Los Angeles based Damon Aaron’s debut “Highlands is a dreamy collection of folksy soul tunes that is sure to put you in a melancholy mood. Damon’s lyrics reflect on life, love and the relationships he has experienced over an acoustic guitar, bluesy chords and lazy hip hop beats. Damon doesn’t have an overpowering voice but his light laidback tone suits the melodic compositions like “Floating” and “Firstlove” perfectly. These songs feature hypnotic electric guitar riffs against a backdrop of spaced out synths. “Clouds” starts out with a nice reggae flavored beat before settling into a lighthearted acoustic folk gem with well placed horns. As much as Damon’s vocals shine here, his skills as a songwriter and sole producer of this project transforms it into a sublime electronic utopia. After working behind the scenes for many years, “Highlands” is a nice coming out party for this multi-talented artist.

Reg Dancy

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Only real Xmas release we’ve had through this year, a well rounded collection that has Ray Charles doing ‘Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer’  and the intriguingly titled ‘Wrap Yourself in a Christmas Package’ which I’ve not heard of before but was apparently first brought out in 1961 by Charles Brown (who is featured on this CD with ‘Santa’s Blues), here it’s covered by Randy Greer and Ignasi Terraza Trio. Other tracks come courtesy of Mighty Blue Kings, Riff Riffin, The Dukes of Dixieland, Ramsey Lewis, Emilie-Claire Barlow and BB King.

Graham Radley

Another tasty Dancing Turtle release with this husband and wife duo from the remote central highland region of New Guinea now exiled in the UK. The journey here was brought about by the dreadful difficulties they faced from the occupying regime of Indonesia including imprisonment for peacefully raising the banned national flag of West Papua. Rooted in the sacred rituals of the Lani Tribe the songs are emotive tales of their journey, of life, of traditions and ensure a legacy for a tribe whose future is of great concern. Folk music from the heart.

Graham Radley

Congolese guitarist Franco is still widely revered as Africa’s greatest musician and this Stern’s compilation is a great insight as to why. The opening track ‘Esengo ya mokili’ was made at the age of 15, after he had come to attention as a brilliant street busker who built his own guitar at the age of 7. The double CD takes us through 27 more years with 28 tracks in total and extensive sleeve notes. Some called him Godfather others the Sorcerer but we should just call him genius and revel in the brilliant music he created.

Graham Radley

Veteran sambistas Jair Rodrigues and Elza Soares are joined by two of the new wave – City Of God star Seu Jorge and Luciana Mello plus 40 (yes 40) of Brazil’s best musicians to reinterpret 11 classic samba songs plus a couple of new ones. My pick is Seu Jorge who does a geat version of Dorival Caymmi’s ‘Samba Da Minha Terra‘. Refreshing.

Graham Radley

Oh just listen to ‘Chan Chan’ kick in on CD one and they’ve got you in the palm of their hands, pure magic. Produced by Ry Cooder, from a concert in 1998 as the group made their American debut, even though they were in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. This is very much a moment in time as they never all played together again and sadly members like Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González and Company Segundo were soon to pass on. Double CD, 16 tracks, music just doesn’t get any better than this.

Graham Radley

Formed by Jordanian vocalist Shireen Abu-Khader to celebrate Arabic folklore. Their description on the sleeve notes as a ‘ modern folkloric chamber group’ sums them up well, the music is traditional with new arrangements but keeping the vocals very much to the fore on these Sufi influenced songs. Beautiful.

Graham Radley

Covering 1973-1975 this is funk & sato from Benin’s obscure labels often recorded in the most basic of ways. This is music for the people, people who want to dance to this raw mix of horns, guitar, organ on a driving bedrock of bass and drums. It’s amazing where all this brilliant music keeps coming from but you end up wondering how you’ve not come across it before. Thanks Analog Africa – keep them coming.

Graham Radley

Excellent release from yet another wonderful Malian artist, with great production, from Yves Wernert and Philippe Berthier, neatly mixing the rural sound with a raw funkiness and Western dance loops. Gael Le Billan is a major player as well, not only as an arranger but also adding a whole range of playing from acoustic guitar to sax to this album of many flavours. Issa Bagayogo is clearly with this CD ready to find a bigger audience, I recommend you are one of them.

Graham Radley

Rough Guide once more exel with their mix of old and new, try these to give you a snapshot of where they are coming from: Joe Arroyo y La Verdad, Radio Cumbia, LA-33, Colombiafrica, Mojarra Electrica and Grupo Saboreo. 15 tracks in all and they all have one vision, dance and party until you drop. Very good.

Graham Radley