Think warriors reporting from the battlefield. "Understand What Black Is" by The Last Poets is an album that matters - not just musically, but as a record of the times we're living in. The Last Poets are weathervanes, warning of the future and past sins in poems that are indivisible from the rhythms they are voiced on.
Betrayal is the closing act in nearly all proxy wars. There are many ways for a state to project power and weaken adversaries, but proxy wars are one of the most cynical. Proxy wars devour the countries they purport to defend. They entice nations or insurgents to fight for geopolitical goals that are ultimately not in their interest. Chris Hedges on the war in Ukraine.
. Benjamin “Scatman” Crothers’ career spanned more than six decades, during which he worked as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist as well as appearing in over 50 films, perhaps most famously Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, by the late 1970s, when these tracks were recorded. This release is an hommage as well as a collage of his talent.
The Musician's Speech. Roger Waters addressed the UN Security Council via video link. He spoke for the “voiceless” masses around the world who wanted peace and a secure life, and blasted arms manufacturers for profiting from war.
Music from elsewhere. L'heure d'ailleurs was born as a little sailboat, drifting from one island to another, from one continent to another, from one culture to another. It's a vessel, drifting without a compass wherever the wind blows, without frontiers, without boundaries, prejudice or religious confession. So is the music presented in a 1-hour show on UbuntuFM World Radio. Every THURSDAY 10PM CET (11PM EST)
Heavyweights of the international Afrobeat scene. Mukambo and NYP Records unite again for the third volume of the Global Afrobeat Movement compilation. This initiative by Belgian DJ and music journalist Benjamin Tollet aka Mukambo aims to focus on up-and-coming Afrobeat bands from the four corners of the world, as the Afrobeat revival has been expanding globally since the beginning of the 21st century.