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2 António Zambujo Por Meu Cante (World Village WVF479058 (UK dist by Har- monia Mundi)). Recorded in 2004 but only now released – sparely, charmingly backed on guitarra portuguesa, classical guitar, acoustic bass, piano and male chorus – António Zam- bujo reveals himself as a contemporary fado master. Lyrics and notes in Portuguese.
www.ocarina-music.pt
2 Various Artists Sones Y Huapangos: Musiques De La Huasteca Et De Veracruz Mexique (Mémoires Sonores/Cordae/La Talavera GEMP68). Historically important 1970 field recordings, 28 examples of Mexi- can huapango and son genres from the Huasteca and Veracruz. Handsome illustrated 40-page digipak, notes in French.
www.talvera.org
The albums – good (2), adequate (1) and bad (@) – which didn’t get the full-length treatment, contributed individually by a selection of our various reviewers cowering under the cloak of collective anonymity.
2 Michael Chapman Growing Pains 3 (Market Square MSMCD157). More archive recordings which see Chapman’s gui- tar and vocals working with Rick Kemp, Maddy Prior, Jim O’Rourke and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, among others. Varied and never less than classy and interesting, as always.
www.marketsquarerecords.com
1 The Two Tap Trio A Night At The Fair (Own Label TTB 013). Not half bad traditional Irish album from the Minnesota-based trio (flute, fiddle and voice, guitar and bouzouki) though some of the song selections and tune arrangements hark back to the classic Arcady album After the Ball – not a bad recommen- dation.
www.twotaptrio.com
1 Sean Siegfried Backwoods (Own Label, no cat no). Siegfried’s influences are to the fore on this six-track mini-CD: Jansch, Dave Evans and the Takoma mob. It’s all nicely played, but there’s nothing that grabs the ear or stays in the memory once it’s finished.
www.seansiegfried.com
1 The Rankin Family These Are The Moments (Western Songs WSTN 004). Latest album from re-formed family folk band (sort of Cape Breton’s answer to the Corrs). Nice singing, good but pleasantly forgettable poppy/country rock stuff, and a tribute to the hair-colouring industry – you can’t see their roots at all.
www.therankinfamily.com
2 Runa Stretched On Your Grave (Own Label, no cat no). Second album from promis- ing midwest-based Irish American Celtic out- fit. Hints of early Clannad and Moving Hearts’ more sedate moments topped with luscious female vocals. Well-worn repertoire infused with a healthy jazz-flavoured touch – fresh and intriguingly good.
www.runamusic.com
2 Silvério Pessoa Collectiu Encontros Occitans (Cordae/La Talavera/Outro Brasil OB811381). Northeast Brazilian troubadour Silvério Pessoa recruits Moussu T E Lei Jovents, La Talvera, Massilia Sound System, Nux Vomica and 11 others for an Occitan- world-frevo mash-up. Not your standard- issue hipster’s musica popular brasileira, and far better for it. Notes in Occitan and French.
www.silveriopessoa.com.br
2 Ballroom Quartet Best Of Compila- tion (Munich Records BQ010). Eclectic band whose name doesn’t come near anything they do, a blend of world, classical, jazz, folksy dreamscapes and ambience to pro- duce a totally captivating musical stew. I’ve not heard anyone like them before. Includes a radio session which proves they’re as won- derfully bonkers live too. Captivating.
www.ballroomquartet.com
2 Southern Tenant Folk Union Pencait- land (Jonny Rock Records JOROCK013). Admirable pop folk from an ensemble who seem to be digging in reverse back to their roots, writing about the sweat and toil of everyday as well as the frankly rather bizarre, An Irish Airman Forsees His Death f’r instance. Clairvoyance unplugged? Nifty though.
www.southerntenantfolkunion.
@ Erwan Keravec Urban Pipes (Budamusique 860 207). The opener has a voice yodelling, performing throat music and screaming in an apparently random manner against free-form bagpipe playing. Subse- quent tracks are much less accessible.
www.myspace.com/erwankeravec
2 Sura Susso Sila Kang (Kuli Marow Music KMM0001). Out from behind Seckou Keita’s shadow comes young Sura Susso, calabash- botherer for his brother’s genre-surfing quar- tet. Here Susso displays his own lyrical kora- playing talents on an album of uncluttered arrangements full of warm and supple melodies.
www.surasusso.com
1 The Jolenes The Jolenes (Spread ARP001). Not perhaps the most musically adept, nor the most engaging of deliveries, but I sense there is a great live band oozing out of this debut album from the UK’s “only all-girl bluegrass band.” The rougher delivery of old timey Greasy Coat indicates a rawness and spirit which’d make for a rollicking night out.
www.reverbnation.com/thejolenes
2 Mayra Andrade Studio 105 (Sterns Music STCD 1110–11). This two-disc CD-DVD set, recorded live in September 2010 at the Radio France studios (with bonus rehearsal footage), presents Andrade at her exquisite best, backed by acoustic guitar, double bass and percussion, plus guests Vincent Segal (cello) and singer Hugh Coltman. Notes in French.
www.sternsmusic.com
Mayra Andrade
2 Walter Strauss Planet Solitaire (Red- stone, no cat no). If you haven’t encountered Strauss’s guitar take on kora music, this is a great place to start. He brings his incendiary technique to George Harrison and even Woody Guthrie songs as well, and his own stuff is left-field and good, too.
www.walterstrauss.com
2 Carmen Miranda Hoje (Discmedi Blau DM 4879-02). Co-producer Henrique Cazes grafted peppy new instrumental accompani- ments onto Miranda’s existing vocals (and guests) for this strangely effective rejuvena- tion of the Brazilian icon’s recordings from the late 1930s, just before she left for the US and became overly Americanised. The title means ‘today’, and her sambas still sound good. UK dist by Discovery. www.discovery-
records.com
1 Tango Negro Trio Ni Me Rompas Las Bolas (Felmay Fy8175). The fourth album by this Juan Carlos Cáceres’ side project features enjoyably croaky spoken word contributions from Daniel Melingo and other guests. Cáceres has been criticised for his academic, almost musicological approach to milonga, candombe, tango and murga and though he’s really going over old ground, there’s no doubting his sincerity.
www.felmay.it
2 Brian McNeill The Road Never Ques- tions – The Best of Brian McNeill, Volume 1 (Greentrax, CDTRAX360). This collection contains tracks drawn from Brian’s solo albums, from Monksgate (1978) to Live And Kicking (2000). Brian is a splendid fiddler and multi-instrumentalist, and you can clearly see the influence he has had on Scottish tradi- tional bands over the years.
www.greentrax.com
@ Pandy Arthur Pandy (PA Records PA1111). If you like your Scottish parlour songs delivered in a contrived, warbling soprano with a Richard Stilgoe-esque piano accompaniment, this is the one for you. But then, I suspect, you may not be one of our readers. More likely, you are gazing wistfully out to sea in a home for the terminally- bored, unable to get up and switch it off because Mrs Percival from Room 17 is stand- ing on your slippers.
www.pandyarthur.co.uk
1 Joanna Amendoeira Sétimo Fado (Le Chant Du Monde 274 2020). The seventh album by this Lisbon-based fadista doesn’t offer much that’s likely to shift her out of fado’s ‘second division’. She has a pleasant, though not particularly distinctive voice, and uses slightly unconventional arrangements (including piano, cello and uncredited accordeon) on traditional fados and new compositions. But it’s no radical departure.
www.chantdumonde.com
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