M 9781324045557

This is the sound, the story, of the M’berra Ensemble, a collective of Malian musicians from the M’berra Refugee Camp in southeast Mauritania, and Italian producer and electro-shaman Khalab. In a sprawling tent city rising out of the desert, out of nothingness, at the border with Mali in West Africa, brought together by spirit and circumstance, the group’s Arab and Tuareg members — some unknown, some who have previously toured Europe — find solace and beauty in music and song.

Dial M were an American New Wave/synthpop duo from Los Angeles that released a self-titled album on small-press D&D Records in 1983. Multi-instrumentalist Mark Maierhoffer had a creative hand in albums by the Village People (Renaissance, 1981) and Cher (I Paralyze, 1982). Keyboardist/singer Mike Kapitan subsequently worked with Thomas Dolby.

R.E.M.‘s 1996 album New Adventures In Hi-Fi will be reissued for its 25th anniversary in October across three physical formats. This was the band’s final album with drummer Bill Berry and was mostly written and recorded on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour. Bassist Mike Mills recalls: “We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road. The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself.”