World on the Beat

The month of May happily welcomes the return of two events that made memories of musical joy and madness in April – Balkanarama is back, bolder and more boisterous than before, hosted by Black Cat, and with the special appearance of Vagabuntu, an 8-piece blow-your-socks-off brass band from Romania (Friday 9 May, Studio 24, Edinburgh, 8pm, £5). Ndaje also returns with its West African warm vibrations, plus the debut of Big Fat Panda, a brand-skanking new Edinburgh-based ska band (22 May, The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, 10pm-3am, £5). There will be plenty of energy to be released at Orkestra del Sol’s next gig, as they burst out of the recording studio, launching their latest album, The Moveable Feast, in true rocket fashion. They will be supported by The Den Collective’s electronic, hypnotic circus-esque soundscapes (18 May, The Queens Hall, Edinburgh, 7pm, £7/£10).

If you are looking to salsa for an undemanding fee, the Academia de Salsa holds their free dancing social on the first Sunday of every month (4 May, Tiger Tiger, Glasgow, 4-8pm, £Free). Covering the Four Corners of the world is the club of the same name at the Bongo (9 May, 11pm-3am, £3/£5) with plenty nu-Latin breaks and world beats. But come the end of May, I hope you may be soaking up unmentionable amounts of good music (and mud) at the Knockengorroch World Ceilidh (22-25 May, Galloway, £75/£80); the orchestrated beatboxing of Shlomo; the summer sounding afro-instrumental dub of Soothsayers; the kicking reeling ceilidhs of Peatbog Faeries; Music! Heather Beer! Dancing in wellies! Ah, Summer!