BBC 6 Music’s Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant pick 10 songs from emerging genres around the world
The following sentence is so baffling that it actually perfectly highlights the issue of cultural shortsightedness that we are steadily moving away from: the world is finally waking up to world music. In fact, we’re waking up to such an extent that even the ignorance of the phrase ‘world music’ is being exposed. Thanks to the likes of BBC 6 Music and our very own ‘Off the Beaten Track’ feature, the wider world is finally embracing the beautiful diversity of art from the Earth at large and realising that to put anything not Western-sounding under a single banner is ridiculous. And maybe some Saharan Blues or Zamrock is just what is needed to break up the malaise.
However, this has not only been fuelled by a cultural awakening on our part but a rapid invigoration of innovative new genres that are impossible to ignore. From Ugandan big beats to Georgian folk, these emergent forces of music are making sense of a changing world in ways that challenge our ears with something fresh.
They are the sounds that Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant have been showcasing on their New Music Fix Daily on BBC Radio 6 Music. The show is “dedicated entirely to new releases – the best of what is being made, performed and shared right now”. You can “expect songs from any genre and from across the globe” as the show pairs the best in new music with a sense of journeying through the current global zeitgeist as it responds to the flux it has been thrown into of late.
With that vital premise in mind, we caught up with Ravenscroft & Grant, informed them that they sound like a detective duo, and asked them to provide us with a playlist that journeys around the world’s most exciting new genres via ten amazing tracks. You can find the tunes they chose and what they had to say about them below.
Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant’s world music playlist:
1. ‘Black Dog Funeral’ – Samuel Nicholson
Grant: “I happened to catch Samuel playing at a small pub venue in East London, and his songwriting and stage presence blew me away. Destined for big things, I think.”
2. ‘With The Hollow At My Feet’ – Tiny Leaves
Grant: “This is such a visceral record. It’s taken from a project which was put together with the National Trust, aiming to aurally capture the feeling of being in the Shropshire countryside, combining gentle instrumentation with sound effects and biodata. I only wish I had access to this during lockdown!”
3. ‘As It All Goes By’ – Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim
Grant: “This record sits somewhere between contemporary classical, folk and avant-garde – it’s so warm and accessible and yet sounds so unlike anything else that you can’t really listen to it passively, it demands your attention. The whole album, Starling, is beautiful, but this is a stand-out track for me.”
4. ‘Thumpalenah’ – Nik West & Larry Graham
Grant: “Nik has famously played with Prince and Quincy Jones, but she’s got a really unique sound of her own, and this is such a heavy, funky record – it’s got that thumping slap bass at its core that makes you want to turn it up and watch the walls shake.”
5. ‘People Are Toys to You’ – Joanna Sternberg
Grant: “I love folk music because it’s a real test of great songwriting when a track can stand up with minimal instrumentation, just vocals and guitar, and it gives you a real sense of who an artist is at their core. There’s an edge to this record; it’s got almost an outsider-music type sound, you very much feel like Joanna has created their own world and is inviting you to step inside it.”
6. ‘Baligaband’ – Nakibembe Embaire Group
Ravenscroft: “From a village in Uganda’s Busoga kingdom, playing an enormous xylophone (Embaire). The sound is intoxicating, I imagine it’s also quite a fun thing to do, I’d really like a go.”
7. ‘Poetry’ – Beqa Ungiadze
Ravenscroft: “A Georgian musician exploring the experiences of resettling, replanting roots into a new environment. It’s very beautiful.”
8. ‘Son’ – AKANE
Ravenscroft: “A euphoric, misty-eyed anthem from Tenerife’s Carolina Machado. Recorded in a disused gas tank. Epic business.”
9. ‘Manea’ – Psyché
Ravenscroft: “Neapolitan trio making an awfully groovy sound. It very much laying back on your arse and doing zero kind of music.”
10. ‘Boukan’ – Kass Kass Rizer
Ravenscroft: “Festival season ahoy! French / Ivorian duo bringing an absolute racket. Impossible not to dance to. Flailing like an idiot.”
Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant present New Music Fix Daily on BBC Radio 6 Music, Monday-Thursday, 7pm-9pm
