Separate Sound

Start your Wednesday off right with 5 doses of music news from around the web:

The Indie Acoustic Project has just announced the winners of the their Best CDs of 2006 Awards. Find out who won what here.

Subculture Magazine’s latest podcast is up. Ready for a free hour of synthpop, industrial dance, goth and all other sorts of cutting edge music?

PopCultureBuzz is talking about Lily Allen…”a rare pop princess with her finger on the pulse of what is hip at the moment.”

And Obscure Sound reviews The Young Playthings. “A few months ago, The Young Playthings delivered an interesting live set by dressing up in pink trucker hats and reading erotic fiction to a crowd of sexually anxious teenagers.” You know you want to find out more!

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iTunes and Billboard are joining together to offer you 10 totally free downloaded tracks from artists participating in the 18th Annual Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards.

The Free Sampler Consists of:
1. Adassa, ‘No Me Compares’
2. Akwid, ‘Todavía’
3. Gustavo Laureano, ‘Es As?’
4. Jeremias, ‘Mientras Tanto’
5. Los Horóscopos de Durango, ‘Dolor de Amor’
6. Los Tigres del Norte, ‘El Zacatecas’
7. Michael Stuart, ‘Ella y Yo’
8. Notch, ‘Guaya Guaya’
9. Tony Dize, ‘Quizas’
10. Xtreme, ‘Honey, I Do’

Go get your music sampler now!

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The 10 Finalists for The Shortlist Music Prize have been announced. The prize is a “peer-selected award that recognizes the most creative and adventurous albums of the year” with judges such as Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Panic at the Disco, Sufjan Stevens, and select members of Snow Patrol, the Killer, and Flaming Lips.

 
Who are the finalists? (more…)

Separate Sound is doing none-too-shabbily in the Blogger’s Choice Awards!

If you read and enjoy this blog, why not pop over there and lend your vote? Then, check out all the other great nominees!

P.S. Don’t forget to send me your playlists for the Friday Playlist feature.
It’s as simple as clicking the “contact me” link right over there —>.

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I’ve gotten a lot of great response to my mention of Ghada Shbeir last week.

In case you missed it, Ghada Shbeir’s album, Al-Muwashahat, won the BBC Radio 3 2007 World Music Award in the Mid East & North Africa Category.

Since there’s been so much interest, I’m excited to be able to hook you up with an article published in today’s edition of The Daily Star - from Shbeir’s native Lebanon.

Considered one of the leading exponents of Arabo-Andalusian singing and Assyrian religious chants, Shbeir is one of the rare performers of a musical form that many thought was on its way to extinction.

“When we started producing ['Al-Muwashahat'] it was really a shot in the dark. We wanted to do it because it is good for the archives of this music, to safeguard it,” says Forward Productions’ Ghazi Abdel Baki.

Go here to read more about Ghada Shbeir and the intriguing music she performs.

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BBC Radio 3 has announced the winners of their Awards for World Music 2007. There are awards in 9 categories (and a 10th, Audience Award announced at the winners’ concert in May) and there are some great artists being recognized this year.

There’s Ghada Shbeir winning the Mid East & North Africa category with her Al-Muwashahat, which is both the title of her album and the over 10-century-old style of music she performs. Her music is very vocally-focussed and emotive. Ghada Shbeir performs both modern and traditional (and we’re talking 1,000-year-old-traditional, here) pieces. One of her goals is to keep alive this art form of muwashah and bring it to new audiences.

With a very different sound, Gogol Bordello won the Americas Award this year. They perform an imaginative style of punk that incorporates (amongst other elements) accordian, violin, a wild sense of humor, and a much-remarked-upon mustache. Fans say Gogol Bordello live shows are not to be missed.

Visit both Ghada Shbeir and Gogol Bordello’s sites for samples of the music they’re making.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To find out about the rest of the winners and the upcoming concert, visit BBC Radio 3.

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