New Sounds Weekender: "Desert Blues"
New Sounds #3644: Another World Music Edition
Listen to world music, including music from the Argentinian DJ and producer Chancha via Circuito, new music by Indo-Canadian singer Kiran Ahluwalia, who has recently incorporated the groove of “desert blues” into her music, and more.
New Sounds #4019: Cross-Cultural Smorgasbord of World Music
Listen to trancey desert guitar riffs from producer and guitarist Justin Adams, whose latest unpredictable adventure is a record called Ribbons. On it, he conjures Tuareg rockers and systems music in equal parts, while he is joined by Norwegian vocalist Anneli Drecker (Royksopp.)
Bombino, In-Studio:
Bombino, aka guitarist and songwriter Omara Moctar, comes from the nomadic Tuareg people of North Africa. His “desert blues” or “desert groove” tunes might have that camel gait-like loping rhythmic feel, or even Bombino’s own style of ‘Tuareggae.’
New Sounds #3517: New Music from Mali
Hear music from Mali, mostly from 2012, when the country was split by civil war and the Islamist takeover; and the subsequent intervention by the French army and neighboring countries. Listen to stunning blues from the Niger River Delta, from virtuoso guitarist Mamadou Kelly, who worked with the late Ali Farka Touré. And more.
New Sounds #2744: Arid Africa
Hear desert blues from Tinariwen, music from Randy Weston & Master Gnawa Musicians, Justin Adams, Susan McKeown, and more.
Tinariwen, In-Studio
Members of the desert-blues collective Tinariwen met in a refugee camp more than 30 years ago and became soldiers in North Africa’s Tuareg revolution. Later, they traded guns for guitars – specifically, electric guitars. Tinariwen plays in-studio.
New Sounds #4256: North Africa and the Levant
Hear music with roots in North Africa and the Levant from Mauritania’s Noura Mint Seymali, Niger’s Mdou Moctar, Tunisia’s Sabry Mosbah, Egypt's Maryam Selah, and TootArd (Golan Heights.)
New Sounds #2240, The Festival in the Desert
Hear selections from the recent release (2004) of live concert music from the Festival, featuring world-class performers as Ali Farka Toure and Oumou Sangare, along with other non-African artists like the French group Lo'Jo and the Dine/Navajo Blackfire trio, not to mention Justin Adams and oh yes – former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant.
New Sounds #2978, New Music From the Berbers
Listen to music from North and West Africa, including master musicians of Gnawa from Ouled Bambara, nomadic band Tinariwen from northern Mali , guitarist Justin Adams, and Malian ngoni player Issa Bayagogo.
New Sounds #4239: the New Sounds of West Africa
Hear the new sounds of West African music that combines traditional n’goni and kora together with hiphop production and electric guitars from Bassekou Kouyate, Tartit, and Mdou Moctar.
New Sounds #2760: African Blues
Listen to works by Afel Bocoum, an heir-apparent to the Malian desert blues sound introduced to the world by Ali Farka Toure, who was his uncle. There's also music from a collaboration between slide guitarist Bob Brozman & kora player Djeli Moussa Diawara.
New Sounds #3953, music inspired by North Africa
Hear some recent releases that look to North Africa; to a place between Tunisia & Algeria, as far east as Ethiopia, & the sounds of traditional Moroccan Gnawa trance rhythms by Bargou 08, Belgium-based band Black Flower, minimalist Moroccan trance from Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society, and enhanced duo known as 75 Dollar Bill.
New Sounds #3451, Music from Sub-Saharan Africa
Listen to music by Tuareg singer/guitarist from Niger, Bombino, Mali’s Vieux Farka Toure Senegalese guitarist Daby Balde, along with something from the master Zulu guitarist Shiyani Ngcobo. Plus more music from Senegal from the blind singer/guitarist Mansour Seck, and more.
