Wobble, Jah - 2004 - I Could Have Been A Contender

Disc 1

1 Public Image 2:57
2 Fly 2 Wardle 4:01
3 Ketmagyl (Don't Go Away) Cookson, Usmanova, Wobble 4:52
4 Visions of You Adams, Reynolds, Wobble 5:33
5 Mehmeda Majka Budila Sulejmanovic, Wobble 3:09
6 Becoming More Like God Adams, Reynolds, Wobble 3:19
7 Mistralazul 2 Count, Miranda, Sparkes, Wobble 4:07
8 I Offer You Everything Wobble 3:50
9 Shout at the Devil Atlas, Dubulah, Sparkes, Wobble 4:05
10 Blacksmith Carter, Cookson, Traditional, Wardle 5:02
11 Blacksmith Dub Carter, Cookson, Traditional, Wardle 3:38
12 Elevator Music 3 Wobble 5:19
13 Josey Walsh Adams, Reynolds, Wobble 3:57
14 Tyger Tyger Wobble 4:54
15 Requiem III Wobble 6:54

Disc 2

1 Poptones 7:47
2 Betrayal Dub Wobble 6:02
3 How Much Are They Czukay, Wobble 4:47
4 Invaders of the Heart Mix 2 [Mix 2] Maltby, Marland, Murray, Partis… 4:32
5 Swan Lake (Death Disco) 4:11
6 Snake Charmer Czukay, Kevorkian, Marland, Wobble 6:21
7 Songs of Innocence Wobble 6:47
8 Fly 1 Wardle 6:08
9 Funeral March Wobble 4:50
10 Lam Tang Way Dub Wobble 3:31
11 The Dunes McGowan, Wobble 4:58
12 So Many Years Adams, Harrow, Schoots, Wobble 2:52
13 Lam Saravane Dub Laos, Wobble 4:26
14 A Man I Knew Kenelly, Wobble 6:07
15 Elevator Music 1 Wobble 6:28

Disc 3

1 Gone to Croatan Dieng, Laswell, Sanders, Skopelitis… 15:29
2 Spinner Eno, Wobble 2:57
3 A13 Harrow, Wobble 3:44
4 Passage to Hades Bell, Parker, Rasle, Sanders, Wobble 13:33
5 The Mystery of Twilight Part 2 Budd, Heynes, Laswell, Leibezeit… 24:31
6 Left Where It Fell Eno, Wobble 6:57
7 The River Suite (Extract) Wobble 12:41

¡Aquí!

17 Hippies - 1999 - Wer Ist Das?

Based in Berlin, Germany, the 17 Hippies started off in 1995 as a trio playing the otherwise unlikely mix of Cajun and Baroque music. Gradually, they expanded their line-up and eventually ended up as an orchestra consisting of twenty, sometimes even thirty musicians. Coming from different backgrounds like rock, jazz and classical music, the band members assimilated virtually any musical style available and blended all of this into their own unique sound. Thus, they feel equally at home whether playing at boisterous wedding parties or in the chamber music room. Appearances at the renown SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in 1998 or the simultaneous release of CDs in French, German and Italian in the respective countries in 1999 all contributed to the growing global reputation of this ensemble of world citizens. The band also pursued other projects such as the release of a book of music for children (1999) and the soundtrack for the Andreas Dresen movie Halbe Treppe (English title: Grillpoint) (2002) which won a prize at the 2002 Berlinale, the renown Berlin film festival, and is one of the highlights of post-reunification German cinema.

1 Le Déserteur 1:22
2 Freilachs 1:35
3 Alabama Jubilee 2:17
4 Jolie Blonde 3:26
5 Ershter Tants 3:24
6 Maxglaner 3:08
7 Tarantella 2:29
8 Saragina Rumba 2:09
9 Niall's 2:46
10 Mandelay 4:02
11 Mustafa 2:20
12 Ungarn-Walzer 2:12
13 Zweutletscht 2:10
14 Ukrainskyi Tanietz 1:53
15 Chassidic Song 4:38
16 Broyges Tanz 20:58

¡Aquí!

Fabulosos Cadillacs - 2001 - Hola

Part of a two-CD set (alongside Chau) recorded in concert in Argentina, Hola, the first live album from los Fabulosos Cadillacs, stakes the band's claim as one of the finest live acts anywhere. For one thing, the set list is superbly chosen. Rather than relying on the most recent album the band was touring to support (La Marcha de Golazo Solitario), the set list reaches all the way back to their first album, Bares y Fondas, and picks many classic tracks from all the albums in between (although it's hard to tell how much of this is due to the fact that La Marcha de Golazo Solitario is a softer, more introspective album that may not translate well on-stage). Some tracks already were tailor-made for a live audience and are predictably superlative (such as "El Satanico Dr. Cadillac" and "Mal Bicho"), but others reveal added power in concert. "Calaveras y Diablitos," already first-rate, becomes downright sublime when accompanied by an audience, while "Yo Quiero Morirme Aca," which sounded thin and tentative in its original studio version, becomes muscular and fierce on-stage. It's not quite the same as actually being there (and it's inconceivable to get Hola without its companion piece, Chau), but Hola is one of los Fabulosos Cadillacs' most vital recordings.

		1		Cadillacs	Capello, Cianciarulo	1:24
		2		Demasiada Presion	Capello	3:41
		3		El Aguijon	Capello	3:22
		4		El Genio del Dub	Capello, Cianciarulo ...	4:11
Composed by: Capello, Cianciarulo, Ricciardi, Rotman
		5		Calaveras y Diablitos	Cianciarulo	3:56
		6		Yo Quiero Morirme Aca	Capello	1:57
		7		Carmela	Ricciardi	3:41
		8		Roble	Capello	3:29
		9		El Crucero del Amor	Cianciarulo, Rotman	5:37
		10		La Vida	Cianciarulo	3:14
		11		La Marcha del Golazo Solitario	Cianciarulo, Fisher, Kibby ...	5:33
Composed by: Cianciarulo, Fisher, Kibby, Moore
		12		Mal Bicho	Cianciarulo	5:05
		13		El Satanico Dr. Cadillac	Capello	3:55
		14		Yo No Me Sentaria en Tu Mesa	Capello, Pardo, Rotman	3:46

¡Aquí!

Youssef, Dhafer

Singer, composer, and oud player Dhafer Youssef was born in 1967 in Teboulba, Tunisia. The oud is an Arabic lute, a string instrument that can achieve a beautiful sound from those who know how to master it.

Youssef began singing when he was only five-years-old. Since then he has performed for audiences in Tunisia, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and other countries. He has appeared with his own ensembles and recorded two albums with them, one in 1993 and the other three years later. Youssef's music combines Sufi tradition, world, mystical, and jazz influences with Arabic lyricism. In 1999, Enja Records released Youssef's third album, Malak, which includes the songs "A Kind of Love," "Tarannoum," and "Eklil." Youssef provided vocals and oud for the album and was accompanied by such well-known artists as violinist Zoltan Lantos, bassist Achim Tang, tabla and dolak player Jatinder Thakur, tambourine player Carlo Rizzo, bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons, and drummer Patrice Héral. In 2002, Youssef released Electric Sufi on Enja and added electronic elements and funky grooves to his genre-bending sound.

2003 - Digital Prophecy

Youssef, Dhafer - 2003 - Digital Prophecy

Tunisia-born singer and oudist Dhafer Youssef should be recording for ECM. His albums have a similar spiritual, centered quality to the work appearing on that label, and his work on this album with some of Norway's top jazz players points completely in that direction. He lives very much on the cutting edge, taking things even further than he did on 2001's Electric Sufi. Where that album used electronica as the periphery of the music, here he brings it to the heart of the sound, integrating it seamlessly into his compositions, as on "Aya," where a seemingly found sound becomes the heartbeat of the track. His collaborators, including trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, offer him plenty of space, and that's what the music needs -- it's as wide open as the Tunisian desert. He's a good player of the oud, but his real weapon -- apart from his sense of composition -- is his voice, with a range that's truly stunning, and never put to better use than on "Dawn Prayer," where his high notes, seemingly impossible, stand as a revelation, with an aching melody that just stays in the brain. At the same time as Youssef pushes at the edges in his work, there's a sense of the music still being very centered in North Africa. On the basis of this, Youssef is extending his cutting edge even further.

		1		Diaphanes	Youssef	5:42
		2		Aya (1984)	Youssef	7:38
		3		Dawn Prayer	Wesseltoft, Youssef	3:55
		4		Sparkling Truth	Youssef	5:48
		5		Ysamy	Youssef	8:40
		6		Holy Breath	Majumdar, Youssef	3:07
		7		Seventh Heaven Suite	Youssef	7:41
		8		Wood Talk	Youssef	3:47
		9		Holy Lie [Empire d'Ivresse Suite]	Youssef	9:29
		10		Flowing Water	Youssef	9:42

¡Aquí!

Gigi - 2006 - Gold And Wax

Ejigayehu Shibabaw, better known as Gigi, is one of the few singers from the Horn of Africa -- the first since countrywoman Aster Aweke, in fact -- to break through with a major-label release. Gigi grew up in rural Ethiopia, listening to traditional and church music, before moving to the capital, Addis Ababa, when she was 14. There, her musical horizons broadened, hearing the local pop music "and all kinds of American music we could get on the radio. After that I went to Kenya, and there I was exposed to a lot of different African music, a different kind of beat." Returning home, she became a singer with the National Theatre before making her debut record, following which she worked with a puppet company, whose touring took her to France. It was there her real breakthrough occurred, playing a world music festival called Imagineer which resulted in a live recording that made her known in Europe. After returning to Ethiopia in 1997, she was granted a U.S. visa. The New World offered plenty of challenges and she grasped them all eagerly, discovering jazz in Oakland and hitting the road with countrywoman Aweke, "my favorite singer." She made another album, One Ethiopia, before coming to the attention of Palm Pictures honcho Chris Blackwell. She was paired with prolific producer Bill Laswell, who used talent like jazzmen Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter behind her on Gigi, her debut for the label. However, for all the electronic feel of the disc, no loops or samples were employed -- everything was played, and as live as possible. Gigi began promoting the record by appearing at the 2001 WOMEX world music conference in Holland, prior to a U.S. tour.

		1		Semena-Wrock	Shibabaw	6:29
		2		Anten	Shibabaw	5:47
		3		Jerusalem	Shibabaw	8:56
		4		Salam	Shibabaw	5:42
		5		Gomelaleye	Buckethead, Shibabaw	7:44
		6		Ambasale	Shibabaw	7:22
		7		Hulu-Dane	Shibabaw	4:52
		8		Utopia	Shibabaw	4:52
		9		Acha	Shibabaw	5:04
		10		Marena-Wotetea	Shibabaw	5:26
		11		Enoralehu	Shibabaw	3:56

¡Aquí!