NOVEMBER 15 2007
Puerto Plata "Mujer De Cabaret" Here's a find: contemporary recordings of veteran Dominican Republic musicians performing old-school sons, boleros, and merengues on acoustic instruments and slaying them. This is no soft and cuddly acoustic session padded out with gauzy production. For the most part this set deliver hard driving dance music, recorded very simply to convey the immediacy and virtuosity of musicians we've been overlooking for far too long. -AMAZON.COM
The Pimps Of Joytime "High Steppin" The Pimps of Joytime are a funky band from Brooklyn that draws on a wide range of influences, from Afrobeat and Latin to Delta blues, and hip-hop. Formed by multi-instrumentalist Brian J, the group includes members of a number of NYC bands like Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box.
Deva Premal "Moola Mantra" German-born Deva Premal is a certified diva of the new age, having traversed the requisite Eastern spiritual paths, communing in Indian and following the late guru Bhaghwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho. While her last CD, Dakshina, had a bit more of a pop-Enyaesque sensibility, Moola Mantra is a much more meditative affair as Premal sings a single, 15-word Sanskrit mantra over the course of six lushly smooth Indian fusion arrangements. -AMAZON.COM
Mercan Dede "Breath" Mercan Dede believes that when you put digital, electronic sounds together with hand-made, human ones, you can create universal language, capable of uniting old and young, ancient and modern, East and West. This language of union finds its voice with Breath, the subtly powerful and startlingly seductive recording from the Turkish-born, Montreal-based "electrodervish." - AMAZON.COM
Carla Hassett "Quero Saber" With an impressive group of friends in tow, including Mike Patton (Faith No More, Peeping Tom), Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Flock), Carmine Rojas (David Bowie, Rod Stewart), Delmar Brown (Sting), Katia Moraes (Sambaguru), and more...Carla's self-produced music has been compared to Bebel Gilberto as well as Beck, but her gifted voice demonstrates a vocal passion more along the lines of a young Aretha Franklin with hints of Diana Krall, and Sade. -AMAZON.COM