South Africa music reviews

Benjamin Gate were a South African Christian alternative rock band led by female vocalist Adrienne Liesching. ("The actual Benjamin Gate was one of the original gates in the walls of ancient Jerusalem that they used to herd the young sheep through," explains the band's drummer, Brett Palmer. "For us, that directly relates to youth, and our music being a gateway between the church and the world." Now you know where the odd name comes from...) They released 2 albums before breaking up when Liesching wed fellow Christian rocker Jeremy Camp. Along the way, the group traded in gnarly guitar riffs but with plenty of "techno" touches (phased keyboards and filtered vocals) and the powerhouse tender or tough vocals from 19 year old Adrienne. The comparisons to Garbage are probably about the best in terms of sonics, though this group tends to be "heavier" than Garbage usually is.

HIGHLIGHTS:
"All Over Me", the big radio hit, is undoubtedly the finest tune here. The charging "Blow my Mind" is an all-out assault on the senses coupling a throbbing club drumbeat with a thick instrumental track full of production tricks. It's probably the most "techno" song here. "Lay it Down" overcomes its weak chorus (say "lay it down" again and again and again...) with sheer shredding guitar power and vocal fury. "Hands" is a beautiful but menacing piano ballad that resembles Evananescence's huge hit "My Immortal" (though it predates it by 2 years). It proves Liesching has the voice for ballads.

LOWS:
Biggest criticism overall is boring choruses lyrically. As another reviewer pointed out, they're often nothing more than the song's title ad infinitum and as a result sap the power away from a lot of the songs. "Rush" probably is the worst offender where the chorus is "Your grace/Your grace/Your grace/Your grace/Oh Jesus/Oh Jesus". (No, really, that's it..) The tragic part is the song has a VERY cool Psalm 1 rap but it's hard to take it fully seriously in the midst of the rest of the lyric.

BOTTOM LINE:
After 4 years of distance, this album doesn't sound as good to me as I once thought. The music's still phenomenal but it's harder not to snicker at the lyrics on some of the tracks. Worth having for the best tracks but not one that will be a favourite of mine in 10 years or so.

POSTSCRIPT:
There's a hidden track (sort of) called "(Did you Know that) I Love You?" It's track 77 on the CD.

Now, I may not be the best guy to judge music, but I've really enjoyed this CD and keep on coming back to it. As a Christian Band, the Gate has deeply engrained their beliefs into their music, in other words, you can tell. Nice rocking sounds most of the time, good vocals, found these guys (and girl) through pandora.com and simply had to have the CD.

The more you listen to this music, the more you will like it. As an American that has been to South Africa twice, I find their adventurous and stalwart character represented here yet again in their stand for their faith in Jesus Christ. One can only have admiration and appreciation for this project. May you be once again reminded of the greatness of God and his unlimited compassion in this cd as I have been.

On this album, the production trims the focus away from dense production stacked with walls of guitar atmospherics and technoish keyboards drifting in and out of the mix and instead focuses on "cleaner" guitar lines. The lyrics (a bit of a downfall for the last one) are quite a bit better here, avoiding much of the repetitiveness that undercut many tracks on the last one. Perhaps it's all the influence of wunderkind producer Charlie Peacock, whose name turns up here as co-executive producer with David Bach and who's been responsible for producing much of the most memorable Christian pop and rock of the last 10 or so years.

HIGHLIGHTS:
The debut began with mediocre track "How Long?" On this one, the Gate comes out swinging with radio hit "Lift Me Up", a soaring sonic merry-go-round celebrating the promise of Jesus' eventual return to Earth. The 'whoa-oh-oh-oh' hook to "This is Not" is infectious. "Do What you say" issues a challenge to spend more time living a TRUE Christian life rather than merely "doing what we should". ("We're here to love and not be manipulated/And that should never be understated/Let's see what we've got here/Let's take it on...") A completely revamped cover of 80s Men at Work hit "Overkill" also sparkles. "Your Kisses Blind Me" uses a unique image to try and express the wonder of knowing God ("Beautiful you are to me/Moon above a raging sea..")

LOWS:
There's still a couple songs where the words aren't up to snuff but at least they're at the end. Chorus to "Violently" is "Fight/Got to fight/Got to fight to get thru/Got to reach/Got to reach/Till we find you". Same thing with "Fall Away" ("I fall away/away/away..")

BOTTOM LINE:
In every way a step up from the debut. One can only wonder where they might have gone had the band not broken up. This one has a pretty good consistency to it and I think will probably still be listenable as time goes on.

POSTSCRIPT:
Keep listening after "Fall Away" for a hidden version of "The Calling" that's a little more raw than track 3.

3 1/2 stars

The more you listen to this music, the more you will like it. As an American that has been to South Africa twice, I find their adventurous and stalwart character represented here yet again in their stand for their faith in Jesus Christ. One can only have admiration and appreciation for this project. May you be once again reminded of the greatness of God and his unlimited compassion in this cd as I have been.

I heard the song "The Calling" on the radio before this CD came out, and I recognised Adrienne's voice straight away, me being a huge fan of The Benjamin Gate. Their music has a quite unique sound, one that is not too poppy, but catchy enough to sing along to.

This CD in particular is not my favourite CD of theirs, but it is definitely deserving of five stars. They did an amazing cover of "Overkill" by Men At Work, along with giving some of their old demos facelifts and including those on here. It's great to hear how Adrienne's voice has matured on this album, and the musicianship is impeccable. The only reason I don't really like this CD as well as "Untitled" is it seems to be a bit too polished, with too much ForeFront and not enough Benjamin Gate going on. Their older sound seems more raw and more untamed, along with their songs seeming more varied on their older CDs.

This CD is very much worth buying, but don't buy it and not any of their older CDs. If you're gonna buy this one, you should also pick up "Untitled" if you can.

I put this on my 19month old daughter's Wish List for Christmas and we just listened to it today. She loved the animal sounds in the beginning and danced to some of the music. It's not something she'll sit down and just listen to as a storytime yet, but I think it will be a timeless addition to our CD collection. As an adult, I enjoyed listening to the stories and the music. A good buy for younger and older children as the music is very rythymic, but not too loud (I think my daughter would have liked it as an infant).

This album is a great hit with our toddler. Many, many nights she requests to listen to this CD as she goes to sleep. The rhythms are wonderful for young ears, she loves to sing the choruses with the children on the recording............it tickles me to see my daughter respond so positively to lyrics in a language foreign to her.

My 2 year old son LOVES music - all types. Laurie Berkner has been a fav for a while now. But this cd is DIFFERENT!! In a good way!!!!! It is simply beautiful and fun.

The release of Juluka's first album : "Universal Men" has to have been a defining moment in the history of world music, successfully blending white and black languages and music styles, whilst living in a system that struggled to keep the same cultures separated and alone.

By listening to this album alone, you won't get a balanced feel for the music of Juluka, however I don't believe this was intended to be a best of, but more like a compilation of lesser known tracks, including the beautiful "Deliwe" from period 79 to 84, songs that are not included in any other compilations.

A good companion for this album would be : " The Best of Juluka"
Even the two albums combined leave out a bunch of other excellent stuff like :- "Digging For Some Words" and "Kilamanjaro" and many others. The two albums together would just be an excellent introduction to Juluka, but...

I have to tell you, in case you've become hooked and frustrated at all the "out of stock" Juluka cd's, don't fret - with a little surfing, you will be happy to find ANY & EVERY Juluka, Savuka and Clegg CD there is, really easily and CHEAPLY from South Africa and also from other European countries, most notably France and Germany. Enjoy.

Wow. This was my first reaction to Johnny Clegg and Juluka. Wow. Ok, now that that's out of my system, I'll talk about the CD. Usually I am a big advocate of NOT buying compilations, but this is a really great one, especially becuase it's not always the easiest music to get your hands on. The wonderful company Putumayo has put together some of their very best songs for a very strong and moving CD. Favorites? Kwela Man, Akanaki Nokunaka (everyone at my house is into this song!), Deliwe (very powerful, sentimental but still raw and very unique), Work for All (very very cool); but then again, as I think of it, I love every song on here for different reasons. They are diverse enough to be fascinating, but similar enough to hold together a distinctive style.
THIS IS REAL MUSIC! That's what I think every time I listen to Johnny Clegg. WOW! The songs are exhilerating and true to South African roots, but innovative at the same time. For Juluka I would reccomend this compilation, although for Savuka I would say go ahead and buy individual albums. (By the way, Johnny Clegg and Savuka is AMAZING, different from Juluka but not TOO different, new and fascinating though!)
So, I hope that made some sense, as you can see I'm very excited about this underappreciated artist. Listen to this album or whatever you can get by him, dance to it, scream to it and laugh and sing along--whatever you do you won't regret it!

I love this album. It is my favorite album and I have played it for over 396 hours. Its playing now. I like the song 'Africa' most, although every one is a gem. It is a masterful and uplifting fusion of influences and styles.

I knew nothing about the history of this album's lineup, and actually picked it up on a snap decision (rare for me these days) because I thought it looked interesting.

It's not Cu-bop, it's not wholely Senegalese, and it's not Jazz, although it has elements of all three. I don't remember the names of the band members, but the guitarist alone makes the album worth buying. If I had to come up with an analogy, "Pirates Choice" is the "Souvlaki" of world music.

Jimmy Buffett would kill to make an album this good. Absolutely essential.

let me say without a doubt volta is absolutely the s***, from their first disc to frances, it just goes from great to greater. i firmly believe they will lead all music that is tasteful in a new direction...a la every band that has done so in history. even their live show rocked harder than any other concert i have been to, and they were the only band on the bill! but i have to digress, now, hearing the first sign of unoriginality(?) out of their collective musical output. simply, track 3 is lifted right off another album by baobob orchestra- pirates choice. the very first song, "utrus horas" is exactly what mars volta plays in their afro-samba breakdown. NOT the rock-out part. but it is half of volta's song, and that says a lot. no homage is made to baobob, or any credits, or anything.....just a rip off of their jam. listen for yourself. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005UPF7/qid=1118244841/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-0483868-3287833?v=glance&s=music

and that song goes on for 8 mins with various instrumental solos, just as volta does in their "rendition." let me know what you guys think about this.

If I could give this album a higher rating I would. I heard a piece on NPR one day driving home and I thought I like this band, wonder if the album is any good. So I purchased it and it is one of my favorite mellow albums to listen to. If you like world music this is a must have CD.

This group makes music beautiful, peaceful and soulful. So calming and precious.

Like many North Americans, I first heard Ladysmith on Paul Simon's Graceland album (by the way, the DVD of the making of that album is terrific). Last year I bought this CD, and it's been in continuous rotation on my CD player. There are lovely hymns (I only know they're hymns because they end in Amen) and very silly love songs like Paulina. It's a mini-vacation to listen to these guys!

This collection of Ladysmith Black Mambazo tunes is more than just a 'greatest hits' collection. It stands by itself as an artwork, all of the songs fitting a certain mood - one of joy, healing and positive christian spirituality.

A range of voices, low to high with cliks and whoops, is all this album contains. It is amazing how much music can orginate from the human vocal chord to produce music as stunning and beutiful as that made by the most sophisticated intsuments.

Some of the tunes are sunny, others pensive. Some songs are sermons, many end in "halleluyah," and the overall result is mezmerizing -- enjoyable for christians and non-christians alike.

This is highly recommended, and the perfect companion for a quiet day or to relieve daily stress. A+

Cesaria Evora has a voice like plush velvet.The songs are a totally unique mixture of Latin/African tempo and subject matter.

I saw Cesaria at the concert last year and I am also going to see her live this year. It was a really wonderful experience to hear her live. Such a unique and lovely voice.
"Sao Vicente" (or "Sao Vicente Di Longe" is called European version)is my favorite Cesaria album. Beautiful melodies which reminds of tropical islands in the summer... an album for relaxation. A masterpiece! Favorite songs on the album:
1. Sao Vicente Di Longe - my favorite song on the album. Amazing melody!! This really is a song which will take you to another place... sunny place near the ocean...
2. Dor Di Amor - Wow! I really like this song. What a rythm... All kinds of instruments are represented here. Very very good song.
3. Nutridinha - This one was a single... Very catchy and very tropical song... Great rythm.
4. Tiempo Y Silencio - Very nice ballad. Duet with Pedro Guerra. Really nice melody.
5. Bondade E Maldade - Great and very catchy.
Esperancia Irisada, Sabor De Pecado, Ponta De Fi, Pic Nic Na Salamansa, Regresso - these are also great song on the album. Really beautiful.
Great voice and great songs which can really take you to another place... somewhere far far away where sun is shining all the time...

Yes. Yes! There is an amazing effortlessness in the music, that transports you to some tranquil sad, happy, carefree state. The Cape Verdean Cesaria Evora once again delivers a rich blend of nostalgic African rhythms. These songs evoke a longing, a longing for a love, a longing for home, a longing for an unknown feeling.

What made me listen to riverdance in one word is, Thrilling.
And the rest of the good stuff attributed to something as famous as this one.
This CD lacks the thrill and excitment which Riverdance: Music From The Show [SOUNDTRACK] ASIN: B000005B2O this CD has, however this is a excellent CD for those audiance who love riverdance and usually go very easy on their ears, and not looking for riverdance to increase their heart rate 1 and a half the normal. I am very passionate about music, I said precisely "passionate". so this is not a good buy for me.

Riverdance on Broadway shouldn't be considered a standalone album. It has wonderful music, and I liked all of the tracks, even those that had more of an African flavor. If you're a Riverdance fan, you need to pick this up- though don't forgo Music from the Show, as some tracks from MftS just wouldn't fit on RoB. Taken together, they are a wonderful aural experience.

Alternately driving and lilting, energizing and haunting, this is music from the Broadway version of "Riverdance", which incorporates highlights of both the "Riverdance" touring show and its sequel, "American Wake". The taps and other percussive foot-pounding of the step dancers and flamenco dancers, an integral part of the livelier tunes, can be clearly heard along with the fiery instrumentals. Bill Whelan's Celtic-, African- and Spanish-inspired compositions are performed here by a variety of artists, including the choral group Anuna, the Riverdance Singers, the Amanzi Singers, fiddlers Maire Breatnach and Eileen Ivers, piper Davy Spillane, vocalists Brian Kennedy and Tsidii Le Loka, Bill Whelan on piano, percussionists Tommy Hayes, Desi Reynolds and Noel Eccles, and the Riverdance Orchestra, conducted by Proinnsias O'Duinn. Though the title "Riverdance" is conveniently memorable, I've never been particularly convinced by the attempt to connect these world-inspired performances to "rivers". However, the integration of music and "dance" in this theatrical masterpiece is obvious, exhiliarating and ingenious. Bravo!

For those who don't know much of African music or Africa - let Queen Miriam be your storyteller.

For a woman who recently sang a duet with her own great-grandchild, it says a lot for her to still be producing quality material such as this

This is a good album and the funky Pata Pata 2000 gives it a contemporary feel, yet never do you feel to the detriment of Makeba's reputation. The album is clearly targetting the non-African markets as a suprising number of songs are in English and some have an R&B feel to them: it is thus not a typical Makeba album. "Pata Pata" and "Welela" are perhaps better buys if you are looking for something more ethnic.

Her vocal cords may not have the range as they did 40 years ago, but her voice has grown stronger and more intense over time. Have a listen to the original Pata Pata or songs from her Skylarks' days and you'll hear the contrast.

Conclusion: It is definitely worth a listen before you know whether or not it's your kind of album.

I have never even heard of Makeba and don't own any other South African music. I may not appreciate Makeba's music the way a long time fan would, but I heard this album for the first time today and loved it enough to order it new from Europe at extra cost. Can't wait until it gets here!

Lovely cd. Favorite tracks: Lindelani, homeland, pata pata... This cd is beautiful. Makeba's rich mature voice overwhelms and instrument, so it is nice there's at least one song of her w/ only percussion & light background. Some of the songs slightly "lite rocked" world music, but the wonderful vocals almost make that disappear! Believe me, I detest lite rock world music, but it's a great album. If you like more home grown and less synth try her Africa album. MANY wonderful tracks. Also, the case is wonderfully done and the words are printed for all the songs. (just nice to know!)

A great sound of metal and a great blend of rock adds to this perfect cd. songs such as Fine Again and Broken make this a cd full of heart ache, but songs such as Gasoline and Fxxx It make a cd full of hatred and anger. It is a ccd you will love and most likely cherish.

Recomended:
Seether-Karma and Effect(****)
Slipknot-Vol. 3(****)
Three Days Grace-S/T (self titled)(*****)
Disturbed - The Sickness(*****), Beleive(****), and 10,000 Fists (****)
Staind - Break the Cycle(*****), Chapter V (*****)

Highly Recomended. [recomendations may contain VERY explicit lyrics]

This cd with bonus DVD is fantastic. Amy Lee is so good with seether.. I just love them both. Great bounus DVD..

This is a good start for a realtivly new Seether.Top 3 tracks are:69 Tea,Hang On,and Gasoline.While others think that F**k It is crap,it is a passable song at worst.