SoundTreks: Curumin, Juana Molina & more

SoundTreks: a regular feature on the music the other 97 percent of the globe is listening to.

Wow -- what a great week for world music. The globalized economy may be crawling into a McMansion-sized hole right now, but you've gotta admit, while globalization may suck for mortgage-backed securities, it's been damn good for music. It's like an all-you-can-eat international buffet this week, only the portions are small and all the food is cooked by those grumpy French slow-food guys who burn down fast food joints while wearing hats set at a jaunty angle. On the menu: indie-pop from Argentina's ardently odd songstress Juana Molina, Ethiopian dub reggae (yes, you read that right) from Dub Colossus, psychedelic '60s Amazonian surf-pop from Juaneco y Su Combo, and a Brazilian who's obsessed with Japan and duets with West Coast underground rappers. Viva cross-pollination!

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this edition of SoundTreks.]

Curumin, JapanPopShow
Curumin, Curumin, Curumin. That's all I want to say right now. The more I listen to this young Brazilian's new album, the more I dig it. I like his Jorge Ben style, I like his easy integration of funk and hip-hop into Brazilian pop (without turning it all into something dumb), and I especially like that he mixes up tranquil, sun-drenched jams with, yes, West Coast hip-hop lyricists like Lateef and Gift of Gab. And then there's the whole Japan fascination??? [Insert the quizzical dog head-turn here.] No answers, but that's all right -- when it sounds this good, bring it on.

Dub Colossus, A Town Called Addis
Once I got Curumin out of my system (which I really haven't yet), I moved on to Dub Colossus. The first time I heard this album, I was flummoxed. In a good way. Ethiopians have done reggae, and electronic artists have mined world music for inspiration, but this album has none of that God-awful set-world-music-to-generic-dance-beats crap. But why define A Town Called Addis by what it isn't? What it is: Britain's Dub Colossus goes to Ethiopia to record local artists and ends up schooled by the musicians he meant to sample. Think Ethiopiques meets the Roots Radics. Bizarre, mysterious, continually surprising. Read the Rhapsody review here.

Juaneco y Su Combo, Masters of Chicha
Crazy retro albums covers, we love you. Ayahuasca-riddled surf guitars, we salute you. Juaneco y Su Combo have everything in place to be a band you should love, if only to bolster your cool and quirky credentials -- you listen to TV on the Radio and '60s Andean pop. But here's the thing about chicha: it's really good party music. It's fun to listen to. It makes you lighten up. So take your first listen for the novelty factor -- you'll be back for the quality factor. Don't just take my word for it; read what Rachel Devitt has to say on the matter.

Juana Molina, Un Dia
I haven't had a chance to spend much time with this release yet, but Argentina-born Juana Molina is always an inspired oddity. (Really, it's a week of inspired oddities.) She's gotten even farther from using recognizable language on her new album, making up words with abandon but doing it all in such a way that you think you almost know what she's saying. These songs are like little Joseph Cornell boxes, far away and then suddenly close, intimate and then shouting. Almost always pretty. She's a darling of the indie and electronic sets, Spanish-speaking or not. Give it a listen, or at the very least read Philip Sherburne's spot-on review.