Trance Sessions - Live in the Studio and on Tour
Since the release of the critically acclaimed 'Tell No Lies' Justin Adams And Juldeh Camara have been touring pretty much non-stop for two years, taking their raw afro-blues to increasingly enthusiastic audiences. As their repertoire of music unfolds over time on many different stages it takes on a character only hinted at on their studio albums. Juldeh, using griot skills honed since childhood, stirs the audience to a frenzy while Adams' drone guitar can provide sheets of sonic attack sometimes closer to The Velvet Underground's Sister Ray than a conventional world music gig.
Before the group leave for their next live assault - this time in the UK - we made sure there was time to get them back into the studio at Real World. We wanted to capture the spirit of the live performance, open up the tracks and give them free expression . These recordings, the Trance Sessions, are their first featuring ex-Shriekback drummer Martyn Barker, were made live in the studio, each track
done in one take, with no overdubs. They are being released in their full length forms, with an African sense of time and structure - no 3.30 here. Repetition builds on each track that grows slowly from song to abstraction, infused with psychedelic energy, a web of sound far greater than the sum of the three player's parts.
The music will be available digitally from Real World direct or from iTunes on January 11th and as a limited edition physical CD later in the month from the band on tour.
Foxlight
For his third solo album - Foxlight - the acclaimed singer Iarla O Lionaird delivers an impassioned and sublime set of personal songs, combining the twin urges to write more new material and yet also work with an intriguing set of collaborators.
In Trance
If JuJu's chemistry was evident on their acclaimed 2007 debut Soul Science and its equally praised follow up Tell No Lies, it is almost palpable here. In Trance is precisely that: an album that sees Adams' Les Paul goldtop vying and blending with Camara's keening bittersweet vocals and fiery ritti playing, and embracing dub reggae and avant-garde jazz en route.
Addis Through The Looking Glass
"The aim", says Nick Page, the musician and producer best-known as Dubulah, also founding member of Transglobal Underground and Syriana, "is to constantly surprise." The new Dub Colossus album, Addis Through The Looking Glass, does just that. It's a new departure in the band's remarkable history. Dubulah first travelled to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa in 2006 to collaborate with musicians and explore traditional Azmari styles, 60s Ethiopian pop, Ethiojazz and 70s Jamaican Dub Reggae.
Laru Beya
Encouraged by a songwriter mother with a gorgeous voice and by his widely admired local troubadour father, the young Aurelio made his own guitars from cans and fishing line. Music and songs were the only entertainment in a place with no electricity and little contact with the outside world, and it is these songs that shaped him as an artist and inspired the pieces on Laru Beya.
Tande-La
The Creole Choir of Cuba are called 'Desandann' in their home country which means 'descendants' and with the songs on their forthcoming album 'Tande-La' (a title which translates as 'listen') they tell the stories of their Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work in near slave conditions on the sugar and coffee plantations.
The Road To Damascus
"The Cold War and its iconography had divided East and West," says Page. "We decided to create a project that would bridge them."
Capture
Afro Celt Sound System are back - right now - with Capture, a career-spanning double CD that cherry-picks from the collective's five acclaimed studio albums and divides the glittering proceeds into songs (Verse) and instrumentals (Chorus). Here, then, are the classics that forged the group's reputation
Bought For A Dollar, Sold For A Dime
The musical melting pot of 'Bought For A Dollar, Sold for a Dime' is large, and bubbling. Here are addictive rhythms. Soulful vocals. Pinches of dub and funk, reggae and gospel. Oh-so-subtle samples and innovative electronics. And underpinning it all, McDonald's shimmering blues guitar licks, conjuring a space where the dirt roads of the Deep South meet the shiny lanes of the Information Superhighway.
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