In 1973, the Jamaican saxophonist and composer Cedric “Im” Brooks issued a wonderful album entitled From Mento to Reggae to Third World Music.
Reggae And Dub
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Album: Various Artists, Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 (World Circuit)
Friday 13 April 2012
When these CD compilations of Colombian music from the Sixties through the Eighties were first issued in 1989 and 1993, they introduced the wider world to the infectious sound of the cumbia and its accordion cousin the vallenato.
The Barometer: Best Coast; SpaceGhostPurrp; Azealia Banks; The Streets; Björk; Odd Future; Usher; Danny Brown; The Men
Friday 30 March 2012
What's hot on our playlist
Album: Heritage Blues Orchestra, And Still I Rise (Raisin' Music)
Friday 23 March 2012
And Still I Rise features mostly old blues material given a serious jolt of modernist energy, but without sacrificing any of the original character.
Album: Mark Stewart, The Politics of Envy (Future Noise)
Friday 23 March 2012
Mark Stewart has been cross-pollinating sounds since his time with The Pop Group, always freighted with an abrasive political attitude, and the splendid The Politics of Envy simply ratchets that process up a few notches.
Paul Weller, The Roundhouse, London
Monday 19 March 2012
“Thank you very much for your patience,” pronounces Paul Weller after performing the entirety of his new album, Sonik Kicks. Thankfully, it’s a decent record, full of inventive, psychedelic tomfoolery, electronic warbles and squealing synths – a little like Davie Bowie circa Station to Station.
The Fashion Audit: Clarks, brosiery, Tommy Ton, Diana's dresses and Bjørg Nordli-Mathisen
Monday 19 March 2012
We Love: Clarks
Sinéad O'Connor, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Tuesday 13 March 2012
With her combination of vulnerability and assertiveness, anger and empathy, Sinéad O'Connor makes an apt headliner for the Southbank's Women of the World Festival. Especially since, with her new album, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?, she's operating with a rare strength and clarity of purpose, with a band flexible enough to lend light and shade to the full range of her material.
Maverick Sabre, Roundhouse, London
Monday 12 March 2012
Michael Stafford, better known by his stage name Maverick Sabre, is in the middle of his set when a fight breaks out.
What To Do, See & Buy: Whistles; Jimmy Cliff; Robert Capa; George & Jorgen; the Flower Appreciation Society
Saturday 10 March 2012
Whistle stop
Album: Michael Kiwanuka, Home Again (Polydor)
Friday 09 March 2012
Michael Kiwanuka continues the folk-soul tradition of Bill Withers and Terry Callier on this debut album. Sensitively produced by The Bees' Paul Butler, it's a pleasant enough handful of easy-going songs, in which the focus on warmth has left them lacking bite.
Album: Paul Weller, Sonik Kicks (Island)
Friday 09 March 2012
While not as immediately career-defining as Wake Up the Nation, there's no denying that with Sonik Kicks, Paul Weller is continuing the courageous, exploratory course established on 2008's 22 Dreams, experimenting with the impish abandon of one who long since ceased letting others' opinions determine his course.
Kony becomes target of viral campaign video
Thursday 08 March 2012
A video posted by an US activist group highlighting wartime atrocities in Africa, has proved once again the power of social media as a campaigning tool.
- 1 What, let gays get married? We must be bonkers
- 2 Rocky Horror star Tim Curry 'suffers major stroke'
- 3 Exclusive: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims
- 4 Lord of the Sings: Sir Christopher Lee, 91, to release heavy metal album
- 5 Exclusive: Woolwich killings suspect Michael Adebolajo was inspired by cleric banned from UK after urging followers to behead enemies of Islam
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