International Roots

Soldier of Love

2010-08-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Ebony Magazine (April 2010)

It's been a decade since Sade released her last album, Lover's Rock. A timeless album. In February of this year, Sade released her most accessible, and arguably her best to date, titled Soldier of Love.

This album proves that Sade is a master of her game. Her voice hasn't changed, in fact it has aged like fine cognac developing complex flavors in an oak barrel. I love this album. It's arousing to the senses. Here are some tracks that I have to hit replay on.

Caught in the Storm

2010-08-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

I just found out last week that the American born Lhasa de Sela passed away in January of this year. Heartbreaking. She lost her private battle with breast cancer. Just 37 years old with so much talent - now gone. She had just released an album, titled Lhasa, in the summer of 2009. Listening to it again after hearing the news, makes me think about a woman heading into the unknown with clarity.

From the moment I heard the song "La Frontera" in 2004, I was inspired. Her multicultural background and nomadic life inspired some of her most beautiful songs in French, Spanish, and English. Someday her 3 records will be re-discovered and she will revered as one of the greatest of this era.

Here are three videos and two songs. La Frontera and La Confession from The Living Road album, and Rising, Love Came here, and Fool's Gold from her final release - simply titled Lhasa.

Honey Bee

2009-11-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Zee Avi, a Malaysian-born singer, was discovered via YouTube and MySpace. Check out her light and candid performance on All Songs Considered from NPR.

Hot Blue

2009-11-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of SomiMusic.com

Somi is an artist of the New African Jazz style of music. Beautiful voice with an irresistible groove. Born in Africa, and raised in Illinois (USA), Somi blends sweet jazzy melodies with African rhythm. Check out her new album, released October 2009, If The Rain Comes First.

Download songs below courtesy of

Somi
"Hot Blue" (mp3)
from "If The Rains Come First"
(ObliqSound)
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
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Somi
"Wallflower Blues" (mp3)
from "If The Rains Come First"
(ObliqSound)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
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The Call

2009-11-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

Photo Courtesy of Bossanostra.

Gogol Bordello's Tommy T arrives with this Ethiopian inspired journey. The mixture of dub, reggae, funk, and jazz makes this an excellent record.

Album Notes

"The legend of Prester John captivated European imagination during the Middle Ages. The search for his realm aided in the exploration of lands and cultures beyond, what was then, the known world. Prester John was reputed to be a wise and generous king with enormous wealth. Countless explorations had the goal of finding his kingdom and rescuing it from surrounding infidels. It certainly didn’t hurt the Europeans' motivation that it was rumored to have the Fountain of Youth and rivers filled with gold. Early theories put the location in Asia. By the 1300s, it was commonly believed that this was incorrect. Ethiopia was considered one of the “Three Indias,” and since legend claimed Prester John was ruler of these, the search then focused on Ethiopia. The kingdom was never officially found. Similarly, Ethiopian music has remained a mystery to the West, much like Prester John and his realm. The spirit of this mysterious king lends this record its name, as this album provides a musical road map through the many treasures of Ethiopia. Echoing the tales of Prester John, who was a Christian king in non-Western lands, Tommy T adds elements of dub, funk, jazz and other Western musical approaches to a musical foundation built firmly upon Ethiopian soil."

Free downloads below courtesy of

Tommy T
"The Call" (mp3)
from "The Prester John Sessions"
(Easy Star Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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Tommy T
"The Response (featuring Gigi)" (mp3)
from "The Prester John Sessions"
(Easy Star Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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The Tamil Tigress

2009-11-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

M.I.A. is a Sri Lankan artist. Born in the U.K. Her hip-hop, dancehall, and ragga beats are infectious. Here latest album, Kala, is non-stop, in-your-face beats with political overtones. Excellent find that will influence emerging artists. Check out some samples below.

"Bucky Done Gun" (Remix) from Arular

Untrue

2009-11-03T19:26:00.000-08:00

From the edge of the world comes this album from the UK outfit, Burial. This has been in my rotation for a while now. Imagine no gravity. No boundaries. Rich meditations with a steady backbeat. This album is highly addictive.

Album Notes

Burial returns with ‘Untrue’, a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut’s crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of ‘Archangel’, ‘Near Dark’ and ‘Ghost Hardware’, before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where ‘Burial’ first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, ‘Untrue’ is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial’s sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album’s last track ‘Raver’. Forget central heating… the radioactivity of this album is all that you’ll need to keep you warm this winter.

Download the track for free courtesy of Ioda Promonet.

Burial
"Ghost Hardware" (mp3)
from "Untrue"
(Hyperdub)

Buy at Cargo Records
Buy at Boomkat
Buy at Rough Trade
Buy at eMusic
Buy at mTraks Download
Buy at Beet

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