World > African World > up to 5 GBP

Advantages: African Western Fusion
Disadvantages: Production sounds a bit 80's

...I was introduced to when in South Africa. Perhaps there is something about being in that amazing country, but driving through gorgeous scenery, with fabulous people with the sun blazing down hearing the lyrics "I'm searching for the spirit of the Great Heart, Under African sky" struck a chord. I admit if you've never been to Africa, or South Africa, this might not do the same! Johnny Clegg was actually born in Rochdale, Lancashire, he lived in Israel ...
...to SA. Having lived in a black society, attending a black school, and having black friends the culture shock of moving back to apartheid South Africa and attending a white middle-class boarding school obviously had a huge impact on his life, his career and his music. At 14, Johnny began playing guitar and through this he met Mntonganazo Mzila, a Zulu cleaner, who played street music near Johnny's home in Johannesburg. For two years Johnny learned ... Read review

Advantages: Modern and Back to the roots
Disadvantages: Ambient Africa is not the right title for this CD

Although the clearly African direction of this album, you can as well notice the western influences in this music which is not so simple to achieve. This is the real South African music but treated with respect . this music really speaks to everyone, it's modern and roots at the same time. It's not so easy to live with our past, Living Souls is a proof that even during the sad era of apartheid, the music kept people alive. (Bazoyidela - Bayajabula). ... Read review

Advantages: Some great recordings of rare tracks
Disadvantages: Misses some of Romica's best works

From 1864 and the abolition of slavery, many homeless gypsies settled on the outskirts of southern towns of Romania, these areas were called "mahalas" and it was where the songs "cantece de mahala" (songs of the suburbs) originated. People met in the local cafe or "carciuma" and a group of local musicians the "taraf" which usually consisted of violinist, double bass player, cobza, accordian and tambal and vocalist would entertain everyone else. This ...
...in 1926 in Bucharest and started singing in cafes by the age of 14 but it wasn't until 1964 that she actually recorded an album, The Gore Brothers (famous Romanian musicians - Aurel and Victor) who also grew up in the same mahala and were in fact cousins to Puceanu helped her become famous by organising gigs for her. She has a strange voice, sometimes incredibly high other times really low - quite similar to a black male blues artist. She was infact ... Read review

Advantages: Uplifting and joyful
Disadvantages: For a debut album, it's hard to fault

...based since 2003 and where Navega was recorded. On this delightfully poised debut album, the 23 year-old Mayra sings on all but one of the songs in a Cape Verdean Creole - a language derived from Portuguese. I didn't realise how different the language was until I looked at the strange text in which the lyrics are written. I had the unusual experience of being able to understand more her singing voice, but less able to decipher the written lyrics. ...
...CD booklet, though after some study I have come to the conclusion that the English translation is not a good one. Nevertheless, there is enough to give you a good sense of the feel and subject matter of each song. Musical InfluencesLargely due to her background, Mayra Andrade's music is a mixture of international influences, in which traditional Cape Verdean rhythms and song-forms are fused with Afro rhythms, Latin melodies, Brazilian samba ... Read review

Advantages: A sublime fusion of roots and more modern music
Disadvantages: Not as good as some contemporaries

This is the self-named album Kal by Kal! Kal are a Serbian band from the small village of Valjevo but are now based in Belgrade, they fuse traditional roma music with a very slight amount of pop/crooning, they are one of very few Serbian artists that still play Balkan music in the traditional sense as Serbian music is these days liittered with keyboards in general. Kal (Romani for black) were once described by a BBC journalist in Leicester as "the ...
...spot on in this case. Kal dress in black suits and hats which instantaneously gives them a mafia look, this image is quickly broken though as they're jolly outlook on life woos the crowd where ever they are quite quickly. The band themselves do a lot of work in Serbia to integrate the roma people in to Serbia in general through theatre productions spanning from Budapest to Belgrade and Bucharest, each year they also run a school (Amala School in ... Read review