The latest issue of Perfect Beat (the first of the 2011 special issues on South Asian music) has been published. The second issue in the two-part ‘series’ will be out shortly.

Introduction: Asian modernities, musical traditions and strategies of engagement, Adrian McNeil

‘Sounding Japan’: traditional musical instruments, cultural nationalism and educational reform, Henry Johnson

Malaysian composers, geopolitical spaces and cultural difference, Jonas Ureta Baes

Negotiation and hybridity in new Balinese music: Sanggar Bona Alit, a case study, Manolete Mora

Kon baan diaokan or ‘we’re from the same village’ – star/fan interaction in Thai lukthung, James Mitchell

Reviews: Revisionist Popular Music History, Roy Shuker