Portico Quartet - recording Line at Abbey Road
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Isla
Portico Quartet sound like nobody else in jazz, World or contemporary music. Each of the nine tracks on Isla has a distinct mood and atmosphere, while remaining firmly within their soundworld. From the churning maelstrom of Clipper to the pounding pedal points of Dawn Patrol; from the fragile ostinatos of Line to the anthemic ensemble of the title track, Isla is an album whose contents reveal fresh nuances and facets on each listen.
Kalashnik Love
"I've always had this rage that I need to express." Mehdi Haddab sits back, rests his electric oud on his lap. "Rage against, I don't know... injustice. Inequality. The system." He pauses, smiles. "And music - loud music - is the thing that helps me channel it."
Better hold on: with Haddab behind the wheel of Speed Caravan you know you're in for a ride. Electrified, amplified and fuelled by creative fire, the Paris-based quartet charge towards a psychedelic horizon; slaloming through rock, dance, electro, hiphop, world and other music - blazing a trail with raised fists, a hand brake turn and a sharp spray of desert sand.
Return to Addis
The EP, 'Return To Addis', features all unheard material: two new tracks and two remixes from the album 'A Town Called Addis'. Track 2 is a Sima Edy remix by that most irie emperor electric, Cesar Diaz - a Real World Remixed competition winner (producer Dubulah was so taken with the winner he wanted this track to reach a wider audience). It features "Mr Mesenqo", Teremage Woretaw, on lead vocal and mesenqo, vocalists Sintayehu Zenebe and Tsedenia Gebremarkos Woldeselassie, Samuel Yirga and Feleke Hailu on keyboards and sax, topped off by the unbelievable bass playing of Winston Blissett (possibly the best bass player in the world).
Lightbox
This four-piece contemporary ensemble take a meticulous approach to composition and performance, creating a sound much greater than their parts (accordion, mandolin, acoustic guitar and violin) would suggest.
Tell No Lies
"My original love when I was young was The Clash and dub reggae" says Justin. "I like to keep things raw and swinging so it never gets too pristine or too sweet. I love listening to cassettes of Moroccan music and Algerian music. I like trancey, circular rhythms and voices that are in between pleasure and pain, where it's bittersweet."
Eagle
Traditional Kazak folk songs and Mamer's own compositions, touched with the renegade spirit of everyone from the Flying Burrito Brothers to the Velvet Underground and Nick Cave. With guests including Grammy winner Bela Fleck (on a Chinagrass duelling-banjos-style duet) and the late, great French producer Hector Zazou.
Call My Name
The sound, for the most part, is pop. Compelling and catchy. Direct and frills-free. But pop unlike anything else you've heard before. "I sing what I feel, in whatever language I feel like singing it," says Toure, whose lyrics embrace the personal and political in an often improvised mix of English and different African languages
"We just had this immediate musical connection," says McDonald, eyes twinkling. "In the way our instruments and voices combined. In the things we sing about and the emotions we put into our songs. To meet a brother like this..." He shakes his head. "It's a rare, rare thing."
A Town Called Addis
This project brings together an extraordinary but little known African musical heritage, a labour of love recording in a makeshift studio in down-town Addis Ababa and then a journey back to Real World to capture for the first time ever in the UK some of Ethiopia's finest performers.