Johnny Kalsi and Hoghead, WOMAD Reading 2006

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 180, August/September 2022 as my contribution to the article 'Four Decades of WOMAD'

After years of extolling the festival’s virtues, we’d brought our mate Hoghead down for his first WOMAD at Reading in 2006. Hog is a rocker with a great love for anything guitar-based, but this was a completely different musical world for him.

That year, WOMAD staples and masters of bhangra-fusion The Dhol Foundation were a last-minute replacement for a band that couldn’t make it. While I was down the front, Hog hung back, never one for dancing. But I’d occasionally look back over to see him, mouth agape, gently shaking his head – the energy from the five huge Punjabi drums on stage clearly working their magic. After the set, the stage’s MC, the gentleman Neil Sparkes, let us slip backstage and we ended up getting a fantastic photo with TDF frontman Johnny Kalsi – with Hoghead grinning like a wally in his Motörhead t-shirt. We were all in a daze afterwards, our conversation mostly consisting of “wow!” and “corr!”. It was a magical gig.

What an honour it is to watch a mind get blown, experiencing intoxicating music that was otherwise completely new to them – and it’s something that happens all the time at WOMAD.


Photo: (l-r) the writer, the writer's dad Paul, Johnny Kalsi, Hoghead, backstage at the Village Stage, WOMAD Reading 2006.

Avalanche Kaito - Avalanche Kaito

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 180, August/September 2022.

Avalanche Kaito
Avalanche Kaito
Glitterbeat Records (41 mins)

When the first track opens with ominous flat thrums of a bass guitar that make way for dissonant synth tones, distorted noise and crackling percussion ostinatos, you know you’re not in for your usual album of West African griot music. Avalanche Kaito is the meeting of Burkinabé singer and multi-instrumentalist Kaito Winse and a duo from Belgian noise punk group Le Jour du Seigneur. The small set-up allows for intimate collaboration and a focussed sound – it feels as if you’re sharing a tiny, loud room with the trio.

Winse’s tambin (Fula flute), tama (talking drum) and mouth bow (as well as his ancient sung, spoken or shouted proverbs) are always the star of the show, with the Belgians’ harsh synths and driving beats aiding in the groove – albeit usually an unexpected one, full of alien harmonies and strange modulations. Like all the best punk, Avalanche Kaito’s music is confrontational and abrasive, but also playful and with a great sense of fun. While it lacks the overwhelming intensity of similar projects such as Ifriqiyya Electrique, this debut album certainly has proper party-mode chops. It just happens that the party in question is in a warped, alternate-reality Afropean noise dungeon.

Various Artists - Music from Saharan WhatsApp

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 180, August/September 2022.

Various Artists
Music from Saharan WhatsApp
Sahel Sounds (45 mins)

Sahel Sounds’ ground-breaking 2011 compilation Music from Saharan Cellphones opened the world’s ears to the massive network of democratic digital distribution flowing underneath the popular musical culture of Africa’s Sahel region. A decade later, technology has moved on and so have Sahelian music fans. Over the course of 2020, the label released 11 EPs of music sourced from Whatsapp. Each EP was available for one month only, with all profits going straight to the musicians – Music from Saharan WhatsApp showcases the best of that bunch.

The result is a snapshot of a wide range of tradi-pop styles from across Niger, Mali and Mauritania. All sorts are represented here – traditional lutes are plucked alongside microtonal electric guitars, djembé and calabash beat alongside drum machines. There’s raw Songhai and Tuareg rock, Mauritanian wzn wedding music, Nigerien synth-folk, and even the first Wodaabe guitar band.

All tracks were recorded directly into phones in a variety of locations and scenarios, and the sound is understandably lo-fi. While this adds charm to most tracks, some suffer from it, the digital artefacts and overzealously-applied automatic noise-cancelling getting in the way of the music itself. As with its spiritual predecessor, this compilation gives a great window into the Sahelian music scene as it exists on the ground – but be prepared for some variable sound quality.