Music Reviews
Various Artists - Putumayo presents Gypsy Groove
Putumayo World MusicYet more excellent roma tracks, but this time more on the euro remix side of things. Included are !DelaDap, Shantel (also featured here with an excellent remix of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band), Balkan Beat Box, Anselmo Crew, Magnifico & Turbolentza, Kistehen Tanczenehar, Luminescent Orchestrii and Gipsy.cz. A portion of proceeds goes to the Roma Education Fund.
PermalinkGraham Radley, 06/07
Various Artists - Putumayo presents India
PutumayoThere’s a couple of Bollywood tracks with A.R Rahman & Chinmayee and ‘Tere Bina’ from ‘Guru’ plus Rajeshwari Sachev’s ‘Maavan Te Tiyan’ together with Indian classical artists of renown Satish Vyas, Bombay Jayashri and Deepak Ram. A more contemporary approach from Kiran Ahluwalia, Niraj Chag, Sanjav Divecha and Susheela Raman through to the spiritual music of Uma Mohan. Good mixture.
Graham Radley, 05/09
Various Artists - Putumayo presents Latin Reggae
PutumayoThose of you who might have seen the wonderful Amparanoia will get an idea where this collection is coming from. The CD starts with a great ska flavoured track from Spain’s Muchachito Bombo Infierno, indeed the Spanish influence is strong here with tracks from Macao, Radio Malanga , Black Gandhi and Go Lem System as well. Another fine Putumayo collection.
Graham Radley, 06/08
Various Artists - Putumayo presents Quebec
PutumayoTo celebrate the city’s 400th anniversary Putmayo bring us this collection of some of Quebec’s finest. Featured artists include Anne Villeneuve and the magnificent La Bottine Souriante, the funk meets African of DobaCaracol and the excellent Le Vent Du Nord. A rich musical city.
Graham Radley, 08/08
Various Artists - Putumayo presents Salsa
Putumayo World MusicTen great salsa tracks from Grupo Gale, Poncho Sanchez, Chico Alvarez, Eddie Palmieri, Orquesta Aragon, Son Boricua, Fruko y Sus Tesos, Jose Conde y Ola Fresca, Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca and Juanito y la Agresiva. A well rounded collection.
Graham Radley, 08/09
Various Artists - Putumayo presents Tango Around The World
PutumayoArgentina quite rightly gets four of the eleven tracks (Melingo with Florencia Bonadeo, Federico Aubele, Jose Marmol y Tarija and Hugo Diaz) but to show the global spread of tango we also get tracks from Finland, Norway, Brazil, Serbia, Portugal, Greece and the very classy Ousmane Toure from Senegal, good stuff.
Graham Radley, 06/08
Various Artists - Putumayo presents Women of Jazz
Putumayo10 great female vocalists here so let’s name them: Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Cassandra Wilson, Sophie Milman, Hope Waits, Kate Paradise, Jennifer Hartswick, Stacey Kent, Della Griffin and Etta Jones. Good collection.
Graham Radley, 11/08
Various Artists - Putumayo presents World Hits
Putumayo World Music11 top selling tracks from across the years, which includes Peter Tosh with Mick Jagger, Youssou N'Dour with Neneh Cherry, Jimmy Cliff, Miriam Makeba, Manu Dibango, Gipsy Kings and Mongo Santamaria. You'll know them all, this neatly packages them up ready for you to sing and dance away to.
Graham Radley, 08/07
Various Artists - Putumayo Presents: Putumayo World Party
Putumayo World MusicRoy Paci & Aretuska from Sicily get us off to a joyful start with a romping ska track 'Ciuri Ciuri'. Next there's zouk from Martinique followed by further Caribbean influences via Denmark's Laid Back which in turn rolls into the classic Osibisa track 'Sunshine Day. Further tracks include Burning Spear, L'Orchestre Tropica d'Hait and Beau Joque & The Zydeco Hi Rollers. Spreading the universal music party vibe.
Graham Radley, 05/07
Various Artists - Questlove presents Babies Makin’ Babies II
BBE RecordsHere's the next instalment to ?uestlove's compilation for BBE, and as the title suggests, it is no surprise this was released on 14th Feb. He again digs back with more classics from Al Green, Delfonics, Natalie Cole, Delfonics and Bobby Womack. If you're after romantic lyrics for Valentine's Day, then you'd better give this a miss today, but what it does is give you is a small insight in to the good old days of real soul music, and lyrics which a number of current bands could take some pointers from. BEE never fails to impress.
Simon Harrison, 03/06