Archive for November, 2008

“Days of Fire”: a witness to terror

With the shocking Mumbai attacks still playing out as I type this, I can’t help thinking back to other attacks and other wars with their cast of innocent victims. But attacks also leave witnesses. Nitin Sawhney and Natty appear together on the remarkable “Days of Fire”, the opening track on Sawhney’s latest album “London Undersound”. [...]

Singapore debuts “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”

With “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”, Singapore is now the 30th country to host a lyric-based TV competition. Along the lines of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”, the game pushes contestants to sing the missing lines of songs. The prize at the end of the rainbow? A cool $500,000. The show is hosted by local [...]

Whatever happened to CB Milton?

One of the very best vocalists I’ve ever worked with is hands down CB Milton. I’ve often asked people for news, as he slipped off the map. Producer Kristof Hermé put me on the trail again, leading me to the documentary “Playing for Change”. This superb extract of various musicians playing “Stand by Me” features [...]

“You Raise me Up” scores 1 million airplays

Irish songwriter, and founding member of The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), Brendan Graham has now officially been included in an exclusive club with the world’s top songwriters. His song “You Raise Me Up”, with music by Secret Garden’s Rolf Lovland, has been awarded “Million-Air’” status by the American Performing Rights Society, BMI. And to [...]

Tip: The return of Grace Jones

Grace Jones – Corporate Cannibal
Eek! She’s back. This certainly beats the return of Britney. Grace Jones, the inimitable singer of “My Jamaican Guy” and “La vie en rose”, is back with an album called “Hurricane”. Although some of the tracks I heard are more in line with her minimal funk, this track stands out for [...]