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Altin Gün

Aşk

    Their 5th album in as many years Aşk (deeper feeling of love), marks an exuberant return to the 70s Anatolian folk-rock sound that characterised Altın Gün’s first two albums. It is a record that radiates the infectious energy found in the Amsterdam-based sextet’s celebrated live performances and next levels the group’s ground breaking sonic palette of Turkish psychedelic groove pop, sci-fi disco and dreamy acid folk.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: While Âlem and Yol were indeed great albums, on 'Ask' we get a band returning to their roots in fine style, forging a perfect mix of grooving psychedelic folk and airy lysergic rock. It's both hypnotic and intricate, with time signatures coming and going organically like the rising of the tide, all topped with swooning dreamy vocal lines.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Badi Sabah Olmadan
    2. Su Siziyor
    3. Leylim Ley
    4. Dere Geliyor
    5. Çit Çit Çedene
    6. Rakiya Su Katamam
    7. Canim Oy
    8. Kalk Gidelim
    9. Güzelligin On Para Etmez
    10. Doktor Civanim

    Tamikrest

    Tamota T

      Tamikrest return with a vivid, irrepressible rock and roll statement. Their most powerful album since 2013’s wildly acclaimed Chatma, Tamota t finds the band not only turning up the volume but also sharpening their meditative atmospherics and ruminations on the state of the Sahara and the world beyond.

      Features acclaimed Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra and a track cut with Japanese traditional musicians.

      TRACK LISTING

      Awnafin
      Azawad
      Amzagh
      Amidinin Tad Adouniya
      As Sastnan Hidjan
      Timtarin
      Tihoussay
      Anha Achal Wad Namda
      Tabsit

      After scoring a breakout success (and Piccadilly End Of Year nod) with their debut LP "On", Altın Gün return with an exhilarating second album. “Gece” firmly establishes the band as essential interpreters of the Anatolian rock and folk legacy and as a leading voice in the emergent global psych-rock scene. Explosive, funky and transcendent.  The world is rarely what it seems. A quick glance doesn’t always reveal the full truth. To find that, you need to burrow deeper. Listen to Altın Gün, for example: they sound utterly Turkish, but only one of the Netherlands based band’s six members was actually born there. And while their new album, Gece, is absolutely electric, filled with funk-like grooves and explosive psychedelic textures, what they play - by their own estimation - is folk music. “It really is,” insists band founder and bass player Jasper Verhulst. “The songs come out of a long tradition. This is music that tries to be a voice for a lot of other people.”

      While most of the material here has been a familiar part of Turkish life for many years - some of it associated with the late national icon Neşet Ertaş – it’s definitely never been heard like this before. This music is electric Turkish history, shot through with a heady buzz of 21st century intensity. Pumping, flowing, a new and leading voice in the emergent global psych scene. “We do have a weak spot for the music of the late ‘60s and ‘70s,” Verhulst admits. “With all the instruments and effects that arrived then, it was an exciting time. Everything was new, and it still feels fresh. We’re not trying to copy it, but these are the sounds we like and we’re trying to make them our own.”

      And what they create really is theirs. Altın Gün radically reimagine an entire tradition. The electric saz (a three-string Turkish lute) and voice of Erdinç Ecevit (who has Turkish roots) is urgent and immediately distinctive, while keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and percussion power the surging rhythms and Merve Daşdemir (born and raised in Istanbul) sings with the mesmerizing power of a young Grace Slick. This isn’t music that seduces the listener: it demands attention.

      Altın Gün – the name translates as “golden day” - are focused, relentless and absolutely assured in what they do. What is remarkable is the band has only existed for two years and didn’t play in public until November 2017; now they have almost 200 shows under their belt. It all grew from Verhulst’s obsession with Turkish music. He’d been aware of it for some time but a trip to Istanbul while playing in another band gave him the chance to discover so much more. But Verhulst wasn’t content to just listen, he had a vision for what the music could be. And Altın Gün was born. “For me, finding out about this music is crate digging,” he admits. “None of it is widely available in the Netherlands. Of course, since our singers are Turkish, they know many of these pieces. All this is part of the country’s musical past, their heritage, like 'House of The Rising Sun' is in America.” As Verhulst delves deeper and deeper into old Turkish music, he’s constantly seeking out things that grab his ear.

      “I’m listening for something we can change and make into our own. You have to understand that most of these songs have had hundreds of different interpretations over the years. We need something that will make people stop and listen, as if it’s the first time they’ve heard it.” It’s a testament to Altın Gün’s work and vision that everything on Gece sounds so cohesive. They bring together music from many different Anatolian sources (the only original is the improvised piece “Şoför Bey”) so that it bristles with the power and tightness of a rock band; echoing new textures and radiating a spectrum of vibrant color (ironic, as gece means “night” in Turkish). It’s the sound of a band both committed to its sources and excitedly transforming them. It’s the sound of Altın Gün. Incandescent and sweltering.

      Creating the band’s sound is very much a collaborative process, Verhulst explains. “Sometimes me or the singer will come in with a demo of our ideas. Sometimes an idea will just come up and we’ll work on it together at rehearsals. However we start, it’s always finished by the whole band. We can feel very quickly if it’s going to work, if this is really our song.” Just how Altın Gün can collectively spark and burn is evident in the YouTube concert video they made for the legendary Seattle radio station KEXP. In just under 20 minutes they set out their irresistible manifesto for an electrified, contemporary Turkish folk rock. It’s utterly compelling. And with around 800,000 views, it has helped make them known around the world. “It certainly got us a lot of attention,” Verhulst agrees. “I think a lot of that interest originally came from Turkey, plenty of people there shared it.”

      That might be how it began, but it’s not the whole tale. The waves have spread far beyond the Bosphorus. What started out as a deep passion for Turkish folk and psychedelia has taken on a resonance that now travels widely. The band has played all over Europe, has ventured to Turkey and Australia and will soon bring their music to North America for the first time. “Not a lot of other bands are doing what we do,” he says, “playing songs in that style and seeing folk music in the same way.”

      Altın Gün are: Ben Rider (guitar) / Daniel Smienk (drums) / Erdinç Ecevit (synths, saz, vocals) / Gino Groenveld (percussion) / Jasper Verhulst (electric bass) / Merve Daşdemir (vocals, keys)

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Mine says: Almost exactly one year after their debut album ‘On’ has taken us by storm, Altin Gün return with their follow-up ‘Gece’, on which the six piece continue their journey through the vast and wonderful world of Turkish folk, funk and psychedelia - more of the same, but different, so to speak. Similar to ‘On’, ‘Gece’ sees the band reinterpret old Turkish folk songs by the likes of Ne?et Erta? and the result has not only impressed fans of Turkish music. In fact, a lot of their fans outside Turkey have probably never heard any of the originals before and while Altin Gün pay homage to these artists, their interpretations don’t bear much resemblance to the originals after they’ve been given a new lease of life by the Dutch-based band. Groovy bass lines, cosmic synths and wah wah guitars melt into an addictive concoction of Anatolian rock, funk and psychedelia which has been taken a step further on ‘Gece’ where the band seem eager to try new things and to develop their sound. The record sounds bigger and bolder, sometimes fuzzier and rockier, sometimes more electronic and spaced out than its predecessor. Both are absolutely brilliant and I couldn’t pick a favourite, but if you have enjoyed ‘On’ there is no question you will also like ‘Gece’. And if you’ve never heard of Altin Gün before, give ‘Gece’ a spin. It’s an absolute delight.

      TRACK LISTING

      Yolcu (2:38)
      Vay Dunya (4:18)
      Leyla (3:17)
      Anlatmam Derdimi (4:13)
      Sofor Bey (3:13)
      Derdimi Dokersem (3:53)
      Kolbasti (3:27)
      Ervah-I Ezelde (4:45)
      Gesi Baglari (1:51)
      Supurgesi Yoncadan (5:29)

      Mekons

      Deserted

        This legendary group from Leeds, have written contemporary music history for the last 40 years as radical innovators of both first generation punk and insurgent roots music. 'Deserted' marks the return of one of the planet’s most essential rock & roll bands. The new album was recorded in the desert environs of Joshua Tree, California and is drenched with widescreen, barbed-wire atmosphere and hard-earned (but ever amused) defiance.

        When punk exploded in London, fast and brash and full of fury, up in Leeds the Mekons came blinking into the light at a much slower pace. Singles like “Where Were You” and “Never Been in a Riot” (both from1978) fractured punk’s outlaw myth with the ordinariness of real life. During the next decade, as country singers donned cowboy hats and slid into the stadiums, the Mekons celebrated the music’s rough, raw beginnings and tender hearts with the Fear and Whiskey album (1985) and went on to demolish rock narratives with Mekons Rock’n’Roll (1989). For more than four decades they’ve been a constant contradiction, an ongoing art project of observation, anger and compassion, all neatly summed up in the movie Revenge of the Mekons, which has ironically brought an upsurge in their popularity around the US as new audiences discovers their shambling splendour. And now the caravan continues with Deserted, their first full studio album in eight years.

        And desert is an apt word. This time there’s an emphasis on texture and sounds, a sense of space that brings a new, widescreen feel to their music, opening up songs that surge like clarion calls, like the album’s opening track, “Lawrence of California.” The band arrived with no songs written, only a few ideas exchanged by email between Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh, the group’s other original member.

        Five days of brilliant chaos let their thoughts run free, from the almost-folk wonder of “How Many Stars” and the wide open space of “In The Desert,” to the oblique strangeness of “Harar 1883,” a song about French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s time in Ethiopia, inspired by photographs Greenhalgh has of the period.

        TRACK LISTING

        Lawrence Of California
        Harar 1883
        In The Sun
        The Galaxy Explodes
        How Many Stars?
        In The Desert
        Mirage
        Weimar Vending Machine
        Priest?
        Andromeda
        After The Rain

        With their second album "Kin Sonic", Jupiter and Okwess transcend the Congo's unexplored musical heritage and dive into a pool of modernity. We're invited to savour his latest recipe, the Okwess ('food' in the Kibunda language) which is the fruit of all the encounters and influences he has absorbed during his many journeys around the world. It's a recipe based on perfect alchemy. Featuring Damon Albarn, Warren Ellis and Robert del Naja, aka '3D' (Massive Attack), this fusion of tradition, technology and modern technique should be the perfect soundtrack to many a summer to come.

        TRACK LISTING

        Musonsu
        Ofakombolo
        Benanga
        Pondjo Pondjo
        Emikele Ngamo
        Nkoy
        Nzele Momi
        Le Temps Passé
        Ekombe
        Bengai Yo

        King Ayisoba

        1000 Can Die

          Ghana's ancient empire and the 21st century global express. The rhythms that created the past alongside the beats forging the present. In King Ayisoba, they all converge. Everything morphing into one. And on his new album, "1000 Can Die", they stand together, history and today, side by side. The tradition hewn from the future.  "King Ayisoba and his band know that traditional instruments are stronger than anything modern," says album producer Zea (the Ex's Arnold de Boer). "Playing them is a gift from God. They'll take what they can use from electronica, from hiplife (the hugely popular Ghanaian style that fuses the local highlife music with hip-hop) but they won't let it beat them, because they know what they have is more powerful. Their music is pulled from the ground." The juxtaposition of the two on "1000 Can Die" shows the irresistible drive of both sides. The thick, squelching bass and beats that push under the older rhythms of "Anka Yen Tu Kwai" are overtaken by the guluku and dundun drums that bring in "Yalma Dage Wanga," its rapid-fire melody dictated by Ayisoba's voice and two-string kologo lute. Ayisoba toured Europe together with Zea, opening up solo, providing guitar, vocals and live electronics on stage, and Francis Ayagama joined King Ayisoba's band on djembe and bemne drums. Piece by piece, the experiments grew into the juggernaut of "1000 Can Die". Guests brought new facets to some of the tracks. The trailblazing Nigerian saxophonist Orlando Julius adds a raw, reedy quality to "Dapagara," while on "Wine Lange," the only song not to feature kologo, Sakuto Yongo's one-string gonju fiddle takes the music into a different, ancient dimension. The title cut features Ghanaian rapper/producer M3nsa alongside the shape shifting vision of legendary reggae producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

          Alone or with beats, ultimately the power that propels 1000 Can Die comes from the band itself, from the sense of history that forms every piece of music. It's there in every musician. They all go home and farm. They're connected to the land, and the songs are part of the harvest they bring from the fields and from their own families.

          It's a force that Ayisoba has inherited. He's absolutely compelling, charismatic. Not only in his imposing appearance, but in his kologo style – part rhythm, part melody - and singing. Whether the words are in Frafra, Twi, or his own style of pidgin English, the sense is always there: this is a man who has something important to impart. Every moment is intense and urgent. It leaps over the sounds of the album's opener, "Africa Needs Africa," and remains, gentle and soothing, on the acoustic last track, "Ndeema."

          Noura Mint Seymali hails from a Moorish musical dynasty in Mauritania, born into a prominent family of griot and choosing from an early age to embrace the artform that is its lifeblood. Yet traditional pedigree has proven but a stepping- tone for the work Noura and her band have embarked upon in recent years, simultaneously popularizing and reimagining Moorish music on the global stage, taking her family's legacy to new heights as arguably Mauritania's most widely exported musical act of all time. "Arbina" is Noura Mint Seymali's second international release. Delving deeper into the wellspring of Moorish roots, as is after all the tried and true way of the griot, the album strengthens her core sound, applying a cohesive aesthetic approach to the reinterpretation of Moorish tradition in contemporary context. The band is heard here in full relief; soaring vocals and guitar at the forefront, the mesmerizing sparkle of the ardine, elemental bass lines and propulsive rhythms swirling together to conjure a 360 degree vibe. "Arbina" refines a sound that the band has gradually intensified over years of touring, aiming to posit a new genre from Mauritania, distinct unto itself; music of the "Azawan." Supported by guitarist, husband and fellow griot, Jeiche Ould Chighaly, Seymali's tempestuous voice is answered with electrified counterpoint, his quarter-tone rich guitar phraseology flashing out lightning bolt ideas. Heir to the same music culture as Noura, Jeiche intimates the tidinit's (Moorish lute) leading role under the wedding khaima with the gusto of a rock guitar hero. Bassist Ousmane Touré, who has innovated a singular style of Moorish low-end groove over the course of many years, can be heard on this album with greater force and vigor than ever before. Drummer/producer Matthew Tinari drives the ensemble forward with the agility and precision need to make the beats cut. Many of the songs on "Arbina" call out to the divine, asking for grace and protection. "Arbina" is a name for God. The album carries a message about reaching beyond oneself to an infinite spiritual source, while learning to take the finite human actions to necessary to affect reality on earth. The concept of sëbeu, or that which a human can do to take positive action on their destiny, is animated throughout.

          TRACK LISTING

          Arbina
          Mohammedoun
          Na Sane
          Suedi Koum
          Richa
          Ghlana
          Ghizlane
          Ya Demb
          Soub Hanak
          Tia

          Khmer Rouge Survivors

          They Will Kill You If You Cry

            The powerful third instalment of the Hidden Musics series. Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan returns to Southeast Asia to record unheralded, traditional-based musicians from Cambodia, all of whom are survivors of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

            Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra

            Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra

              Seven-and-a-half thousand kilometres of cold ocean separate West Africa from Haiti. But music can cover that distance in a heartbeat, crossing the Atlantic to reunite the rhythms and religion of people torn from their homes to be sold into slavery on the Caribbean island. And on its self-titled album, the Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra honours those ghosts of the past even as it walks steadfastly and hopefully into the future.

              Experimental by name, the band was definitely experimental by nature. The concept started with Corinne Micaelli, the director of the French Institute in Haiti. She wanted to bring drummer Tony Allen, the power behind Afrobeat and one of modern music’s towering figures, to the island. A performance with Haitian musicians at a major public concert would be perfect. Allen agreed, and Erol Josué, a singer, dancer, voodoo priest, and director of the Haitian National Bureau of Ethnology, helped to recruit local percussionists and singers. They decided, in order for different strands of Haitian music to be represented, that the musicians would be drawn from a cross-section of the country’s foremost bands, including Racine Mapou de Azor, RAM, Erol's own band, the Yizra'El Band and Lakou Mizik, the group of Sanba Zao, one of Haiti's leading percussionists and traditional singers.

              Together, the musicians had just five days to compose and rehearse the set they’d play in the main square of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and broadcast live throughout the country. 

              What emerged from the subsequent long, hot sessions were a series of tracks with roots on both sides of the Atlantic, compelling layers of subtle polyrhythms that bridge centuries and cultures. Relentless grooves become the foundation for soaring, utterly modern melodies like the swirling, electronica-fuelled “Salilento” or the Afro Vocoder ritual sound of “Yanvalou” that’s inspired as much by Krautrock and Sun Ra as Lagos or Port-au-Prince. Flying on inspiration and adrenaline, it’s roots music for a global future. 

              Aziza Brahim

              Abbar El Hamada

                Western Saharan musician / activist Aziza Brahim's new album 'Abbar el Hamada' ('Across the Hamada'), is a commanding and compassionate musical statement about, and for, the tumultuous age in which we live. Raised in a Saharawi refugee camp in the Algerian desert, and living in exile for more than two decades (first in Cuba and currently in Barcelona), Brahim's life and music embodies both the tragedies and hopes of the present-day migrant and refugee experience. As walls and borders are again being raised though-out Europe and other corners of the world, Aziza Brahim's passionately sung poetic defiance, is especially timely and profound.

                On 'Abbar el Hamada', Aziza has consciously extended her reach deeper into the sounds of contemporary West Africa. This move has been reinforced by the introduction of Senegalese percussionist Sengane Ngom and drummer Aleix Tobias into her band, and the return of Malian guitarist Kalilou Sangare. Bassist / arranger Guillem Aguilar and guitarist Ignasi Cussa, also return from her previous band. Recorded in Barcelona in the summer of 2015 with producer Chris Eckman (Bassekou Kouyate, Tamikrest), 'Abbar el Hamada', is a wholly persuasive example of Brahim's pan-musical vision and is her most compelling and varied album to date.

                From the pulsing desert rock of Calles De Dajla, to the Afro-Cuban inflections of La Cordillera Negra (evoking 70's recordings by the Super Rail Band) through the dusky elegance of El Canto Del La Arena and the raw balladry of Mani (featuring Malian blues-master Samba Toure on guitar), the music and lyrics on 'Abbar el Hamada' masterfully reflect the restless, imaginative search for home, explicit in the album's title. Hamada is the word used by the Saharawi people to describe the rocky desert landscape along the Algerian / Western Saharan frontier where tens of thousands of their people are stranded in purgatorial refugee camps. 

                Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

                Ba Power

                  Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba's fourth album 'Ba Power' (and his first for Glitterbeat Records) is a striking, career defining record marked by mesmerizing songs, razor-sharp riffs and full-throttle emotions. Following two years of worldwide touring for the much heralded Jama Ko album, Bassekou's band, Ngoni Ba, has turned up the volume and dynamics significantly and Bassekou's masterful ngoni playing has achieved a new level of intensity that can only be called: afro-rock. Distortion and wah wah and propulsive rhythms are now the defining backbone of his songs and the heat lightning vocals of his wife Amy Sacko, more than ever serve as the passionate and perfect foil. This is not the same Ngoni Ba. This is indeed: 'Ba Power'.

                  Without question Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba has revolutionized the sound and narrative possibilities of the ngoni, the lute-like instrument that is essential to Mali's Griot culture. Griots are esteemed musician / storytellers whose lineage stretches back centuries. Bassekou was born into this resonant tradition but his relationship to it has been anything but static. From the beginning of his career, through his invention of a previously unheard repertoire built around the melodies and rhythms of four interlocking (and at times electric) ngonis, Bassekou has demonstrated his respect for the past by radically pulling it into the future.

                  The new album 'Ba Power' is arguably the most inspired and fearless step in this process. It is clearly Bassekou's most outward looking album, an album where he sharpens his view beyond the eclectic sounds of his Malian homeland and directly engages on his own terms with elements of rock & roll ("Siran Fen"), blues ("Bassekouni"), jazz ("Aye Sira Bla") and other West African musics like afro-beat (check out the riff on "Waati"). 

                  The first volume of Glitterbeat's new series of releases: Hidden Musics.

                  Each Hidden Musics release will feature un-mediated "field" recordings of lesser-known global music traditions.

                  "Hanoi Masters: War is a Wound, Peace is Scar" is a haunting audio document recorded in the summer of 2014 by Grammy-award winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Malawi Mouse Boys, The Good Ones). The sepia-tinged songs are sung and played live and direct by elderly Vietnamese musicians using half-forgotten traditional instruments. These musicians all have deep personal connections to the upheavals of the Vietnam War and the album's mesmerizing mood navigates the blurred line between raw beauty and muted sadness. 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, a war these Hanoi musicians still call the "American War", the wounds and scars of that era are ever-present. "Hanoi Masters" is an album of cautious healing and an unforgettable meditation on conflict, resistance, collective memory, and the longing for what has been lost.

                  Samba Toure

                  Gandadiko

                    'Gandadiko', the title of Samba's potent, diverse and ambitious new album, translates from his native language Songhai as: "Land of Drought" or "Burning Land." The title seems to indicate a return to the dark textures that marked Albala but in fact ''Gandadiko' is a more complex story than that. Touré is known to search for the seeds of his musical ideas in the assorted stack of CDs he listens to while driving through the chaotic streets of Bamako. The out-of-the-box musical inspirations he has picked up for his new album range from Serge Gainsbourg to Bo Diddley via Tom Petty to funky psychedelia, though of course, all the raw material is instinctually filtered through the traditional melodies and rhythms of his Songhai musical heritage. 

                    TRACK LISTING

                    01. Gandadiko
                    02. Wo Yendè Alakar
                    03. Malè Bano
                    04. Farikoyo
                    05. Touri Idjé Bibi
                    06. Chiri Hari
                    07. Gafouré
                    08. Su Wililé
                    09. I Kana Korto
                    10. Woyé Katé

                    Fofoulah

                    Fofoulah

                      The London-based quintet Fofoulah (meaning “it’s there” in Wolof) was formed in 2011 and features Tom Challenger (Red Snapper) on saxophone and keyboards, Phil Stevenson (Iness Mezel) on guitar, Johnny Brierley (Outhouse Ruhabi) on bass, Dave Smith (Robert Plant’s Sensational Space Shifters) on drums, and Kaw Secka (Irok) on Sabar drums.

                      With the rhythms of the Sabar drums - a traditional form of Wolof drumming from Gambia and Senegal - at its heart, Fofoulah’s music has evolved into an inspired cosmopolitan mélange that also incorporates elements of electronic music, dub, improvisation and afro-rock. Like the complex city they live in, their music is shaped and lifted by diverse sound-worlds and cultures.

                      Produced by drummer Dave Smith (Robert Plant, JuJu) ‘Fofoulah’ is a previously unvisited crossroads where Sabar rhythms meet dub basslines and sci-fi synths; liquid melodies and Wolof rap entangle with trance-like dance grooves; and raw guitars, horns and samples blend with west and north African song forms.

                      Fofoulah is not merely a cross-cultural project. They are a dynamic band born naturally out of personal friendships and varied backgrounds, the nerve net of contemporary London and the post-global interconnectedness we all experience daily. The band is propulsive, innovative, celebratory and always leaning forward. They are a thrilling extension of the deeply rooted Sabar rhythms upon which their music revolves.

                      Black Mango

                      Naked Venus / Soft Kicks

                        A mysterious two-song release, licensed from a group of Bamako musicians who, with the exception of the Souku master Zoumana Tereta, choose to remain anonymous. Malian head music influenced in equal parts by Ali Farka Toure and Lou Reed.


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