If you don’t love reggae already, The Controverse All Stars will help you get into the latest sounds issued from this bass-heavy pulse. Local DJs Killahman (Jaro) and Fraggaboom have built up their own roving sound system, which is putting the ‘raw’ back into raggamuffin and reggae. Being the dub fountain from which drum’n'bass and many other currently popular dance music was born, Jamaica is now happily re-appropriating many of the new sounds it inspired. The result is yet another musical renaissance on this most rhythmic of islands.
Posts tagged international
Parcours chanté
The genteel environs of Le Botanique play host to a celebration of Francophone culture for three weeks in March. The bill, which features 30 different acts, caters for very eclectic tastes. Highlights include the sparse folk-rock of Senegalese protest singer El Hadj N’Diaye, the blues of Boubakar Traoré from Mali, the techno of French group Bosco and the electro-Arabic marriage arranged by Tunisian chanteuse Amina. Indigenous Belgian talent is also well-represented with Daniel Hélin, William Dunker, Marc Morgan and Vive La Fête.
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Irish Spectacular
It’s not even St Patrick’s Day for another week and the Irish have massed in numbers already. This afternoon is billed as a two-hour feast of Irish music, song, dance and humour, with appearances by The Three Irish Tenors, Jan Curry’s Twenty Dancing Colleens and Brian Doyle with his own puckish brand of comedy. The event is hosted by local radio DJ Bob Rogers, with musical backing by the NSW Irish Pipe Band and the GIO Concert Orchestra.
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Macy Gray
Not even James Brown could make soul music seem so joyously sexy as 31-year-old Nathalie McIntyre from Canton, Ohio – better known by her adopted moniker: Macy Gray. Last year’s album, ‘Macy Gray on How Life Is’, saw her fusing gospel with the sounds of the ghetto to become a runaway success. A curly colossus, she dances with the grace of Giant Haystacks in a leather thong, and her clothes are more garish than Austin Powers’. But with music so undisputedly groovy, such sartorial sacrilege is forgivable.
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Tramming about Helsinki
The Helsinki City Transport guide details the places of interest on the route of the Number 3T tram. The route starts at the Market Square and describes a figure of eight, returning to the start point in approximately 55 minutes. The various ticket prices as described under the Helsinki tram section of the guide are applicable, thus enabling the traveller either to traverse the entire route or to hop on and off trams if using the extended ticket.
We obtained our copy from a tourist information bus which parks beside the ferry terminal, when cruise liners are in port. Otherwise, pamphlets may be obtained from the Transport Department or from the information office at Market Square. You can imagine the reaction of our fellow travellers, who had paid anything up to ?25.00 for an organised bus tour to find that we had had our own City Tour of Helsinki for just under 90 pence.
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