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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.
2Lightnin’ Hopkins Lightnin’ Strikes + Lightnin’ Hopkins (Soul Jam 600821). Texas bluesman Lightnin’ was one of the most dis- tinctive, rolling and rocking guitar players and confident singers of the post-war blues era. If you’ve not got anything of him, you need some and this pair of LPs from ’59 and ’62 on one CD set is a brilliant place to start. A legend at his peak.
www.souljamrecords.com
2Various Niger Radio (Sublime Frequen- cies SF086). A glorious and evocative trawl through the airwaves of the “astonishingly diverse sonic patchwork” of Radio Niger. An exuberant celebration of the heterogenous population, it offers up a tinny, heartwarm- ing collection of shout-outs, Tuareg trance guitars, Hausa song, Koranic recitations and beyond! Lo-fi fantastic.
www.sublimefrequencies.com
@ Elephant Revival These Changing Skies (Thirty Tigers IER003). Their first albums had spark, but this time out they seem to have become a hippie version of M**ford & S**s. So it’ll be huge.
www.elephantrevival.com
1 Suo Suuri Härkä (Texicalli TEXCD 126). Finnish trio: singer/ kantele player Veera Voima, Emilia Lajunen on fiddle and nyckel- harpa and guitarist Roope Aarnio, setting runo-songs and other traditional lyrics to their own attractive, spirited tunes.
www.texicalli.fi
Lightnin’ Hopkins
2 Canadafrica Where’s The One? (Borealis BCD225). Canadian harmonica player/ vocalist Mike Stevens and Ghanaian multi-instrumen- talist / vocalist Okaidja Afroso produce culture clash music that has lots of spirit and energy. Mike twists and bends his harmonica in, around and over Okaidja’s vibrant rhythms: invigorating.
www.borealisrecords.com
2Kal Romology (ARC Music EUCD 2478). Under uninspiring packaging, this is the excit- ing music of suburban Belgrade, upgraded into festival behemoth. There’s expansive production, a savvy rhythm section, impish violin, fragile laments and even a full brass orchestra. Fine standouts are a rural vampire ballad and a sly satirising of Balkan Beat DJs.
www.kalband.com
2John & Sylvia Embry Troubles (Delmark DE832). Seventeen hard hitting tracks of old school Chicago Blues recorded c1979. John’s guitar burns while ex-wife Sylvia scorches the microphone with her vocals. Blues with real grit.
www.delmark.com
@ Hard Garden Blue Yonder (Hard Garden HGM004). “The music on this album has been created to breathe new life into the blues…” Oh yeah? The Seattle-based trio’s use of digi- tal beats, sequencers, sampled sounds etc, is neither new or revolutionary and tends to overwhelm.
www.hardgardenmusic.com
1 Alan McClure & The Mountain Sound Session Everything Is Fine (Until It’s Not) (Lost Wasp LWR003). Galloway-based Alan, best known as idiosyncratic singer-songwriter for indie-folkers The Razorbills, goes intimate and personal for this pared-down solo effort, ably backed by seasoned Hull sessioners. Charming and surprisingly relaxing.
www.fb.com/LostWaspRecords
2Various Artists Dust My Rhythm & Blues – The Flair Records R&B Story (Ace CDTOP2 1382). Various Artists You Talk Too Much – The Ric & Ron Story Volume 1 (Ace CDCHD 1390). Ace always delivers when it comes to re-issue compilations. Here are two more superb examples. The two-disc set devoted to the West Coast Flair label (active ’53 to ’55) boasts 50 tracks (half new to CD) that range from the driving blues of Elmore James, the vocal groups The Chimes, The Flairs, and The Whips, instrumental sides from Ike Turner, Blinky Allen, and Bobby Rey, the R&B of Clarence Garlow and Saunders King, and much more. The New Orleans Ric and Ron labels almost exclusively released sides by local talent which included Professor Longhair, Johnny Adams, Irma Thomas, and Eddie Bo, all recorded between ’58 and ’60. Great stuff. Keep watch for Volume 2.
www.acerecords.com
Photo: Stephanie Wiesand
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