The Balm Valley sits in Appalachia, but its ears face the world. These aren't "world music" in the reductive Western sense, a catch-all for anything non-English. They're specific transmissions from specific struggles, and BVA receives them all.
Transmission 02: High Wind Warning
November 9, 2023
"Every land is holy land."
The Saharan desert blues of Mdou Moctar and Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou carry the Tuareg struggle from Niger. Bargou 08 revives trance music from the mountains of Tunisia with electronic production. 47SOUL's "Everyland", Palestinian shamstep at its most anthemic, declares that every land is holy land, a rejection of partition thinking disguised as a dance track.
Transmission 03: The Valley Finds Its Voice
November 23, 2023
The map extends: Andres Landero's cumbia from Colombia. Los Kory Huayras' Andean folk resistance from Bolivia. WITCH's 1970s Zamrock from Zambia. Seun Kuti's Afrobeat from Nigeria. Specific transmissions from specific places, each carrying its own history.
Transmission 04: Break Open the Dark
December 7, 2023
Volta Jazz brings 1970s dance music from Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Najat Al Saghira transmits from golden age Cairo. Haruomi Hosono arrives from a parallel-universe Japan. Lily Chao sings folk songs from mid-century Taiwan. Peter Cat Recording Co. from Delhi. Frankie Reyes' "La Bikina" from Los Angeles by way of Mexico. Alberto Baldan Bembo gives us Italian library music from a film about a mother's friend. The valley receives them all.
Transmission 05: The Longest Night
December 21, 2023, Winter Solstice
May be the most geographically ambitious yet. Songhoy Blues open with Saharan desert blues from Mali, a band formed in exile after jihadist occupation. Mbongwana Star brings Kinshasa street music shot through with distortion. Chalino Sanchez, the king of the narcocorrido, sings from Sinaloa. Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band and Dayme Arocena represent Cuba. Abel Lima's cosmic funana arrives from Cabo Verde. Dijf Sanders transforms Javanese field recordings into electronic music. Aziza Brahim sings Saharawi exile blues. Ruba Shamshoum and El-Funoun close the Palestinian arc. Twenty-eight tracks from every continent but Antarctica.
Transmission 06: The First Thaw
January 4, 2024
Japanese city pop, Bread And Butter, Off Course, Shintaro Sakamoto. Waiphot Phetsuphan's Thai luk thung. The Sahel, Ammar 808, Kel Assouf, Bab L' Bluz, Vieux Farka Touré and Khruangbin. Los Destellos' Peruvian cumbia. Rizan Said's Syrian dabke. Chiwoniso's Zimbabwean mbira. The valley receives them all.
Transmission 07: Sketches of the Valley
January 18, 2024
AfroCubism meet where Mali and Cuba were always meant to talk. The Lijadu Sisters. Letta Mbulu. Francis Bebey. Abdel Aziz El Mubarak from Khartoum. Abdallah Oumbadougou's Tuareg guitar. Joe Hisaishi's Valley of Wind.
Transmission 08: When the Revolution Comes
February 1, 2024
Hallelujah Chicken Run Band's chimurenga seed. Nahawa Doumbia's Wassoulou. Mahmoud Ahmed's golden Addis. The Lijadu Sisters. Bonga's semba. Fatoumata Diawara and Yemi Alade. Two continents, one groove.
Transmission 09: Cold Damp Valley
February 15, 2024
A Chinese New Year block, 張露, 潘迪華, 姚莉 and 姚敏. James Booker's New Orleans piano. LA LOM, L'éclair, Surprise Chef. Susso and Les Filles de Illighadad from the Sahel. Ebo Taylor and Basa Basa from Ghana. The valley's ears face the world.
Transmission 10: Sleepwalking Through the Mekong
February 29, 2024
The valley's ears travel to the Mekong Delta. Dengue Fever's Cambodian psychedelia, Ahmed Fakroun's Libyan disco, Asha Bhosle's "Udi Baba," Leila Forouhar's "Jolene," Dorothy Ashby's harp. Vietnam, Libya, India, Iran, Australia. The map is the whole planet, and the guide is paddling it.