RSS feedArchive for January, 2010
Songlines iPhone and iPod application adds new features including Jon Snow playlist
Posted on January 4th, 2010 in Songlines Blog by Songlines.
The new Songlines iPhone and iPod application through iTunes, bringing even wider content to readers, has been updated to include the Best Albums of 2009 as chosen by Songlines editor Simon Broughton, the Top of the World releases for issue #65 and Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow’s playlist.
With such comprehensive reviews of the latest CDs to be released from around the world, it is often hard to choose between the vast array of new music. One of the best ways to decide is to actually hear that music for yourself. The new application allows you to read the reviews to the current issue’s Top of the World releases – the ten best new releases from around the world – in full and then click to hear a sample followed by the chance to go to iTunes and buy the album or track straight away.
There are also My World features with playlists by the likes of Andy Kershaw and Philip Pullman that you can sample and Beginner’s Guides to top world music artists with samples of their music.
To get the latest updates from Songlines and to read about and hear the latest sounds in the world of music, log on at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=333614262&mt=8
Lhasa (1972-2010)
Posted on January 4th, 2010 in World Music by Songlines.
Mexican-American singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela passed away in Montreal, Canada on January 1 2010 after succumbing to breast cancer.
Born in Big Indian, New York, in 1972, she spent her childhood living a semi-nomadic life with her family, touring Mexico and the US in a school bus.
Her debut release La Llorona in 1997 was a mix of Latin American, Eastern European Gypsy and alternative rock music, and her strong connection to Mexican music and culture continued on 2003’s The Living Road, which was a Top of the World release in Songlines #23.
Despite her illness, she continued to go into the recording studio, releasing her last album Lhasa in 2009 [reviewed in Songlines #60]. Two concerts in Iceland in May were to be her last and a planned album of the songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra will also remain unrealised.
“We have always heard something ancestral coming through her,’ said her old friend Jules Beckman. ‘She has always spoken from the threshold between the worlds, outside of time.’
