Googoosh.

For French-speaking readers, here's an extensive article by the major French newspaper Le Monde about Iran's own Googoosh, the pop diva who used to reign on the music scene before the Revolution. 

A must read.  

more Ethiopiques.

After Mississippi Records, Buda Music sealed a partnership with the Parisian label Heavenly Sweetness to release records from the now very famous "Ethiopiques" series. 

While Mississippi Records re-released albums and a few compilations of Ethiopian artists undigged by Buda Music, Heavenly Sweetness signed up for a "best of" of the original series, which was initially released on CD's, as a double LP. 

If you need to listen to extracts, which I strongly advise, head to the website of Light In The Attic Records, 

Illmatic XX.

Nas really can't get away from the shadow of his masterpiece "Illmatic". The gift and the curse, so to speak. 

So, since its release in 1994, Sony jumps on every chance to commemorate this record, without Nas even complaining about it. I still remember purchasing the 2004 reedition. Time flies so fast, and now we're celebrating the 20th anniversary (damn, we're getting old) of "Illmatic" and once again, Sony made it a special occasion by releasing "Illmatic XX", with the actual cover art you can see in this post. 

Pitchfork dropped the tracklisting, which includes demos, promos, edits and remixes, splitted in two CD's. On my side, I only need that second record, I already have the first one in 4 or 5 copies on various formats... By the way, only Sony thinks most of these are previously unreleased tracks. Serious fans already own bootlegs featuring most of these songs. 

Anyway, I'm more excited about the video project "Time Is Illmatic". Can't wait for this one.