That "time" has come

End of the year's approaching so it must be "best of" list time. I'm not a big fan of rankings but I do like to take a look back at the year's highlights before turning my attention to the new year's first releases. Over the next few weeks, I'll remind you of some particularly noteworthy titles (noteworthy to me, anyway), and end the year with a top-something list.

This year began with the debut by Miguel "Anga" Diaz'. Echu Mingua is a solo outing every bit as adventurous and auspicious as that of his frequent collaborator, the great bassist Orlando Cachaito Lopez. Anga's blanket of Cuban conga magic covers a slew of settings and styles ranging from the slow boiling "A Love Supreme" to the freely flowing "Freeform". In addition to Cachaito, guests include Mali's Baba Sissoko and pianist Ruben Gonzalez. Dee Nasty adds turntable cha cha cha. Echu Mingua trumpets the arrival of the new garde in Cuban jazz. Sadly, it will have to stand as the final document from a musician hitting his stride. On August 9th, Anga Diaz passed away suddenly. He was 45.

Another early '06 release that I still cannot get enough of is Mejico Maxico by the Instituto Mexicano del Sonido (Mexican Institute of Sound). Every bit as experimental as their kindred souls and labelmates in the Nortec Collective, on this beautiful record MIS combine dub, groove, lounge, rock and electronic styles and sounds into the whole enchilada. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not into ranking, but if I were this one would be a contender for top slot. Trust me on this one.

We'll get to some more releases in next week's post. For now, I hope you'll consider either of the above, and enjoy this week's show. Here's the playlist.

TerraSonic - 2 December 2006