Weekly Music Roundup: Miles Caton, Nubiyan Twist, and Marisa Anderson

This week, Miles Caton, post-“Sinners”; Anna Calvi, pre-“Moby Dick”; and Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, mid “wellness center.”  Also, Nubiyan Twist and Marisa Anderson.

Fresh Off “Sinners,” Miles Caton Shows A Little Soul

Michael B Jordan won the Oscar for Best Actor last weekend for his role as the twin brothers Smoke and Stack in the extraordinary movie Sinners (Don’t let anyone tell you it’s about anything other than the power of music.). It was well-deserved, even if it’s Miles Caton’s character, Sammie, who is the linchpin of the story. In the film, Caton sings and plays guitar in a deep Southern blues style; but in reality he’s from Brooklyn and comes from a family of gospel singers. Today, he released a song called “Don’t Hate Me,” a piano-led ballad that showcases his soulful side. And his range, as the arrangement grows and his voice rises to meet it.

Anna Calvi Offers Four Mini-Dramas on New EP

English singer, songwriter, and guitarist Anna Calvi took a little time away from her usual arty, goth-tinged rock to score the TV series Peaky Blinders and to write an opera with the late, great director Robert Wilson based on Moby Dick. But today she returned with a four-song EP, each one featuring a notable guest. Iggy Pop and Laurie Anderson each appear on a track, and Mark Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, sings with Calvi on a noirish version of Bonnie Prince Billy’s “I See A Darkness.” The EP’s title track, “Is This All There Is,” is a dramatic duet between Anna Calvi and Matt Berninger of The National. It’s dark and cinematic, with galloping drums and a recurring guitar line that almost sounds like something out of David Bowie’s “Heroes.” 

Calvi’s Moby Dick will be produced at BAM from April 29 to May 3.

Nubiyan Twist Brings Global Dance Styles Together

The band Nubiyan Twist started in Leeds, England, and their blend of funk, jazz, and Afrobeat has been colored by elements of hip hop and electronic music over the course of five albums. The latest of them, Chasing Shadows, came out today, and while this big, horn-forward band can make lively, energetic dance music on its own, they also like to invite various vocalists to join the fun. On this album there are appearances by the Ghanaian rapper M.anifest and the Tanzanian duo The Zawose Queens, among others. The album’s title track, “Chasing Shadows,” is a typically dance-oriented tune that features vocals by the leading Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. 

Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso Are Truly “Free Spirits”

The Argentine hip hop duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso have released a new album called Free Spirits, a kind of loose concept album that blends elements of trap, electro-pop, and even orchestral music in a series of wild, often unruly, occasionally hilarious songs. Guests include Sting, Anderson .Paak, Jack Black, and Fred Again…, although as this track, “Nada Nuevo,” shows, they don’t need any outside help to produce inventive, madcap music. This song starts with something almost like a medieval chant, but eventually builds to a cinematic arrangement complete with strings. The funny video – part of a series for the songs on this album that are set in a sketchy wellness center run by Sting – also serves to translate the lyrics so you can appreciate the absurdist humor (“they think I’m Lady Gaga”) even if you don’t speak Spanish.

Guitarist Marisa Anderson Plays UnAmerican Music

Guitarist Marisa Anderson is preparing to release a new album in May, to be called The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music vol. 1. The title refers to the fact that all of the songs she has arranged for this project come from places that the US has been at odds with over the years – including Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, and the former USSR. The new single, “Sarvi Simin,” comes from what is now Tajikistan, but which in the 1960s was still part of the Soviet Union. The track has a suitably exotic, modal quality to it, with Anderson playing both guitar, and somewhat unexpectedly, the accordion. The addition of that instrument and Gisela Rodriguez Fernandez’s violin makes this more than a mere transcription and takes the tune into cumbia-adjacent territory.