the Front Range (though DJ Krush in Denver was pretty good too).
The legend of Tinariwen grows with each passing year and every solid record they put out (they're up to three now). The desert rock music of this Tuareg rebel guitar band provided the soundtrack to a rebellion--an uprising that ultimately gained the Tuaregs repatriation to their native northern Mali, and restoration (partial, at least) of their property rights by the Malian government. With guitars instead of guns, Tinariwen are the musical rallying point for an embattled culture.
Vieux Farka Toure continues blazing the path begun by his father, the late Ali Farka, whose West African blues guitar brought the desert to the Delta. Bearing that trademark Toure universal sound, Vieux brings a new voice to Africa's musical conversation with the world.
Here's a track from Tinariwen for you to consider, from their latest release, Aman Iman.
Tinariwen - "Toumast"
Here's a track from the Vieux Farka Toure remix record, UFOs Over Bamako:
Vieux Farka Toure - "Wosoubour" (eccodek remix)
Here are tour dates for Tinariwen and, on several dates, Vieux Farka Toure. Please go out and support--and enjoy--this music.
NOVEMBER 2007
01 : USA, Aspen (CO) - Wheeler Opera House (+ Vieux Farka Toure)02 : USA, Boulder (CO) - Boulder Theatre (+ Vieux Farka Toure)
03 : USA, Santa Moncia (CA) - Temple Bar
04 : USA, San Francisco (CA) - San Francisco Jazz Festival (+ Vieux Farka Toure)
07 : USA, Knoxville (TN) - Bijou Room (+ Vieux Farka Toure)
08 : USA, Washington (DC) - Lisner Auditorium (+ Vieux Farka Toure)
10 : USA, Ithaca (NY) - State Theatre (+ Vieux Farka Toure)
15 : USA, Marquette (MI) - North Michigan University
16 : USA, Minneapolis (MN) - Cedar Cultural Center
17 : USA, Chicago (IL) - Old Town School of Folk Music
18 : USA, Wilmington (DE) - Grand Opera House
20 : CANADA, Toronto (ON) - Mod Club
21 : CANADA, Sherbrooke (QC) - Centennial Theatre
23 : CANADA, Montreal (QC) - Club Soda
24 : CANADA, Quebec City (QC) - Palais Montcalm
25 : USA, Boston (MA) - Museum of Fine Arts
26 : USA, Burlington (VT) - Higher Ground
27 : USA, New York City (NY) - Highline Ballroom (+ DJ JORO BORO)
30 : USA, Santa Fe (NM) - Lensic Auditorium
Entre l'ete
Welcome to summer, and a long overdue new posting here. Life has been very packed lately, in a good way (mostly).
First and foremost, regular listeners will have by now noticed that the last few podcasts have been defective for some unknown reason that I'm trying to suss out. In the meantime, I'll go back to posting the show file here. You'll find the latest show at the bottom of this post.
There's been a tremendous amount of amazing music coming out lately, much of it available for download, some of it even for free. Starting with the free stuff, there are several tracks for the taking at the site of Russian electronica revolutionaries, Volga. Their music--ancient Russian folk songs and pagan rituals filtered through an array of electronics--is blessedly hard to classify, and possesses a sound all its own. The site offers downloads from each of Volga's seven releases, plus a remix record.
Manu Chao is offering a free download of the single "Rainin' in Paradize," in advance of his September release, Radiolina.
To celebrate 20 years of "Swimming Among Sharks," Berlin-based Piranha Musik has commissioned several of their DJ friends to mine their deep catalog and create themed, download-only "Jubilee" compilations. There are four volumes out so far, with my two favorites being Volume 2: Bellydance Carnival and Volume 4: Let's Get LatinOriental!. (I should qualify that statement with the admission that I haven't yet gotten to the equally tasty-looking volumes 1, Brass Attack, and 3, Girls Aloud.)
Quango is set to release Roots, Rock, Remixed, "The First Official Bob Marley Remix Album," with interpretations delivered by DJ Spooky ("Rainbow Country"), Bombay Dub Orchestra ("Lively Up Yourself") and Paul & Price ("Small Axe", my current favorite). "Soul Shakedown Party," remixed by Afrodisiac Sound System, can be heard at the record's MySpace page, and you probably won't have to look too hard to find a blog offering it for download. All of these remixes are very tastefully done, maintaining the original spirit and keeping Bob front and center. Irie!
Finally, we arrive at the link to the latest episode of TerraSonic (featuring some of the music mentioned in today's post). As ever, thanks for tuning in and Happy Summer!
TerraSonic - 23 June 07
Survey Says...
A couple of weeks ago, TerraSonic had the esteemed privilege of doing the inaugural broadcast from KGNU's brand new Denver studio. I was awestruck by the possibilities that this tiny--though nicely painted--closet of a station brings to the Front Range airwaves. It was a pledge drive show, and the great response we received indicates that listeners are excited about this new development as well. Huge thanks to everyone who pitched in to support KGNU during the drive.
In addition, I extend a heartfelt thanks to anyone who had a hand in recognizing TerraSonic as "Best World Music Radio Show" in Westword's "Best of Denver" edition. That came out of nowhere and I'm stunned with appreciation. Sharing this music with you is one of my greatest pleasures. Thanks for taking the time to listen.
In other news...because we appear to be back to automatic with our friends at Underheard, I will no longer be posting files of the show here. You can download or stream it from the Shows page on the aforementioned Underheard, or get the podcast straight from the iTunes store. (Just search for "TerraSonic".) I promise we'll get this space back to mp3 blogdom soon.
Thanks again for listening.
Later Than Never
Busy week. Just in time for this week's show, here's last week's show. Enjoy.
TerraSonic - 17 February 07
The Web and the Flow
Mad Professor came to town last week. I'd not seen him before but have always dug his work and was very psyched for whatever he cared to put on for the disappointingly small but enthusiastic crowd (a lot of dudes, as my bud notabotanist pointed out).I've always been a sucka for that deep bass groove, and when Professor served up those molten plates in his inimitable originator stylee, I came to grok dub. I was a barrier reef embedded off the coast of the soundboard, the waves of echo washing over me, eroding me into the reverb's seafoam.
Or something like that. He was joined onstage by Sister Aisha, an artist from his label, Ariwa, a name they rarely failed to mention during the too-frequent breaks. MP would dub out an absolutely slaying riddim--for four or five minutes. Then, just past the point where it seems
you cannot survive without this sound, he'd stop and plug his new album (and the label, of course), then Sister Aisha would come out from her dance spot behind Mad Professor's soundboard and sing, usually exhorting us to praise Jah. (That part reminded me of why I don't see much reggae anymore.) Then, after another pitch, he'd drop another groove and kill everyone all over again.
I don't mean to dis Sister Aisha, and certainly not Mad Professor (he is a force). I was just hoping for an uninterrupted float trip on Dub River. When he did put his mind to the mix, it flowed. But the marketing stabs and empty reggae dammed my stream.
I called out for him to mix in some Baba Zula, the Turkish experimental group kicking off this week's show and for whom Mad Professor's produced two records, but to no avail. That's OK though. Redundant reggae aside, this is the guy who wrote the book.
Our new podcast giveaway is Voices Have Eyes, a new CD by a guy who has definitely taken some pages from that book. In this week's podcast, you'll hear eccodek's remix of Vieux Farka Toure's "Wosoubour", a track from the latter's eponymous debut. Vieux is the son of the late musical ambassador of Mali, Ali Farka Toure, and thus is the subject of a ton of hype and overwhelming expectation. I'm pleased to report that this is an extraordinary record, the current buzz of the world music biz, and does not disappoint. Just ask TerraSonic listener Bil from Denver. He won a copy during last week's show.
Back to eccodek though...here's an artist who embodies that 21st century multiculti sensibility to which TerraSonic subscribes. In addition to the original record, brewed up in
eccodek's Guelphian Monastereo, Voices Have Eyes features his remix of "Wosoubour" as well as the track he did for National Geographic's GeoRemix project and some other bonuses as well.
To get yourself a free copy of this beautiful excursion into global dub, be the first podcast listener to respond with the secret word embedded within the show and it's yours. (Thanks, btw, for the great response to last week's podcast giveaway. Congrats to Kerry of Pt. Townsend, WA, and Carolyn from Boulder for being last week's first two respondents. They'll be receiving their copies of Caetano Veloso's Cê any day now.)
(As previously disclosed: I manage the record label that has put out eccodek's first two releases. I'd still be playing this one even if I didn't, but because I do I can offer this CD to you long before it's April release.)
Good luck with the giveway; I look forward to hearing from you.
TerraSonic - 10 February 2007
Up, stream!
Just when I was starting to think it wouldn't happen...
The part of the world beyond the reach of KGNU's AM signal (aka everywhere but Denver) (though we love Denver too) can now hear TerraSonic live on the web. To do so, go here and click for the AM mp3 stream, or copy the link and paste it into your music player of choice. Big thanks to those intrepid KGNUers who withstood a gauntlet of IT issues and other obstacles in order to plug us in.
With this giant leap closer to full speed (¡Proxima estacion: FM!), this space will get back to actually talking about music instead of about a radio show that plays said music. To that end, I'd like to put in a word about this new Caetano Veloso record, Cê. Simply put, I cannot stop listening to it. It had me from the opening "Outro" and now I catch myself humming this track (often "Odeio") or that one (sometimes "Nao Me Arrependo") a lot of the time. "Rocks" and the closing "O Heroi" are exceptionally solid too.
I'm not really a rock guy, so maybe I'm missing something here, but this is the best r'n'r record I've heard in a while; bonus that it's sung in Portugese by Brazil's answer to Bob Dylan (only musically more relevant today). It's the perfect balance and sequence of kick-ass to heartfelt to heartbroken. With guitar, killer guitar. Produced by his son Moreno and guitarist Pedro Sa, and recorded live-to-tape (no edits) Cê's warm, stripped down sound gives it a real yesteryear feel. But Caetano, now 64, is still very much at the forefront of now.
As promised on last Saturday's show, I'm going to attempt a podcast giveaway of Caetano Veloso's new record, Cê. Here's how it works:
Download or stream the 3 Feb show from this site or Underheard, or get the podcast from iTunes. Listen for the key word I inserted into the podcast and be the first to email me with it and I'll send you a brand new copy of this very excellent new record. Be sure to include your mailing address when you write. This outstanding, TerraSonic-friendly CD is definitely worth a few keystrokes. Start emailing now. Good luck.
I'll leave it at that for now, friends. Thanks for reading (and for tuning in). Feel free to get in touch no matter how you're tuned in. I'm always happy to hear from you.
TerraSonic - 03 February 2007
on the fly
Another crazy week. Almost forgot to post. I'm headed to New York tomorrow for a conference. There'll be a lot of music to see, including Globalfest. Some record shopping is certainly in order as well. I heard some good samples from a new Caetano Veloso record. I look forward to sharing it all with you when I'm back next week. Steve's taking over this Saturday. I recommend checking out his show. And here's the link to last week's episode. See you next week.
TerraSonic - 13 January 2007
Tinariwen and Vieux Farka Toure kick off a month-long North American tour in Aspen tomorrow night. Their stop in Boulder has the potential to be the concert of the year for the Front Range (though DJ Krush in Denver was pretty good too).
Vieux Farka Toure continues blazing the path begun by his father, the late Ali Farka, whose West African blues guitar brought the desert to the Delta. Bearing that trademark Toure universal sound, Vieux brings a new voice to Africa's musical conversation with the world.
