Bristol's World Music Gigs

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Bristol's World Scene

Do we need the term World music in 2020?

World music has always been a problematic term, somewhere like Bristol is a key example of why. With 16% of the population being from ethnic minority groups and dedicated centres studying the impact of migration on citizenship, there seems little distinction between ‘local music’ and ‘world music’ anymore. Reggae is often classed as ‘world music’ given its Jamaican roots, but it has a strong UK heritage and for someone who is a 2nd or 3rd generation UK citizen with migrant parents, making music that’s classed as ‘world’ when they’ve never lived anywhere else but say, Bristol, seems an offensive categorisation. Its almost a cliche to say we live in a global society, so isn’t all music now world music?

Everyone knows that Bristol is a true melting pot of cultures and it comes as no surprise that the city has a healthy world music scene which manages to avoid the cliche. The on-trend big names in world music like William Onyeabor, Ebo Taylor or the Kuti family usually find themselves at home in Bristol’s Colston Hall. Occasional headliners can also be found at The Fleece and the Trinity Centre. St George’s hosts regular world music events covering more traditional music from Senegal, Mozambique and South Africa, where instruments like the kora and mbira are commonplace.

Locally, Bristol is home to some very talented ‘world music’ musicians. Afrobeat stalwarts like Mankala and No Stop Go (formerly Bristol Afrobeat Project) play smaller venues like The Canteen and The Old Market Assembly but also get the opportunity to support international bands at larger Bristol venues.

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Our recent world recommendations

Woi oi! Iconic 'ardkore action incoming from the unrivaled Moving Shadow fold! Reinforced / Altern8 / Shut Up And Dance heads will already have their tickets of course. For everyone else: breakbeat ravestalgia doesn’t come much ruffer than 2 Bad Mice, chopping samples and bombing tha bass like it was the Second Summer of Love all over again. 2 Bad Mice + Friends at The Jam Jar.

Sell out warning! Harakiri are the only band you need on your post-black sky chariot riding mix. Triumphant melody barely disguising soul-wrenching trauma, blistering blast-beats; BM purists beware, this is pure catharsis stitched with post-rock, post-hardcore, grunge and skramz DNA. With Denmark's impossibly mournful Sunken opening things up, ethereal awakenings await disciples of: Alcest, Deafheaven, Drudkh, WitTR. Harakiri for the Sky & Sunken at Strange Brew.

Sell out warning! You’ve never heard pipes like this! Queer futurism from visionary bagpiper Malin Lewis, playing self-made instruments and the world’s first wooden Lindsay Chanter. Malin channels their pipes and drones to form a layered, shifting sonic language that lives between binaries. Malin Lewis at The Jam Jar.

British folk iconoclast Chris Wood graces the candlelit hush of John Wesley’s New Room. His everyday epics sketch sharp-edged portraits of England’s many overlooked lives, from empty nests to minor league football teams to tragedies of industrial decay. Acute compassion ballads FFO: Martin Carthy, Karine Polwart, Billy Bragg, Richard Dawson. Chris Wood at John Wesley’s New Room.

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What our editors say

“Belfast-based singer-songwriter and producer Joshua Burnside brings together Irish folk traditions with Americana, world music, electronica and experimental soundscapes. His distinctive music blends intricate songwriting with found sounds, layered textures and unexpected production, creating something that feels both rooted in tradition and entirely contemporary.”
From: Joshua Burnside

“Andy has been at the helm of legendary bands like Sweeney’s Men in the mid 60s, to the enormous success of Planxty in the 70s, and then from Andy Irvine & Paul Brady to Patrick Street, Mozaik, LAPD and Usher’s Island. Andy has been a world music pioneer and an icon for traditional music and musicians.”
From: Andy Irvine

“Los Bitchos are a London-based instrumental band whose music is built on curiosity, collaboration, and celebration. Drawing inspiration from musical traditions across the globe, they create vibrant, cinematic, genre-defying songs that blend cumbia, surf rock, Turkish psychedelia, Latin American rhythms, disco, and countless other influences into a sound that is unmistakably their own.”
From: Los Bitchos & Friends

“Expect an intoxicating collision of worlds as hypnotic polyrhythms and soaring vocals meet the raw, modern energy of UK jazz, heavy funk, soul, and afrobeat. Born from an Arts Council-funded exploration to push traditional Gnawa into contemporary international spaces, Tagna Groove delivers an immersive, high-energy live experience designed to lift the spirit and move the dance floor.”
From: Mohamed Errebbaa & Tagna Groove

“Over their fifteen plus years on the international folk scene, UFQ have achieved something remarkable - garnering a reputation as a crowd-pulling, energising act, whilst also maintaining fierce commercial and musical independence. Their output is built on hearty fiddle-led music that draws heavily from celtic dance forms and traditional song - but from there on in it is unlike any folk band you’ve ever heard. UFQ’s approach to the folk ethos is to embrace any and every influence that genuinely makes sense of their time and place and makes sense in their music. From funk grooves to middle-eastern melodies, afrobeat to north Indian rhythms.”
From: Urban Folk Quartet - Greenbank Folk Club