WIDR World

There’s a new release down at WIDR (actually, it’s been there for a while, but I hadn’t noticed it…) of French Synth-Wave music from the early 80’s… It’s called “BIPPP,” and I don’t know enough about this era of French music, but I know that if you’ve heard some stuff from the CD, and you like what you hear, then you’re going to want to know about this web site. And you may get a kick out of this Lego video with one of the songs on the CD serving as inspiration/soundtrack.

Now, if the French synth sound isn’t your thing, and you go for the more traditional sounds, I will remind you that there is a band out of New England called Le Bon Vent that will be performing in Kalamazoo on May 9th. They perform a wide variety of music, from Medieval times to the more recent… and you can learn more about them from their web site. Listen to WIDR World over the coming weeks to hear some examples of their music.

There is a new compilation CD in the WIDR rotation, and it comes from David Byrne’s international music brainchild label, Luaka Bop. This is part of the label’s continuing series of music from all over the world, but the seventh release focusing on Brazil. The CD in question is called “What’s Happening in Pernambuco.” The state of Pernambuco, in northeast Brazil, has not been the focus of the rest of the world where music is concerned. But a manifesto was put forth by some of the inhabitants of the capital city, Recife, to pull the city up by its bootstraps and do something with its centuries of cultural history. There’s a pretty great video on Luaka Bop’s web site that does a better job explaining it than I can. If you have Quicktime, click here and watch it. And then call your friendly WIDR DJ, and kindly ask them to play it. You won’t regret it.

I have in my hands the latest CD from the Belgian band Think of One. I learned of the band after their last release on the Crammed record label, Trafico. That CD took the band to Brazil to record a collection of sounds with a Brazilian flavor… This new CD takes Think of One to Marrakech — or, more precisely, brings Marrakech to Belgium — and they return with a wonderful blend of western beats and Moroccan rhythms. With vocals in Arabic, French, English and Flemmish, and a blend of electronica and traditional sounds of a Moroccan wedding, there will be people who say that this can’t be a cohesive sound; I assure you that it is. On songs like “Gnawa Power,” which starts out with the sound of a single Moroccan sintir and then introduces a electronic beat and a fuzzy electric guitar, the blend of these styles is the perfect match. Horns and handclaps, steel guitars and smoky French vocals, clean oud and grungy guitar coexist wonderfully.

If only the people of the world could get along so seamlessly…