Yousuf and Amman Abbasi create "sound-scenes" that immediately fill the void left by your daily mundane routines with an intricate, dreamy, and nostalgic sound. Closing my eyes I can’t help but see moving images of nostalgic events that took place somewhere in another life. This is the music for the waving hands on the platform of a leaving train; music for the hopeless bolts through endless cornfields; music for the fallen tears on a park bench erstwhile drenched in rain. The fifteen scenes split into tracks defy the genre classification. Yet the album, two years in the making, clings tightly to the nomination as the modern classical soundtrack of my life. I could also see the Abbasi Brothers fighting for my Best of 2008 list, when the time comes [something I felt from the very first track]. Something Like Nostalgia is scheduled for a release the summer of ’08 worldwide. Highly recommended if you like Skyphone, Deaf Center, Elegi, Marsen Jules, and of course, Clint Mansell. Every track is a gem.

by HEADPHONE COMMUTE
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Tracklist :
01. Stacy's Day Parade
02. Kompa
03. Something like Nostalgia
04. Camera Flashes Blue
05. The Way of the Wanderer
06. Dreams of a Graffiti Artist
07. The Social Evening (in 1992)
08. Mr. Boe
09. A Long Weekend
10. In a Field
11. Playtime in Spacetime
12. Approaching the End
13. Fragments of Memories as a Child
14. Reprise
15. Clouds are Sleeping

Véritable ovni musical et formation cosmopolite, La Caravane Passe cache derrière ses costumes directement empruntés au folklore russe un univers tout aussi barré. Après avoir inventé de toute pièce un village imaginaire pour son précédent album "Velkom Plechti" et donné des dizaines de vrais-faux mariages en guise de concerts à travers toute l'Europe, le collectif revient en pleine forme et en couleur avec un troisième disque intitulé "Ahora In Da Futur". C'est à vitesse grand V et avec la frénésie d'un charriot de montagnes russes que la formation démarre en trombe son nouveau délire.

Pour ce disque, La Caravane Passe a eu l'idée de faire monter dans son train lancé à toute vitesse des invités parachutés avec brio dans son délire. Rachid Taha sur le politique "Perdu ta langue" ou encore R.Wan (Java) avec "Zinzin Moretto" se fondent à merveille dans le moule de la joyeuse bande. Chanson française, musique tsigane, rap-world, balkan-ska ou encore électro-rock, le style du groupe est assurément indéfinissable mais totalement jouissif ! Les textes ne sont pas épargnés puisqu'ils mêlent avec justesse thèmes sérieux et légers en français, anglais, serbe, espagnol et allemand. Les chiens aboient... La Caravane Passe !

par Guillaume Torrent
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Tracklist :
1 · Cybermakovic
2 · Babakdol Babushka
3 · Zinzin Moretto
4 · Moustache On The Stage
5 · Miriano's Market
6 · Perdu ta langue
7 · Bulibasha
8 · Like A Sextoy
9 · Cybercriminal
10 · Interllugs
11 · Cocooning On Da Bivouak Style
12 · Paint Him Black
13 · One Kolo Beyond
14 · Gypsy Magic Woman
15 · Une cigogne a traversé le Danube

UK duo Psapp (Carim Classmann and Galia Durant) have continued to solidify themselves as child musicians in adult bodies with their unique brand of toytronica. The esoteric clicks, the otherworldly blips, the raucous bangs of child’s play are all simply instruments in the minds of Classmann and Durant. And the kitsch doesn’t stop there; the two have an odd obsession with cats, which pops up everywhere on their albums and on stage (they thrown handmade cats into the crowd).

And so, after making some noise (pun intended) in the electropop genre, Psapp has gone back to the old hard drives and dug up some of their earlier cuts and whatnot for Early Cats and Tracks Volume II. Truthfully, these tracks are not too unlike those on Tiger, My Friend.  “Northdown C” seems to have taken the rain from the beginning of “Tiger, My Friend” and given it new life with a hand drum beat and the bright tinkle of a plaything in the distance. “Happy Lamb” sounds like a typewriter bred with an organ and had children proficient in the marimba. Though many of the tracks on here appeared on earlier EPs or Psapp’s debut Japanese-only release Northdown, the true highlight of this EP is “Who Knows My Ohs”, featuring Durant’s sultry sweet alto vocals laced craftily over a strumming guitar and the frenetic plucking of a toy.

by Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream
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Tracklist:
1. "Feel the Fur"                   3:58
2. "Dad's Breakdown"        3:04
3. "Scissory"                         4:09
4. "Northdown C"                4:38
5. "Happy Lamb"                 3:53
6. "Whores"                          2:24
7. "How Things Turn Up"   4:57
8. "Who Knows My Ohs"    3:47

It feels like a bit of a cheat to kick off a review by quoting someone else, but this particular quote is rather apt. David Harrington, the Kronos' artistic director and founder, once said, ''I've always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass… But it has to be expressive of life. To tell the story with grace and humour and depth''. With Floodplain, the Kronos Quartet has done all the above. Once again, they've pushed boundaries to produce a disc that stretches, excites and inspires the senses.

The album title refers to the fertile, flood-prone strips of land bordering rivers. The idea is that floodplains experience new life after the catastrophe of flooding, just as cultures that undergo great difficulty will experience creative fertility. Certainly, the countries represented here, from the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, have all endured more than their fair share of hardship, and the music frequently reflects this. Emotion is at its most raw; one senses anger, sorrow and wounds not yet healed, and this is certainly true for the disc’s two newly commissioned works. The first of these, the edgy, unsettled Tashweesh, is by the Palestinian hip hop group, Ramallah Underground, who David Harrington discovered through myspaceIran. The second, Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalovs ''…hold me, neighbor, in this storm… '', is a dignified, contemplative hymn that whips itself up into an angry, whirling climactic frenzy. There are also traditional arrangements of works from Lebanon, Turkey and Iran, contemporary interpretations of classical music from Azerbaijan and India, and popular music from 1940s Egypt and 1970s Iraq. The quartet are joined in a hauntingly beautiful performance of the Azerbaijani folkloric love song, Getme, Getme, by one of Azerbaijan's most celebrated performers of the country’s improvisational mugham singing, Alim Qasimov, and his ensemble.

Full marks to the Kronos Quartet for championing countries more known in the West for their instability than for their rich musical cultures. It’s the vibrant musical performances though, saturated with humanity, pathos and soul, which give this disc its edge.

by Charlotte Gardner
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Tracklist :
1.     "Ya Habibi Ta'ala (My Love, Come Quickly)" (Egypt; Midhat Assem, arr. Osvaldo Golijov & Kronos Quartet)     2:57
2.     "Tashweesh (Interference)" (Palestine; Ramallah Underground, arr. Kronos Quartet & Jacob Garchik)     3:22
3.     "Wa Habibi (Beloved)" (Lebanon; Traditional, arr. Stephen Prutsman)     3:11
4.     "Getme, Getme (Don't Leave, Don't Leave)" (Azerbaijan; Said Rustamov, arr. Alim Quasimov, string arr. Jacob Garchik)     12:05
5.     "Raga Mishra Bhairavi: Alap" (India; Ram Narayan, arr. Kronos Quartet, transc. Ljova)     7:13
6.     "Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me" (Iraq; Unknown, arr. Ljova & Kronos Quartet)     3:01
7.     "Mugam Beyati Shiraz" (Azerbaijan; Rahman Asadollahi, arr. Kronos Quartet, transc. Ljova)     9:23
8.     "Lullaby" (Iran; Traditional, arr. Kronos Quartet & Jacob Garchik)     4:09
9.     "Nihavent Sirto" (Turkey; Tanburi Cemil Bey, arr. Stephen Prutsman)     3:17
10.     "Kara Kemir" (Kazakhstan; Kuat Shildebaev, arr. Kronos Quartet)     4:24
11.     "Tèw semagn hagèré (Listen to Me, My Fellow Countrymen)" (Ethiopia; Alèmu Aga, arr. Jacob Garchik)     4:03
12.     "...hold me, neighbor, in this storm..." (Serbia; Aleksandra Vrebalov)     21:46

From Official Myspace :
Tomando prestado el titulo de un poema de Walt Whitman como nombre de la banda, Hola a todo el mundo nace en la primavera del año 2006. Ensayando en casa, rodeados de instrumentos, dan forma a sus primeras composiciones. Canciones largas, llenas de diferentes pasajes, que como un viaje progresan de forma cambiante para nunca volver atrás. "Un luz que nos guía para encontrar la única verdad del espíritu", como ellos mismos explican en sus letras, un tanto proféticas, mezcla de fabulas o cuentos agoreros. En el año 2007 graban su primera maqueta en los estudios Heatroom de Madrid. Y un año mas tarde debutan en la Sala Sol como teloneros del grupo sueco Club 8. Comienza así su andadura en directo, tocando, con tal solo un puñado de canciones en myspace, en el Festival de Otoño de la Comunidad de Madrid, en el Wintercase 2008, o en el Primavera Sound 2009, entre otros. En abril de 2009 fueron elegidos por la revista Mondo Sonoro como una de las tres mejores bandas madrileñas debutantes. Ese mismo año fueron galardonados por los premios Pop-Eye 2009 como mejor grupo Folk del año. Desde Noviembre 2009, Hola a todo el mundo cuentan con oficina propia, Producciones Disonantes, con quien han cerrado acuerdos de representación, contratación, y producción de conciertos. El 8 de Marzo de este año saldrá a la venta su esperado primer disco, producido por Luca Petricca en Reno Studios (Madrid). Autoeditado en su propio sello, HATEM Prayer Team, y distribuido por Popstock.

Tracklist :
01 - Choose your own Adventure Part 1
02 - A movement between these two
03 - Hatem prayer team
04 - Making your num your best friend
05 - Choose your own Adventure Part 2
06 - Amor fati
07 - Current road
08 - Inuit
09 - The past and the son
10 - Golden sound