Jun 13
Summer festivals, Part 1: Africa Fête
We’re beginning to get a lot of press releases concerning summer festivals. One we thought we’d highlight is the annual Africa Fête show in Marseilles on June 30. First, because we’ve always wanted to visit the town and secondly as the event is quite cool. Headliners include Kristo Numpuby, Ashes to Machines, Oumar Kouyaté and Fogny. Needless to say, there will be the usual extra-curricular goodies such as contemporary dance from Burkina Faso, associations promoting all things African and a truck built by artists from Liverpool, Prague and elsewhere on the theme of migration. All this for a ridiculous €5. Details on the Africa Fête site.
We’ve mentioned him before, but there’s no harm in mentioning him again as the project is an interesting one. Last year Cameroon singer Kristo Numpuby recorded a homage to the master of chanson, George Brassens. The unlikely combination, however, struck a chord at home in France, where Numpuby tours regularly and has appeared on prime time TV. His latest dates include a show at the legendary New Morning in Paris. Click through for the full dates.
Balkan Beat Box are a nutty band that mixes rock with strong Balkan/Greek/Mediterranean influences, making them sure-fire favourites at festivals. Their second album, “Nu Med”, has been out since April in Europe (late May in the UK). So the band is taking to the roads again, criss-crossing the continent between now and mid-August. We really recommend this crowd, who also did some cool remixes on the “Electric Gypsyland” compilation.
I have to admit that the Congolese outfit Konono N°1 is not my favourite band. In fact, their saturated sound drive me nuts. But they are unique, which is probably reason enough for Bjork to invite them to record on her new album alongside Timbaland and Antony. They have a new release out (”Live in Tokyo” - only available digitally), and are currently appearing across the US and later in Europe. Click through to find the concert dates.       
The Arabo-Fusion singer Natacha Atlas is currently touring Europe to follow up on the release of “Mish Maoul”. The dates include shows in France, Belgium, Poland, Italy, England and Scotland. Transglobal Underground will appear with her on at least one date.
One of the most popular acts in France at the moment are Magic System, the Ivory Coast band that has chalked up a number of major hits such as “Premier Gaou” and “Bouger, Bouger”. They have so far totalled over 2 million singles in France alone, as well as 400,000 albums.
Ivory Coast’s Manou Gallo is one of the most in-demand bassists in Europe. After playing with Zap Mama for six years and appearing in a play, she released her first album, “Dida” on the IglooMondo label in 2003. A documentary now traces her worldwide tour and the release of the second album…
Created in 1998 by two Iraqi brothers brought up in France, Aiwa is one of the most exciting fusion/electronic outfits. Musically, they mix Classical Arabic sounds with heavy dub/electronic grooves and ultra-suave rap. They have released two albums “Aiwa” and “El Nar” (photo), with an album of remixes of “Aiwa” in the pipeline - more about this later.
The people over at Calabash Music have had a neat idea. Despite what many people think, the US spends less than 1% of its federal budget on foreign aid. As Calabash points out, “If everyone in the United States gave up one soft drink a month we could double our current aid to Africa. If everyone gave up one movie a year we could double our current aid to Africa and Asia.” But rather than get preachy and feeling guilty about the situation, Calabash are running a very simple promotion called “Tune Your World”. “If every American would buy 10 songs by African Artists — We would DOUBLE the amount of money the US is currently sending to Africa.” 
There is something decidedly cool about the vibraphone even though it’s not the type of instrument you hang out with or stick under your arm like Chet Baker or Lester Bowie. Yet over two albums, Pascal Schumacher and his Quartet have given the vibe a new burst of interest. They combine cool school competency with a patina of blues, which is all the more surprising as they come from tiny Luxembourg. Schumacher has recorded with Australia’s Kristen Cornwell and picked up a handful of awards. The albums “Change of the Moon” and “Personal Legend” have both been played a lot at the Music Wire office. Lyrical, stylish and yet still cool, this is jazz we could vote for.
With a title that is sure to get lots of search engine activity, Crammed Discs have started opening their archives. The European label is known for its cosmopolitan genre-bending style such as Bebel Gilberto (see below), the early Zap Mama and Taraf de Haidouk. In the eighties and nineties, they also had a successful electronic imprint called SSR (Sampler Sans Reproche - Sampling without fear). The virtual twin-set includes material such as the Matthew Herbert remix of a Hector Zazou/Harold Budd track, a Snooze remix by Isolée, a track off the long-deleted DJ Morpheus vs Bassbin Twin vinyl EP, sonic terrorist Meira Asher, London jazz/dope beats heads Elixir, Japan’s Tao, Phosphorus and their dreamy, soundtrack-like trip-pop and Finland’s minimal/glitch pioneer Aural Expansion.