Shazam Around The World: From Beirut to New Zealand
Our journey around the world this week begins in Brooklyn, paying tribute to a kindred music traveller, Zach Condon, who began his trip making music on a laptop from his bedroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico and helped by a bunch of local friends and musicians, under the moniker Beirut, went to ensemble a mini-orchestra up to expand his indie background through the sounds of the Balkans first; the French Chanson later and, more recently, Mexican Mariachis. Such an eclectic and colourful trip has pushed Condon far beyond the blogosphere, establishing Beirut among today’s most respected artists. In the infamous Music Hall Of Williamsburg the band has recorded a live album that serves as a timely recap of its wandering ways.
A full concert by Beirut @ Williamsburg’s Music Hall can be watched here. … And our trip continues with Flamenco Rock, African rap and Kiwi lo-fi, after the jump.
The next stop is Spain, where veteran indie band from Granada – Los Planetas - celebrates a trajectory of nearly two decades on top of the Spanish alternative world with the release of an Anthology, ‘Principios Básicos De Astronomía’. This compilation contains the jaunty new track ‘Soy Un Pobre Granaíno’ (I am a poor man from Granada) which carries on the band’s groundbreaking mix of different Flamenco styles (palos) with alt-rock from the nineties that began with their 2007 acclaimed album ‘La Leyenda Del Espacio’ and could be described as the missing link between Bob Mould in Sugar and the late cantaor Camarón De La Isla.
And from the mix of Iberian rock with flamenco passion we move to Africa’s southern latitudes in search of the continent traditions merging with Western popular music. And we find it in HHP, which stands for Hip Hop Pantsula, one of the main representatives of a local style of rap called Motswako –it means mixture in Setswana, one of the country’s many indigenous languages. HPP won the award for Best South African male artist last year for the appropriately titled album ‘Acceptance Speech’, a new version of the album is now set for release. ‘Acceptance Speech Re-Written’ contains reworks of the original tracks next to new material. His new single ‘Mpitse’ is packed with old skool good vibes and is currently climbing up the South African charts.
And we finish this week’s journey in Auckland, New Zeland with James Duncan – not to be confused with the ex-Blue member who recently re-started a solo career Duncan James. Part of the roster in small indie-tronica label Round Trip Mars and guitar player in SJD, the multi-instrumentist and producer follows his debut EP ‘Mirror Minor’ with a proper full lenght work, ‘Hard-Fi’, already generating waves of enthusiasm within the Kiwi alternative circles, including such highlights as former single ‘A Obvious’ and his duet with Bachelorette ‘My New Flumes’.
