Monday's mp3: Buika Uncovered

CD REVIEW

Buika: Nina de Fuego
Warner Music Spain

It's a disservice to Buika that she appears half-naked on the cover of this CD, like some tawdry aspiring pop star. From the first note she sings on her sophomore album, her breathy voice evokes the bittersweet nature of life with a maturity that is belied by that photo.

The Spanish-only liner notes may leave some holes in the monoglot's understanding of the lyrics, but perfectly clear is Buika's craft in creating a tasty album with courses including traditional Spanish fare (coplas, flamenco, gypsy rumba) along with a jazz/torch sensibility and a sprinkling of Afro-Cuban spice. She also spent a couple years in Las Vegas, sometimes doing Tina Turner and Diana Ross impersonations. But, she says, "Las Vegas is not like a normal city. There is no humanity there."

A little digging reveals that Concha Buika was born in Equatorial Guinea, and grew up near a Gypsy community on the island of Mallorca. As for her defiance of musical genres, she says "“I don’t know what is flamenco or what is blues or jazz or rock. I only know what is singing and playing. For me the flamenco of [Mexican singer] Chavela Vargas is the same as Dinah Washington. It’s music that comes from the depths, from the place where everything pure comes from. For me [musical] styles seem like little dictators.”

The reality is so much more than the CD's cover can convey, since Buika's voice and musical choices convey a bare emotional richness much more engaging, enticing, and satisfying than any titillating photograph.

[mp3] Buika: Culpa Mía
from the album Nina de Fuego

More Buika:
website
myspace
youtube

15th Century Ladino indie rock?

CD REVIEW

DeLeon - DeLeon

(JDub Records)

Everything old is new again, they say. But "15th Century Spanish indie rock"? That billing for Brooklyn-based band DeLeon is as accurate as it is odd. Singing in English and Ladino -- the traditional tongue of Sephardic Jews -- Daniel Saks and bandmates bring rock and pop influences to the mix and create of traditional folk tunes something familiar yet just exotic enough to make you perk up your ears like a puzzled pup. And before you know it, you're hearing niggun at the club and it all sounds normal. Why not?

From the band:

This particular brand of music is greatly informed by the Sephardic tradition, melding the rhythm of history with the urban chaos of the modern world. Sephardic, a term referring to a Jewish person that can trace their lineage back to the Iberian Peninsula, which includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar, takes on an entirely new context in frontman Dan Saks' hands. These beautifully crafted tunes are Saks' way of reviving the past; indeed, this record has helped him honor the legacy of his great-grandfather Giorgio DeLeon. Still, DeLeon's first album is a complex work, dually memorializing and celebrating these ancient memories and melodies.

[mp3] DeLeon: Serena
from the album DeLeon

Band website: ilovedeleon.com

Spain Meets Japan...

...and the new sport/musical genre of Txalaparta-judo is not born. But we had a great time nonetheless.

Playlist for Spin The Globe as heard on radio KAOS-fm
29 August 2008

hour 1
Radio Tarifa -- Cruzando el Rio -- Fiebre
Ryuku Underground -- Soi Soi -- Ryuku Underground
Chambao -- Detalles -- Con Otro Aire
Yoshida Brothers -- Modern (Hishou Version) -- Tsugaru Shamisen
Fermin Muguruza -- Ari Du Hotza -- Brigadistak Sound System
Kodo -- Nanafushi -- Ibuki
Eliseo Parra -- La Rama -- De ayer manana
Duo En -- Winter Cranes -- Winter Cranes
Son de La Frontera -- Arabesco -- Son de la Frontera
Nami Makioka -- Subayado Bushi -- Rough Guide to the Music of Japan
Javier Ruibal -- Por la Puerta De Elvira -- Sahara
Kyoko Enami -- Sayonara Mo Ienakute -- Tokyo Bossa Nova Lounge

hour 2
Ojos de Brujo -- Ventilaro R-80 -- Bari
KAL -- Mozzarella -- KAL
Akim El Sikameya -- Le Sultan Tyran -- Introducing Akim El Sikameya
Mazeltov -- Awek, Awek, Awek -- Amsterdam
Funkadesi -- Saheli -- Yo Baba
Cankisou -- Caloubadia -- Le La
Las Tres Orillas del Atlantico -- La Palmeca -- Fandango, Duende y Taraf
Max Wild -- Teerera feat. Oliver Mtukudzi -- Advance single
Chiwoniso -- Nhemamusasa -- Ancient Voices
Kazu Matsui -- Shadow of Its Soul -- The Stone Monkey
Afrissippi -- Singha -- Alliance
Forro in the Dark -- Forrowest -- Bonfires of Sao Joao
Bajofondo -- Hoy feat. Juan Subira -- Mardulce

Al-Andalus Interactive

You may find yourself wondering what happened in Al-Andalus between the 15th and 21st centuries, but there's a rich musical history of the region from the 8th to 15th centuries on a new interactive site assembled by our friends at Afropop.org.

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name for the parts of the Iberian Peninsula ruled by Muslims at various times between 711 and 1492. After 1492, things got a little more mono-cultural as Jews were expelled by governmental edict and Muslims fled following a military defeat at Grenada.

Before that (and increasingly today), the region was multicultural and a real hotbed of musical innovation and cross-pollination. But don't take my word for it; check out the map, music, interviews, and more at

www.afropop.org/Alandalus/Alandalus.html

There is, by the way, a group called Al-Andalus (music sample) that celebrates in their oud-flamenco music this period of time that was "a unique moment in world history known as [an] outstanding model of tolerance and functioning multiculturalism."

You can hear Andalusian roots in many contemporary groups, among them Ojos de Brujo, Radio Tarifa, Lo'Jo, and of course those timeless Gipsy Kings. It's certainly worth checking out the older sounds presented in the Afropop map as well, and the ebb and flow of cultures that set the stage for these current groups.