Luaka Bop’s “Who Is Jordan Pedersen?” compilation is not forthcoming. It’s tempting, understandable even, to compare “world” musicians to artists from the English-speaking world. It plays into a trait us music writers are notorious for – name-dropping – and it helps us grapple with unfamiliar sounds. “This thing I don’t understand sounds like this thing I do […]

Max Bell’s heart pumps coffee. The EP is often the best distillation of an artist’s/group’s early material. There’s no room for the extraneous or sub-par. If not excised, there’s no place for the lame to hide. For groups that go with the LP the first time out, the skip button is usually hit, and you […]