From Trenchtown in the dancehall days this has six tracks each from Ranking Dread (two featuring Horace Andy) & Massive Dread recorded at Channel one and mixed at King Tubbys with Sly & Robbie providing the rhythm. Two rudeboys with both of them meeting untimely deaths so this is a reminder both of how good things were and how much we missed.

Graham Radley

Terrific CD this, fast and hard from the streets and clubs of Brooklyn, Spanish Harlem and the Bronx with dance floor attitude. There can be no better way to start things off than Eddie Palmieri and ‘L Que Traigo Es Sabroso II’ with tracks following in hot pusuit from Wayne Gorbea, Los Soneros Del Barrio, Jimmy Delgado, Chino Nunez, Chico Alvarez, Jimmy Bosch, George Delgado, Las Estrellas Cobo, Ricky Gonzalez and ending with Joe Quijano & his Conjunto Cachana winding things down with ‘I Get a Kick Out Of You’ Excellent.

Graham Radley

Eleven tracks that start with French film star Sandrine Kiberlan and ends with Canada’s Wailin’ Jennys. A nice mixture, with the acoustic approach being the common thread and demonstrating the superb range of female voices out there, the release is timed to tie in with International Women’s Day. This range and quality is illustrated nicely by Kaissa from Cameroon and the equally delightful Mona from Algeria who shows another side to her from the more often heard rap. Good collection.

Graham Radley

Artists from Denmark, USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Germany, Australia, France & UK. The feel is laid back beats inspired on a jazzy tip but that only paints part of the picture, a couple of tracks that illustrate things best are the Kid Loco remix of Thievery Corporation’s ‘Until The Morning’ and K-OS with ‘Crabbuckit’. Like it!

Graham Radley

Recorded in Sao Paulo last year this is Richard Galliano’s first studio album since 2001’s ‘Face To Face’. There is of course a very strong Latin American influence but the jazz (he’s played with Chet Baker, Michel Petrucciani and Jan Garbarek amongst many top jazz names) and classical references that have featured so prominently in his evolving career are woven within too by this excellent musician. Re-released at the same time is a remastered version of 1992’s ‘Solo’ a tribute to Astor Piazzolla who was in a coma at the time of the recording. Both are full of textures, passion and superb music.

Graham Radley

Another great double CD from Manteca which covers recorded and live recordings from in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Astor Piazzolla revolutionised Argentinean tango but in the process made himself a lot of enemies within his own country, it wasn’t until later in his career that his work was honoured there. It’s estimated he wrote over 3,000 pieces of this new tango (tango nuevo) with jazz and classical mixing into the traditional tango ‘a music for the head – as well as for the soul’. Magic.

Graham Radley

The Voice of Egypt and indeed a legend, whose recording career began in the 1920’s and by the 1940’s had elevated her to true stardom. Her “Thursday Night is Oum Kalsoum Night” radio show was a huge success which lasted until shortly before her death in 1975. This double CD contains 18 tracks over two CDs covering two hours of superb music.

Graham Radley

UK based Americans Cory Seznec & Michael Ward Bergeman with an excellent release that brings us the world of the train, the hobo and the American past. This is old time foot stomping American blues played on accordion, acoustic guitar, banjo, piano and harmonica. My pick is ‘Hobo Heaven’ a track full of feeling. Very good

Graham Radley

Swollen Members return with their 5th studio album packed to the hilt with fat beats and smart rhymes, returning once again on Battle axe records.
This album flows along nicely and has some top notch guest appearances from the in form Ghostface Killah, DJ Swamp, DJ Babu and the dancehall master Mr Vegas.
Stand out tracks include ‘Pressure’, ‘Grind’ and the title track ‘Black Magic’. The whole album is as expected, fully sample driven, but there is a heavy emphasis on piano’s and guitar licks. Its production is executively taken care of by Mad Child and it’s produced very tight. Fans of previous Swollen Members long players will no doubt dig this. It by no means delves into adventurous territory buts it’s a solid album that should be checked!

Jax

Vocalist, Simone Moreno has steadily been releasing material in her native Brazil since her self-titled debut in 1994. This, her fifth set is the first to be released outside of Brazil and was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden where she now resides. ‘Samba Makossa’ draws together a variety of influences from bossa nova and samba to Afro-beat and reggae. Although the album overall fails to capture my interest it does include pleasurable moments such as the funked up ‘Umbabarauma’ and the breezy ‘Meio De Campo’. Well worth investigating for these tracks alone.

Andy Allen