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MUSIQUE DU MALI

LE VENDREDI 16 JUILLET 2010  A 20H00

YOUSSOUF KAREMBE EN CONCERT

Au Café l’Eclipse

13 Avenue de Saint Ouen 75017 Paris,
metro la Fourche

LE SAMEDI 17 JUILLET 2010 à 20h00

YOUSSOUF KAREMBE EN CONCERT

AU Café L’INSOLENT

164 Avenue Clichy 75017 Paris,
metro Brochant ligne 13

Youssouf Karembe is one of Mali’s most active exponents of traditional Dogon culture. Working from his current home in Paris, his effortless mixing of traditional rhythms with contemporary song structure and subject matter is breathtaking. If you needed reminding that the guitar was played in Africa centuries before its arrival on our shores, Karembe’s music is just the thing. Catch him in Paris tomorrow and Saturday night, or check out his Myspace for more details.

Si estás por el Distrito Federal el 17 de julio, y quieres ver algo muy unico, vete al Jardin Hidalgo, donde Los De Abajo estarán lanzando su nuevo disco, Actitud Calle. Es un trabajo de muchos años, el grupo es fantástico, y no se paga para entrar. Que mas les tengo que decir para convencerles?! Para más infomación sobre Los De Abajo, visite su Myspace.

Those of you who tune in regularly to Treasure Nest on Rhubarb Radio will know that Soesmix and myself are of the opinion that hip hop is folk music, and folk music is hip hop. DJ Fabia, a lady who won this little bird’s heart way back, for sharing real sounds on Sensei FM, seems to be of a similar opinion, as her gorgeous hip hop / folk set shows.

Fabia also interviews Dizraeli just after a live set heavily influenced by British folk, showcasing his latest work Engurland: City Shanties. He knows hip hop and folk go hand in hand: “Hip hop is pretty much folk music for the modern age, it’s everyday people telling everyday stories in their own accents.”

Listen in to DJ Fabia and be healed kids, this stuff is gold dust!

On June 16th, some of Birmingham’s finest cultural exponents (Including The Old Dance School) headed for Liverpool for a street parade to show why  Brum should be City of Culture for 2013. The team from TNT News at Ladypool Arts and Leisure Centre were with them every step of the way  – watch out Midlands Today!

Para quem estiver em São Paulo…Nucleo Contemporáneo está montando projeitos na sua sala ainda não acabada, juntando os musicos mais criativos e abertos do seu conjunto, para compartir a sua arte, utilizando o eco para explorar o seu novo espaço. Entre outros, tocarão Lula Alencar e Denis Duarte, junto com Benjamim Taubkin. Quem me deira que pudesse atraversar o Atlântico para presenciar!

The influence of Canada’s musicians over popular music is not to be underestimated. Across genres and generations, there’s an undeniable presence – not so in your face as that of its North American neighbour, but confused at ones peril.

Canadian travellers the world over will proudly sport a maple leaf to make their nationality plain, but music doesn’t carry such obvious symbols. I remember as a young teenager listening to Joni Mitchell‘s A Case of You for the first time, having grown up to her voice as the soundtrack to every car journey taken with my parents, and clicking that she was not from the USA when she sung “Oh Canada!” in the midst of a yearning recollection of a lover’s face.

Back in the days when Joni Mitchell first hit the airwaves, Canadian artists honed their skills on native turf, and crossed the border into the USA to make it big. Take for example Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, The Band and later Rush, who are still one of Canada’s most successful musical exports to date.

Following the introduction of extended radio play and Canadian Content legislation in 1971, which imposed a legal obligation on all FM stations in Canada to play 30% national music, the success Canadian artists had overseas began to cement itself back home, leading to the creation of a star system not to be sniffed at.

From Alanis Morissette to KD Lang, Barenaked Ladies to Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne, Nickelback, Bryan Adams and the Crash Test Dummies, the list goes on, and these mainstream names are merely the tip of the iceberg. Peep below the surface of that bonechilling North Atlantic water, and you’ll find tonnes of wonderful, crystalline sounds to delight your ears.

A few months back, we did a Treasure Nest Oh, Canada Special on Rhubarb Radio, featuring music from all over the country, and since then I’ve become addicted to the stuff. When The Wilderness of Manitoba came to play in Birmingham in May, I was weak with anticipation, having played their EP Hymns of Love and Spirits more often than is probably healthy. Their full length album, When You Left The Fire, is out on June 22nd, and having had a sneaky listen, I have to say more weakness is in the post, and I can’t wait for their return to the UK in September.

In the meantime, however, you can check out some of the freshest sounds from a new wave of Canada’s finest musicians for yourself, at the UK’s first ever Canadian music festival – called simply Canada. Running from June 29th to July 1st, and culminating in a free concert in Trafalgar Square, there’s something for everyone.

From The Canadian Tenors at Union Chapel with Hayley Westenra on June 29th to Juno Award Winning Hawksley Workman (who will no doubt perform the delightful if slightly presumptuous Not Your Parents’ Music) at 229 on June 30th, there are big names to choose from.

More exciting for the iceberg miners, however, is the host of off beat talent, like Francophone hip hop trio Radio Radio, London based alt folksters The Mighty Low, and Diamond Rings – a catchy and  intriguing projection of La Roux’ dress sense onto a young man who sings like a resentfully talented teenager at the back of a school choir. After such an experience, you’ll never confuse a maple leaf for stars and stripes again. For more information on the festival go to Canadian Blast.

One of the most talented and defiant artists to come out of West Africa in recent years, Treasure Nest favourite Carlou D (Motherland Music) deftly blends Senegalese rhythms with hip hop, funk and a cooly sardonic perspective, fronting a live show that will leave even the most jaded of Londoners feeling alive, inspired and proud to be human. Reach this if you can, you will not regret it.

The Wilderness of Manitoba make music of such purity it’s hard to believe it’s man made. Close harmonies and singing bowls describe windswept landscapes,  shy bells pick out details on the horizon, the haunting, insistent message of each song carried through imagery that leaves the listener on the edge of tears.

The Wilderness formed in Toronto around bottomless cups of tea, ever deepening layers of sound and a comforting realisation that they must explore their coalescence further.

Out of this came Hymns of Love and Spirits – just eight tracks of deceptive simplicity, a body of work that takes on a haunting presence all its own. Gentle, ghostly shapes at the edge of one’s vision, pure sounds barely held together like the holes between lace.

The Great Hall will set your spine a shiver, and Evening – originally written by band member Will’s mother Wendy Blackburn , and reworked by The Wilderness- gently floats on the air a second time in its original version to draw the album to a close. Crows Feet is my favourite track – a heartwrenching tale of lives unrealised:

“She’s standing alone in a dark crowded room, her body is covered in roses. It’s a frozen night bleeding from a cold afternoon, with no place to go she supposes. She turns to the streetlight, as it shines down below. The snow burns right into her toes. I follow right after, who the hell could she be? Because so far love’s just been a word that I speak.

“There once was a boy who had money for eyes. If wishes were horses he’d own them, he learned how to live but with no compromise, his family would some day disown him. And now he’s an old man, who is mad in the street. He stands where his home used to be. Thinks of the golden days, how they went silently. Because love’s just a word that he learned how to speak.

“She’s standing alone because she can’t see me by her side. She’s tearing a hole through my life. Try as i might but i keep letting her down. Because love’s just a word used to send in the clowns.  Love’s just a word used to send in the clowns. Love’s just a word, send in the clowns.”

The Wilderness of Manitoba are touring the UK during May, check out their Myspace for more details. Brummies in need of gentleness on Thursday May 6th, come down to Sonic Asylum at The Edge, Digbeth, from 8pm. As well as TWOM, there are sets by Bet4 and The Musery, interactive soundscapes to explore inside telephone boxes, cupcakes, hot chocolate and a limited edition Jess Mikhail print free with every ticket. All that for a fiver. Gets my vote . Email info@edgearts.com for tickets and details.