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S
o, can we spot any trends? Well, if there’s one, it’s the continual rise in stature of English (lan- guage) folk among our panel. Without any significant changes in who we asked to vote, this year there were four English albums, one Scottish and one American in the top 10, along- side four that would be classified as ‘world’ (all African apart from the Cuban contributors to AfroCubism, and three of those on World Circuit Records – to whom congratulations). On the reissues and compilations side, though, world music continues to dominate, leading to the possible conclusion that world music fanciers prefer older models among the things they have on offer at the moment – and with two retro twangy surfadelic chicha/ cumbia compilations in the top 5, that’s surely a mini-trend in its own right.
And so, our winners. It’s third time lucky for English folk big band Bellowhead as they take this year’s trophy with Hedo- nism, famously produced at the iconic Abbey Road Studio. It’s a clean sweep in the reissues for Sterns in the top two slots, proving that even a box with a prominent- ly misplaced apostrophe can’t be stopped. And the ‘deluxe’ double CD version of Natalie Merchant’s Leave Your Sleep in its sumptuous hard-backed book of a digipak cover deservedly wins the ‘best packaged’ section by a good margin: the music only narrowly missed the top ten new album nominations as well. Congratulations to all.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
1. Bellowhead Hedonism (Navigator)
2. Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate Ali & Toumani (World Circuit)
3. AfroCubism AfroCubism (World Circuit)
4. Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson Gift (Topic)
5. Chris Wood Handmade Life (R.U.F.)
6. Cheikh Lô Jamm (World Circuit)
7= Emily Portman The Glamoury (Furrow)
Alasdair Roberts Too Long In This Condition (Navigator)
9. The Carolina Chocolate Drops Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch)
10.Konono No.1 Assume Crash Position (Crammed)
11= Andy Cutting Andy Cutting (Lane)
Natalie Merchant Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch)
13= Jim Moray In Modern History (NIAG)
Syriana The Road To Damascus (Real World)
15= Asmara All Stars Eritrea’s Got Soul (Outhere)
The Imagined Village Empire And Love (Emerson Corncrake Constantine)
Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal Chamber Music (No Format)
18. Hindi Zahra Handmade (Blue Note)
19= Ian King Panic Grass And Feverfew (Fledg’ling)
Ruth Theodore White Holes Of Mole Hills (River Rat)
Runners up (alphabetically): Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara The Trance Ses- sions (Real World); Mulatu Astatke New York – Addis – London (Strut); The Burns Unit Sideshow (own label); Duck Soup Open On Sundays (Hebe Music); Fay Hield The Looking Glass (Topic); Lokua Kanza Nkolo (World Village); Kronos Quartet with Alim & Fargana Qasimov & Homayun Sakhi Music Of Central Asia Vol. 8 – Rainbow (Smithsonian Folkways); Megson The Longshot (EDJ); Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown (Righteous Babe); Ana Moura Leva – Me Aos Fados (World
Village); Robert Plant Band Of Joy (Es Paranza / Rounder); Rango Bride Of The Zar (30 IPS); Razia Said Zebu Nation (Cum- bancha); Amparo Sanchez Tucson- Habana (Wrasse); Omar Souleyman Jazeera Nights (Sublime Frequencies); Tamikrest Adagh (Glitterhouse Records); Richard Thompson Dream Attic (Proper); Cath & Phil Tyler The Hind Wheels Of Bad Luck (NO-FI Recordings); Danyel Waro Aou Amwin (Cobalt); Alex Wilson Mali Latino (Mali Latino).
T
o keep the main attention on new recordings but at the same time recognise the increasing excellence of reissues, compila- tions and historic projects, we
have a second section for those. Techno- logical advances and the break away from the now very boring standard jewel box – the hallmark of a lack of attention to packaging art detail these days – mean that some extraordinary, exhilarating and influential sets have been released in
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