Track of the day: ‘AmmA’ by Bab L’ Bluz
French-Moroccan power quartet Bab L' Bluz, have released the second track from their forthcoming alb...
Fri, 08 March 24
French-Moroccan power quartet Bab L' Bluz, have released the second track from their forthcoming alb...
Fri, 08 March 24
BAFTA & Olivier award-winning composer Jocelyn Pook releases Jungle Book reimagined on Real World X.
Wed, 08 March 23
Paul de Gooyer, Real World's American label manager, takes us on the road for WOMAD USA '93.
Thu, 02 December 93
Welcome to the world of Swaken, the second album by French-Moroccan power quartet, Bab L' Bluz. Recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England, written partly in Morocco - the birthplace of frontwoman Yousra Mansour — and mostly across a world tour that took them from Adelaide, Barcelona and New York to Essaouira in Morocco, Lomé in Togo and Dougga in Tunisia. Eleven tracks that spark and pulse with kinetic, pedal-to-the-metal energy. This is ancient-to-future music, rooted as much in psychedelic blues, funk and rock as in the trancey, propulsive rhythms of northern Africa's Maghreb: Gnawa, Amazigh, Hassani and Houara music.
Like a bow pulled back with a fist and a sharp-angled elbow, the supergroup Les Amazones d'Afrique take aim at gender inequality and, fortified by an ancient-to-future soundscape co-crafted with producer Jacknife Lee, shoot their flaming arrows. Six glorious voices, six mighty queens — Alvie Bitemo, Dobet Gnahoré, Kandy Guira, Mamani Keïta, Nneka, Fafa Ruffino — declaim in a range of languages of the freedom and joy that comes with speaking out, and of the power of unity and ally-ship. Female warriordom has never sounded so fierce — or so danceable.
Land Of My Other is a place of memories and melodies, lyricism and lore. A place of sunlight, faerie-tales and rowan trees; of grief, incarceration and thunder in darkness. A place where ancestral trauma and colonial injustice meet blazing pride, romantic self-rule and hands held in a circle in the sea. Where songs are sung with feeling, instruments are everywhere and music lives deep in the bones.
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Music journalist Campbell Stevenson takes a look at the relationship between musicians and family.
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We've had a look back over our catalogue to select 5 of our best Irish traditional music releases.
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A rising West African singer teams up with Irish-born, California-based rock producer Jacknife Lee.
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