Sublime Frequencies and Mississippi Records may get all the world music hipster love, and it's not like they don't deserve it, but anyone into either label, or especially both, would do well to pay attention to a little label called World Arbiter who consistently release some of the most mysterious and amazing music we have ever heard. From gamelan, to sitar, to historic Chinese folk music, to minimal Moog music, to Buddhist chants, to Moroccan trance to this, the third volume in WA's series of 1941 recordings of legendary masters of the koto, a long 13 stringed zither, and the shamisen, a three stringed lute, performing various traditional vocal and theatrical pieces.
The sounds here are mystical and magical, the recordings warm and fantastically scratchy, the koto tracks are spare and haunting, both the voices and the instruments producing such distinctive tones, the interplay subtle but so beautiful, like some lost Japanese blues, haunting, and achingly lovely, hushed and intimate, the vocals both male and female deeply moving, and perfectly matched to the spare instrumentation. The shamisen pieces are more percussive, the vocals too more urgent, these tracks sounding even more like old timey blues Japanese style, which is essentially what Japanese traditional folk music is, these tracks often accompanying dances and kabuki performances, with various types of percussion, not to mention fluttering flutes, and some very distinctive vocalizing. And like the koto tracks, wreathed in a warm old time crackle that only add to the wonderful mystery of these magical sounds. Recommended for fans of all the recent world music reissues, regardless of label, as well as are all of the other World Arbiter releases...
Includes extensive liner notes in both English and Japanese.
Fourth volume in World Arbiter's Traditional Japanese Music Series, this one focusing on the music of the shamisen, a three stringed Japanese style lute, an instrument that was integral to the development of Japanese music in the 17th century. There's much to be learned about the history of the instrument, and the various genres it helped bring about, and about this era in Japan, a particularly turbulent time, as well as the Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, an organization formed to encourage cultural exchange between Japan and other countries, as well as helping preserve Japanese culture.
The sound though is what's really fantastic here, the sound of the shamisen no doubt familiar to anyone acquainted with traditional Japanese music, the notes plucked dreamily, the sound very much like a banjo, the melodies relaxed and slowly unfurling, moody and melancholic, here accompanied by fantastic and emotional vocal performances, these old recordings wreathed in a lush layer of crackle and hum, the overall effect not that far removed from listening to old timey American music, or early rural blues, even the mood of the music tends toward the lament, mournful and dreamy, some also accompanied by percussion, or fluttering flute, a few even sung by children.
Fantastic stuff, emotional, and intense, a sound both personal and intimate, but also inherently imbued with the tensions of the time, of life in the village and beyond, fans of Sublime Frequencies and other 'hip' world music labels, would do well to explore the World Arbiter label, whose releases are rife with musical riches.
That's right, another Indonesian garage rock comp, but c'mon, how can you resist a record subtitled Indonesia Screaming Fuzz? One that promises "garage stomp, Indo-rock and beat surf"? You can't. Or at least we can't. Some of the names here will be familiar to long time readers of the aQ list. Groups whose albums have gotten the full on reissue treatment, like girl group Dara Puspita, and legendary Indo-garage rockers Koes Bersaudara (who show up again as Koes Plus), which should give you an idea of the sounds here, and while you might already own those tracks, odds are you probably don't have many jams from The Swallows, Females, Steps, Panber's, Mona Rita & The Kingstons, the Peels, Rolling Beats, Black Magic, Los Indonesios or Banjamin S. But we can promise, after listening to this you will wish you did.
The Swallows transform the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" into their own chunk of surfy garage-y hypno rock, Rolling Beats take sweet bubblegum pop and wreath it in a haze of serious guitar fuzz, the Peels do their best Stones (which means they basically just swipe a song and sort of cover it), with some twangy distorted guitars and some sweet vocal harmonies, Los Indonesios sound a bit like an Indonesian Monks, big twangy guitars, and booming echo drenched vox, Females mix classic Indonesian sounds with fuzzy garagey grooves, and introduce some dreamy vox and handclap, and Steps do some Ventures style surf rock, but with buzzy synths and some distinctly Eastern sounding melodies, and so it goes. It's a sound we just can't get enough of, groovy, fuzzy, surfy, jangly, the sound so distinctive, and even the 'covers' reimagine the originals in new and spectacularly groovy ways.
Needless to say (but we will anyway), fans of recent Record Of The Week Those Shocking, Shaking Days, will dig this big time, and if you liked other comps like Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1976-1983 and Thai? Dai! - The Heavier Side Of The Luk Thung Underground, or if you loved those Dara Puspita and Koes Bersaudara reissues and wanted more, well, here you go...
The tracks on this disc were all recorded at the Paku Alaman palace in Yogyakarta under the direction of K.R.T. Wasitodipuro, who is the single most important musician/composer in Java and a veritable cultural treasure. The first thing those already familiar with Balinese gamelan will notice different in Javanese court gamelan is that it is much, for lack of a better word, mellower. Unlike the kinetic, explosive Gong Kebyar of Bali, Javanese court gamelan tends to move along at a much slower, even stately, pace. It is, in fact, at its slowest that a pieces opens up to its most complex and beautiful. The stratified layers of melodies can be absolutely stunning; each instrument, while performing its own unique part, is also completely subservient to the whole.
The album, originally released as "Javanese Court Gamelan", was recorded in 1971 by Robert Brown. An added aesthetic importance to central Javanese gamelan is the need for the sound from the various instruments to blend together in the performance space. The gamelan is located in a building called a Pendopo. The structure is basically a pyramid shaped vaulted ceiling with no walls, the architecture of which causes the sounds to be reflected back upon the gamelan like a parabolic dish. On this recording, which was recorded in the Pendopo at Paku Alaman, you can not only hear the blending of the instruments as they're meant to be heard, but also the sounds of birds chirping in the courtyard just outside. Nice.
Originally released in 1977, the second volume of the (hopefully eventual) tetrad of Javanese Court Gamelan features music from the lesser of the two courts at Surakarta: the Mangkunegaran. Which is not to say that the court, or its musicians and dancers, lacked prestige. Of the two gamelan heard on this recording, one is not only considered to be the most beautiful in all of Java, but resides in the largest pendopo (pavilion in which gamelan is performed) on the island. While all gamelan are treated with the respect given a prince, the older of the two gamelan here Kyai Kanyut Mesem ("Sir Swept Away by a Smile") is exceptionally sacred (so sacred is one instrument that it is never even played). The music here is the height of refined Javanese court gamelan and the two long pieces which make up the meat of this disc are each stunning in their own ways. The 21 minute Gending Bonang Babar Layar is a piece often played to welcome important guests and on that is intended to set a "mood of distinguished silence" as much as "power and authority". Played entirely with what are generally the louder instruments and completely devoid of vocals, Babar Layar exudes an eerie austerity that is breath taking. The almost evil sounding main melody is slowly condensed and increases steadily in volume until the final section of the piece in which the pounding, heavy bronze melody instruments are brought into an elliptical, concentrated -- for lack of a better word -- summarization of what had been so delicately building up. For me (Byram), it's one of those songs that never fails to give me goose bumps. Unfortunately, space limitations prevent us from sampling enough to really do justice to the intensity of the suite as it progressively builds over its twenty minute duration. The other showcase on this disc is "Gending Ela-Ela Kalibeber" which takes the opposite approach sonically, with the softer instruments and vocals taking center stage and rendering the main melody almost inaudible. Also included are two shorter pieces, "Ketawang Puspawarna" and "Ayak-ayakan Kaloran". Highly recommended!
Like the first "Court Gamelan" disc, his collection of recordings comes from Yogyakarta, this time from the Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, the major court in Yogya. Originally the editor of the Court Gamelan series, Robert E. Brown, intended for their to be four albums altogether, with each disc representing one of the two courts of Yogya and and of Solo, but the fourth disc has yet to be released. This recording represents the Yogya style in its most "conservative" form as the greater court experienced much less influence from the Solonese style that the court at Paku Alaman (volume 1) did. The most striking difference between this and the previous is the very loud style of playing that is typical of classic Yogya gamelan. The tracks featured hear are divided into the pieces which feature the robust playing of the louder instruments -- large metallophones (bonang, demung and saron) -- and those that showcase the softer instruments -- rebab (two stringed fiddle), suling (flute), male and female singers, gender (metallophone with small, flat keys suspended with strings over resonators and played with padded mallets) and celampung (plucked zither). Basically the two forms are mutually exclusive given that the sheer volume of the combined loud instruments effectively drowns out any quieter instruments from being heard. The contrasting transitions between loud and soft sections can be stunning, as in "Gendhing Lung Gadhung". The piece begins with a raucous procession of loud instruments played so hard you can hear the keys buzzing as they vibrate against the pins that bind them to their wooden casings. Then, suddenly the loud instruments part like storm clouds to reveal the softer instruments and vocalists. The haunting melody sung by the vocal chorus of men and women is made eerier by the varying interpretations of their parts -- so that vocal entries and cadences are staggered. This disc presents a variety of traditional and ceremonial pieces associated specifically to this court and is appropriately book ended by a piece (Gendhing Prabu Mataram) which would accompany the sultan's entrance and one (Gendhing Tedhak Saking) for his departure. Also included a wonderful 26 minute suite (itself a reduction of a two hour event) for dance, Golek Lambangsari and two shorter pieces: "Gendhing Sumyar" and "Gendhing Rangu-rangu".
Originally released in 1969, "The Jasmine Isle" is a collection of several short pieces for gamelan interspersed with one likewise brief piece of solo gender and two of solo gambang. Not the best in the series, this one is still interesting for its inclusion of the solo recordings from both the gender and gambang, which -- despite their being two of the more subtle and refined components within the gamelan are pretty much masked by the din of the other instruments on the other recordings of Javanese gamelan in this series. The Javanese gender, with its thin bronze keys suspended by strings over metal resonators and played with padded mallets, has a strikingly different sound than the Balinese variant. The attack of the sounding notes is so soft and the sustain so long that the instrument sounds almost like an early Italian pipe organ. Like the Balinese gender, the technique is very difficult and requires simultaneous playing and damping of the keys with the pads of both hands to reduce the overlapping of tones. The gambang is a wooden instrument much like a xylophone or marimba which is also played with a pair of padded mallets. On this recording, the two gambang pieces are solo variants of two pieces also played by the entire gamelan of this disc. The pieces for gamelan here are a mix of Sundanese (West Java), Solonese (Surakarta) and Yogyanese styles.
Alright, you might be wondering who the heck is Jeff? Jeff Mangum? No. AQ's own Jeff Yarbrough? Nope. The man in question is German sound engineer Gerhard Nieckau. Yes, that's right his proper name isn't even Jeff. It's his nickname. Ah, such confusion!
Anyways, Nieckau is noted as being the resolutely no-frills engineer behind Bossa 70 - capturing their jazz and bossanova sounds all raw and vibrant - but his musical pursuits extended far beyond that. He travelled extensively throughout Africa, Peru and Trinidad exploring and recording the regions' music. This compilation, subtitled 'Rough Beats From Peru & Trinidad 1972 - 1976', features superb eclectic recordings drawn from his personal collection from those excursions. Funk, jazz, calypso, afrobeat? It's all here and then some! Immensely powerful, inspiring music, and highly danceable too. Kudos once again to Crippled Disc for continuing their crusade to unearth the wondrously diverse sounds from around the globe.
Another fantastic compilation from the Dust-To-Digital label, this one focusing on the golden age of the Moroccan record industry, curated and produced by David Murray, who also put together the incredible Luk Thung collection (reviewed here recently), which gathered up rare 78s from Thailand. Kassidat chronicles a period in the sixties that found labels in Casablanca flourishing, releasing thousands of 45s, at the time, a new and inexpensive format, which created an incredible document of Moroccan music at the time. The booklet is massive, and offers a super well researched and in-depth history of Moroccan music, this era in particular, as well as the provenance of these songs and the various artists.
Instead of summarizing all that info though, as interesting as it is, in this case it might be better for us to just describe the music, cuz even with all the weird new world music labels popping up, and the hundreds (maybe thousands) of reissues, the music here is incredible, and incredibly unique. Our favorite track has to be "Kassidat El Hakka (The Poem of the Truth)" by Abdellah El Magana, which is super rhythmic, darkly hypnotic, the song drifting from tranced out tribal drumming and snake charmer flute, to chanted, almost rapped vocals, in fact, it almost sounds like some mysterious strain of Moroccan rap, if there even is such a thing, it's so good, one of those tracks we found ourselves listening to so much, it took all we had to move on to the rest of the comp. But as you might imagine, there's plenty more to dig here, soaring dramatic vocals, wildly melodic fiddles, complex harmonies, intricate melodic counterpoint, the sound raw and intimate, the recordings super live and intense, with the vocals often peaking, creating a cool sort of distortion, hand claps and groovy rhythms, call and response vox, strummed and plucked strings, the vibe on a lot of these tracks very reminiscent of Klezmer music, slithery woodwinds, echoey percussion, some tracks with cool natural reverb, rhythmic and hypnotic and so totally mesmerizing. Incredible stuff. And really, anyone who's been digging the various releases on labels like Sublime Frequencies, Teranga Beat, Sahel Sounds, Sham Palace, etc. will dig this like crazy, and should probably prepare themselves to track down everything on Dust-To-Digital. SO GREAT!
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The music on this CD was originally combined with "The Nairobi Sound", but with the addition of more material, it became neccessary to split the recordings into the acoustic CD and the electric CD. Though the recordings are all acoustic, that is about all that they have in common. There are quite a few pieces that straddle the lobe of 'modern' and 'traditional' songs, including the beautifully eerie "Chemirocha" - a tribute to Jimmy Rodgers.
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Intensely quirky, deceptively simple 1950's acoustic guitar songs from Southern Mozambique. An eerie, raw sound which is linked to South African Shangaan music.
It's been a while since we've heard from the Trikont label, and we've missed them. In the past, they've brought us some all time aQ faves, the Flashbacks series, Africa Raps, so many amazing compilations: Beyond Istanbul, Doom & Gloom, Creative Outlaws, In Prison, Dope & Glory and of course Ho! Roady Music From Vietnam. Always impeccably curated, with extensive liner notes, tons of photos, and an in-depth history of the music and the performers.
Konkani Songs is a fantastic addition, Music from India, a sort of Indian light and folk music, ballads, big band jazz, torch songs, festive folky dance numbers, all with a hint of Bollywood, as well as plenty of other influences, Western soundtrack music, Morricone, fifties and sixties European pop, but all so distinctly and uniquely Indian.
Anyone into the Sublime Frequencies series will definitely want to grab one of these, sounds both familiar and foreign, far out and classic, groovy Eastern melodies intertwine with Klezmer like accordions, soaring dramatic strings, chiming bells, wild percussion, the sounds slipping from calypso to mariachi, Bollywood to cheesy pop, groovy funk to organ driven sort-of-country, rad groovy surfy garage to dark tango-y waltzes, the sound is uniformly warm and fuzzy, that gorgeous washed out old recording sound. But it's the vocalists that seal the deal, from deep baritones, to sweet songbird croons, some hushed and intimate, some intense and expressive, sometimes a perfect match for the music backing it up, sometimes brilliantly at odds, we've only just begun to dig into the liner notes, there's much to learn about Onkani songs, but based on the songs alone, this could be one of our favorite comps of the year so far.
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Yet another amazing compilation from this Northwestern reissue label. Mississippi, in addition to the bad ass blues and folk comp I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore 1927-1948 reviewed elsewhere on this list, also compiled this amazing collection of rare R+B, pop, high life, juju and choral music from Africa. Mali, Somalia, Kenya, Zambia, even Sierra Leone...
The comp opens with the most wicked slice of down and dirty afro funk you will ever hear. Super funky, hot and sweaty afro soul supreme. Dense propulsive funky drumming, killer old soul jangle riffs, and growled and crooned, sexed up vocals, complete with JB style "HEY!"s... So intense and emotional and irresistible. Nothing else on the comp is as wild or as funky, but it's all amazing. Crooned ballads with simple shuffling rhythms, fluttery flutes and a deep warm velvety voice, festive joyous celebratory jams, with wildly strummed guitars, lush vocal harmonies, wild percussion, dark languorous afroblues, every track here is a gem, some funky and upbeat, others moody and mellow, so fantastic. Fans of the Ethiopiques comps, the recently reviewed Yaala Yaala releases, that killer Ghana Soundz collection, and the Afro Funk Explosion comp, heck, if you love this stuff the way we do, then you NEED this.
All handmade packaging, recycled record sleeves with pasted on front and back covers. Nice.
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Another new and truly amazing compilation (the first in a series of ten!) from our current favorite German label, Trikont. On this you'll hear musicians from vastly varied genres and times covering the same song: "La Paloma". From Charlie Parker, to Carla Bley, to Jelly Roll Morton, to Amon Duul, to slack key wizard Ray Kane, to Tex-Mex guru Flaco Jimenez, to... Ahh, there's a bunch here that you and I have never heard of, but that will kick your butt. Must be heard to be believed... No, just plain must be heard.
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Part two in Trikont's ten part "La Paloma" series continues with an equally varied line up of renditions from such notables as Esquivel, Paco De Lucia, Babba Brooks, Hank Snow, Freddy Fender, Xavier Cugat and much more!
Damon Albarn and his Honest John's Records went to Nigeria and all we got were two awesome compilations of classic Juju, Highlife and Afrobeat hits culled from rare vinyl that most of will never be lucky enough to score. With the influence of Fela Kuti sewn boldly on heart, some of these songs are actually from bands who really did time as part of Fela's live outfit. Both this and the companion compilation Lagos Chop Up are super solid collections of some of the best sounds coming out of Nigeria from the mid 60's up unti the early 80's. Very good stuff!
Damon Albarn and his Honest John's Records went to Nigeria and all we got were two awesome compilations of classic Juju, Highlife and Afrobeat hits culled from rare vinyl that most of will never be lucky enough to score. With the influence of Fela Kuti sewn boldly on heart, some of these songs are actually from bands who really did time as part of Fela's live outfit. Both this and the companion compilation Lagos All Routes are super solid collections of some of the best sounds coming out of Nigeria from the mid 60's up unti the early 80's. Very good stuff!
There's been a deluge of reissues and compilations of groovy '70s music from West Africa coming out lately, on this list in fact you'll also find Soundway's Nigeria Special Vol. 2 reviewed, with another one, their Nigeria Afrobeat Special comp, waiting in the wings. Well we just say, bring it on! If it's as good as THIS, we want to hear it!! Lagos Disco Inferno (the title says it all) is brought to us via the Academy label, who were responsible for that amazing Ofege reissue, among other great releases. Compiled by vintage vinyl fiend Frank Gossner (who does a blog called Voodoofunk), this is packed with a dozen tracks of burning, sweat-soaked funk/disco grooves, total dancefloor fuel, recordings circa 1976-'82 from Nigerian artists including Blo, Pogo Ltd., Doris Ebong, Grotto, Nana Love, Tirogo, MFB, Paradise Stars, Christy Essien, Geraldo Pino, Asiko Rock Group, and Emma Dorgu.
Track one, Doris Ebong's "Boogie Trip", with her persuasive vocals and some psychedelic electronic FX, is an insanely funky, and freaky, number that gets the party started right, in fact, it features the sounds of a wild dance party going on in the background (as there should be!). And track after track, the Lagos Disco Inferno party doesn't stop... right though to Nana Love's almost 15 minute tour-de-force "Hang On", which ends the album leaving you wanting more, more, more. Damn.
This is simply amazing from start to finish, a f*cking awesome comp, if you don't dig it then we doubt you've even got a funky bone in your body. The acts here could certainly compete with American contemporaries like the JB's, Kool & The Gang, and the BT Express, these exuberant tracks bursting with chicken scratch guitar, fat bass, ecstatic vocal squeals, and tight horn sections being put through their paces (ferinstance, on the aforementioned "Hang On"). James Brown is clearly a big influence, and Christy Essien on "Take Life Easy" sounds like she could have been one of his funky divas. To mention a few others, though we can't begin to pick favorites, we like how Geraldo Pino's "African Hustle" mixes in "Blow Your Head" style JB synth wiggle and vocal exclamations worthy of Jimmy Castor. "Everybody Get Down" by Asiko Rock Group is over 8 minutes of sheer get down grunt indeed. Pogo Ltd.'s insistent "Don't Put Me Down" also delivers the JB's vibe we enjoy (sounding a bit Ethiopiques too), while MFB's "Boredom Pain" has got more of a laidback groove, with soulful vocals and an eruption of fuzzed out acid rock guitar soloing that kicks in part way through - this could easily be something from those recently reviewed records by Amanaz or Witch from down in Zambia... Hey, but rather than talk about all twelve tracks, let's just say two words: get this! And again, two more: get down!!
Includes knowledgeable liner notes, the cd in a digipack, the vinyl in a nice gatefold sleeve.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT****MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
One of three brand new Mississippi titles we're listing this week, this one a lovely collection of Western Sahelian guitar music brought to us also in part by Sahel Sounds who also released the incredible Saharan Cellphones compilation and the Ali Ag Amoumine record. Laila Je T'aime is comprised of various field recordings mostly of solo guitarists and singers, but also some larger groups in different areas of the region such as Mauritania, Senegal and Mali. The intimate recording technique not only captures the beautifully soulful vocals and circularly lyrical fingerpicking style, but also the outdoor ambiance of desert life. It really feels like you're present at the moment these songs are being performed. What's also surprising is that while many of the songs recorded seem to have a timeless traditional quality as if meant to be handed down from previous generations, the very last song will be very familiar to western ears. It took us a second to realize what it was, thinking it was just a coincidentally similar melody, but then the vocals kick in with what turns out to be a really lovely rendition of "Message In a Bottle" by The Police! Gorgeous stuff!
Comes with a newsprint booklet insert, with color photos and extensive liner notes about artists, and the journey that resulted these recordings.
EMI set up recording studios on the Pakastani border, the result is this Sufi hoe down.
Two more installments in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding catalogue of amazing music from around the world. And by now we shouldn't have to tell you that pretty much every single release is a mind blower. But we will if need be. Any obsessive music freak owes it to themselves to check out and most likely own every single one of these. Some are beautiful and mysterious, some are strange and haunting, others are festive and jubilant, and a handful are truly truly strange. Wild and wonderful, perplexing but fantastically fun. And this one definitely falls into that category. Even before we get to the music, it's easy to tell this is gonna be a weird one, the cover is a wild swinging sixties party, with hot girls and guitars, giant dice, bongos, vests, sunglasses, suspended cubes made out of record jackets, the back of the disc features another swinging mod party and inexplicably a huge black and white image of Batman superimposed over the top. Inside it's hula girls in front of the Easter Island statues, a crazy cartoon of a big mouthed lady juggling numbers and a little kid hanging onto her arm, big ol' electric guitars, and on the disc, canaries in a cage, plus, c'mon! It's called Latinamericarpet!?
The music inside perfectly reflects the chaos and craziness on the sleeve. A selection of various lost Latin American psych lps from the sixties, but 'psych' here is VERY loosely defined. This sounds like the best DJ set you'll never hear, spinning awesome garage, fuzzed out psychrock, weird novelty records and everything in between. This is definitely the strangest disc in the series since those Radio discs of randomly captured radio broadcasts. As much as fans of weird world music, and strange found sounds will want this, so will folks who have been digging on all the crazy psych comps of late. This just might trump them all.
Here's a quick rundown of some of the sounds and songs here: super groovy fuzzy sixties garage psych, with slippery reverbed guitars and a killer groove, weird synths and organs playing along with chirping and singing birds, strange spoken word tracks with dark orchestral backing, Joe Meek-ish garage jams, instrumental but with a killer Eastern flair, rapid fire melodies and lots of conga drums, Mozart transformed into a groovy fuzzy jam, lush orchestral pop with crooned vocals, sound effects, sped up voices and spoken word, a yoga instructional record, with a gorgeous extended drone for you to practice along to, some super goofy, jaunty children's music, all playful melodies, wah guitars, and Muppets like vocals, lilting easy listening, all Lawrence Welk strings and lo-fi organs, killer warbly reverbed surfrock, with wailing sax and fuzzy organs, classical piano accompanied by what sounds like a small choir, a full on Bollywood style ballad, total Wipeout worship instrumental garage rock jam, groovy exotica, all marimbas and playful percussion, wild mariachi with accordion upright bass, and amazing vocal harmonies, murky muddy surf rock jam complete with a super long extended bad ass drum solo and it goes on and on and on. Every song a surprise, everyone catchy and wonderful in its own way, all woven into a perfect sonic travelogue through the swinging sixties in Latin America, lots of the songs separated by little snippets from novelty records, voices, and sounds, language instructions, snippets of songs, giving the whole thing a similar vibe as past 'Radio' installments in the Sublime Frequencies series, or like we mentioned before, the greatest, wildest DJ set ever.
Wide ranging collection of French hip-hop, from Parisian gangstah rap to down-tempo slow jams. Featuring MC Solaar with Missy Elliott, Les Nubians, Assassin, Alliance Ethnik, Arsenik & RZA and much more. This is really great stuff. Certainly the best collection of French hip hop we've heard so far. Nice to know MC Solaar isn't going it alone.
Score three in a row for the always amazing Analog Africa label! First African Scream Contest, then Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou, and now Legends of Benin! Focusing on four composers, Gnonnas Pedro, Honore Avolonto, Antoine Dougbe, and El Rego from the small West African country Benin, recording between 1969 and 1981. All coming from different regional musical traditions but operating in the same fervent musical scene in Cotonou where the Orchestre Poly Rhythmo were also from, that group providing back-up on a couple of tracks here.
As with the other two Analog Africa compilations, this one also focuses on tight danceable grooves and rare afro-funk. Gnonnas Pedro was perhaps the most popular of the four, being a master of the style known as Agbadja, derived from early burial rituals focusing on three differently toned percussion instruments, Pedro modernized the sound to such a degree that the first track, the highly infectious "Dadje Von O Von Non" later became the anthem for the national football team. Honore Avolonto, a young tumba player from Togo, was the most prolific composer in Benin, writing songs for pretty much every group around. Amazingly, he had no band of his own, but would score a hit, tour with the band until the hit faded and then write another hit with some other band and be off. He eventually recorded an LP,which became Benin's biggest selling LP ever. El Rego, a boxer in his young life and a brothel owner later on, made one of the first recordings of Jerk music (as soul and funk music was so dubbed) in Benin. His tracks are the most Western influenced, often times singing in English. Antoine Dougbe, is the most obscure and his tracks are among the rarest finds. His style combined elements of Congolese Rhumba, High Life, and traditional Beninese rhythms into a form he called Afro-Cavacha, named after the fast rhythms of pop music from Zaire. Dougbe, often worked with the Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo, but it was often an uneasy relationship since Dougbe's father was a feared and powerful Voudon priest, and the band (most of them practicing Voudons) feared reprisals should they question Dougbe's arrangements and musical instruction. But undoubtedly this religious quality so pervasive in Benin is what created such intensely tight and dynamic music, hypnotic and bewitching and endlessly captivating. Pure Gold!
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SORRY.
Yet another fantastic collection of Southeast Asian pop, funky and fuzzy, jangly and garagey, poppy and psychedelic. Let's A Go-Go definitely sounds like it could have ended up on Sublime Frequencies, but in spirit seems to fall closer to one of our favorite comps ever, Teen Dance Music From China And Malaysia, the focus here less cultural and anthropological, and more fun fun fun. There are several tracks from Dara Puspita, whose entire collected work was recently reissued on Sublime Frequencies, and which should give you a good idea of the sort of fuzzy garage pop you can expect here, but besides DP, there's not a single band here we've heard of, but they're all fantastic, Rita Chao, The Bes, Patrina, Hai Fei, The Dee-Tee's, The Crescendos, The Blue Beats, Rocky Teoh, Charlie And His Go-Go Boys, Lotus Liew, Orkes Tropicano... And of course there are a handful of covers, in keeping with Southeast Asia's obsession with Western pop music, the perfect examples being both Patrina's "One To Nine Walkin", and Charlie And His Go-Go Boys' "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", the first a cool reinterpretation of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", almost identical to the original, in arrangement at least, even with the change in title, the vocals a bit more playful and girlish, and there's the addition of a cool almost Christmasy sounding chiming guitar breakdown between every verse! And the second a wild sexy sixties instrumental version, with the vocals replaced by horns, a go-go jam true to the band's name for sure.
The whole record is like some super exotic sixties dance party, flutes flutter, drums shuffle, organs hum and wheeze, melodies twist and tangle, the sound definitely Asian, but also Western, from fuzzed out garage rockers, to cool garage-ified Asian folk, most of the vocalists are female, but the handful of males representing are pretty spectacular, the Dee-Tee's "Just Because" is a haunting minor key ballad, the Quests' "The Dancer" is total Beatles-esque jangle (definitely cobbled together from a handful of parts from various Beatles songs), there's a groovy version of "Wooly Bully", there's some sixties space aged garage a la the Telstars and so much more.
Totally wild and fun, and fuzzy and funky and so varied, a fantastic comp that will definitely appeal to Sublime Frequencies obsessives, Southeast Asian pop nerds, and anyone who bought Teen Dance Music From China And Malaysia, loved it to death but wanted more more more!
Short form review: Ridiculously awesome.
We mean, kind of a no-brainer here, you know you want this - the sequel to B-Music's indeed wonderful The Sound Of Wonder comp has arrived, and of course it's awesome. As the subtitle Plugged-In Sounds of Wonder at the Pakistani Picture House suggests, it's another 16 tracks of vintage "Lollywood" soundtrack gems, exotic pop produced by the Lahore film industry circa the '60s and '70s, taken from the vaults of EMI Pakistan; a spicy blend of impassioned vocals, fuzz guitars, analog synths, spacey effects, lush orchestration, and ethnic hand percussion, music that's just a bit rawer and if possible zanier than its Bollywood counterpart, though not too dissimilar...
Life Is Dance sure starts off with a bang, a Great Googly Moogly of a track called "Zambo Zambo" boasting crazy gruff vocals that will have you staring at your stereo. That one goes on for nearly nine minutes, really a wild ride full of curious, catchy sonic juxtapositions. And somehow this album's compilers keep up the "Urdu-groove" awesomeness from there on in. Many of the big names Lollywood history appear here, among 'em Sohail Rana and Nahid Akhtar.
As always with B-Music/Finders Keepers stuff, impeccably researched, lovingly presented, with informative liner notes and evocative graphics...
Living Is Hard. Indeed. Truer words were never spoken. The plight of Africans in Britain in the beginning of the twentieth century, was indeed one of hardship and strife, of persecution and destitution of unspeakable violence and unfettered racism. And the songs on Living Is Hard perfectly capture the spirit of the time. The anger and resentment, but also the hope and happiness, the frustration of constant harassment and the dreams of something better.
As the liner notes mention, these songs were a "disruptive late entry into the history of black music in Britain", a music that owes very little to any white listenership. A hybrid of African spirituals, blues and plantation songs, with hints of Carribean music, bits of highlife, mostly vocal, with minimal instrumentation, managing to be simultaneously complex and musically dense, but also simple and heartfelt.
A few tracks are immediately recognizable as a sort of highlife blues, simple acoustic guitar and seemingly celebratory vocals, but much of the music on Living Is Hard, is truly unique, unlike anything we've ever heard, even as fans of wondrous and mysterious world musics, there are strange acapella tracks, where the rhythms are created from grunts and mumbles, the main vocal line, strangled and guttural, peppered with occasional percussion, some tracks have a Western folk vibe, even hinting at some Morricone-ish twang, others sounds a bit like doo wop, rich harmonies and gorgeous hummed melodies, but most of the tracks here are just vocal and percussion, chanting, crooning, call and response, voices sometimes rough and raw, sometimes smooth and silky, the rhythms backing them up ranging from simple and spare to dense and tribal, so varied and moving and simply wonderful.
As with all Honest Jons releases, Living Is Hard is gorgeously packaged, with a thick book of liner notes, lots of photos, translations of the lyrics and more.
Dust-To-Digital does it again! With what might be one of their most impressive releases to date. Which is saying a lot, considering how much we love pretty much everything they release. A quick list of some of our favorite D-T-D releases should give you an idea of what we're talking about: those recent Lonnie Holley albums, Kassidat: Raw 45's from Morocco, Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78's From The Thai Countryside, Opika Pende: Africa At 78rpm, Pictures Of Sound, Excavated Shellac, Victrola Favorites, we could go on and on and on and on. Look up any of those on the aQ site and read our extensive and effusive ravings about all of them.
And this new one, a sprawling four cd collection of 78s from Southeast Asia, is yet another stunning release, in every way, the mysterious and lovely music collected here, the design, the research, it's a gorgeous object on top of being one of the best reissue compliations of the year. Curated by David Murray, who also assembled the Luk Thung and Kassidat collections, and who curates the Haji Maji blog, which explores 78rpm Asian music, Longing For The Past is like a class in early 20th century Southeast Asian music in a box, 90 tracks, four and a half hours, the music culled from the years 1905-1966, and offering up an expansive and varied sonic snapshot of music from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The temptation is to simply paraphrase the extensive liner notes, but there's just too much here to fit into a review. We're also tempted to describe this compilation song by song, but again, we could do a whole list just on this one release. All you really need to know, is that this is fantastic. The music is incredible, an breathtaking sampling of Southeast Asian music, fans of the genre, even those who consider themselves amateur experts, will be blown away, many of these tracks reissued for the first time, and the sonic breadth is stunning too, folk music, pop music, gamelans, percussion, strings, gorgeous vocals, so varied that it almost seems too reductive to even describe a handful of them, odds are lots of aQ-ers are gonna want this already, but check out the sound samples below too. Odds are you'll be smitten. And in terms of cultural import, that can't be underestimated, as much about the music of this era, from this region, has remained mostly unexplored before now.
And as with all Dust-To-Digital releases, the packaging is crazy. There's a huge nearly 300 page hardcover book, with tons of liner notes, about the record industry in Southeast Asia, music from each country, and a complete breakdown of each track here, with a description of the artist and the song, not to mention an extensive bibliography, as well as hundreds of vintage photographs, reproductions of record labels and sleeves, and so much more. The cds themselves are packaged in a massive 8 panel digisleeve, printed and embossed, and everything is then housed in a deluxe printed/embossed box. So gorgeous. And for world music obsessives, absolutely essential!!
MPEG Stream: VA N H I B A N W I T H T H E VA N H I B A N T R O U P E "Xu Toi Bang Qui Phi, Thu Nhi" [/audio/valngngftpst4cddtd1.m3u]
This latest installment in the on-going, ever-awesome Love, Peace & Poetry compilation series of rare psych rock music from around the world features tracks from African bands. While not as far-fetched as the Extreme Music From Africa comp we used to stock some time back, some might still be surprised by this. Of course, previous volumes in the LP&P series have conclusively demonstrated the all-pervading influence of the Western '60s rock revolution on the rest of the world, and we've stocked lots of cd reissues of LPs by acid-rockers from such 'exotic' locales as Turkey, Brazil, and the Phillipines. Not to mention all those Cambodian Rock collections! So of course there's gonna be African bands for Shadoks to compile. And in fact, we think they maybe included more South African (i.e. white) bands here than they really needed to -- not that the chosen tracks aren't worthy, just that they give the impression that Shadoks couldn't find enough stuff from the rest of the continent. Maybe their definition of "psychedelic music" is a little narrower than ours, but we'd have thought some Ethiopian groove stuff, or early Orchestra Baobab, would do nicely here. Too funky maybe? But already this collection boasts a wide range of styles from jazzy to spacey to folkish to heavy, hard rock. There's room here for both fuzz guitar fests (Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family's "Oh Ye Ye") and Beatles-esque balladry (Quentin E. Kolpjaeger's "Weatherman"). 17 tracks total, with several standouts including Nigeria's Blo (now that's some authentic African psych rock there) and South Africa's Freedoms Children (who managed to land three cuts on here) and the proto-metal of fellow countrymen Suck, among others. Perhaps not the strongest of the series (heck, that preceeding Mexican volume was a tough act to follow) but as always, well-stocked with gems -- stuff you're unlikely to hear elsewhere, either!
The Love, Peace & Poetry series compiles the obscurest of the obscure lost psychedelic music of the sixties, records that collectors spend vast sums of money on. Following the American and Latin American volumes, this long-awaited third volume brings together gems from Japan, Korea, India, Cambodia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Turkey, spanning the years 1967 to 1977. Authoritative liner notes from OR Records' Stan Denski round out the package. Get this and soon you too will be a fan of such artists as The Mops, Erkin Koray, Jung Hyun & the Men, Mogollar, and the unknown Cambodian combo that provides this disc's very rockin' track five. Recommended!
Spanning 1969 to 1978, the newest volume of Love, Peace & Poetry brings to light totally rare gems from the Brazilian psychedelic rock movement. While we may all be relatively familiar with the giants of the Tropicalia scene -- Os Mutantes (Windy's favorite band ever), Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, etc -- this comp features far more obscure groups whose albums are sought-after treasures in the underground psych LP collecting community (you know who you are!). But less obsessive folk now too have the opportunity to enjoy these obscurities! Springing from the creatively fertile ground of an at the time politically oppressive society, this is a fantastic collection of songs ranging from sunny Beatles-esque, Byrds-y jangle pop to other harder stuff more explicitly influenced by the Doors, Hendrix, and other fuzzed out acidheads. Highlights include the latter type of thing from Modulo 1000, a track from Brazilian psych crown jewel Lula Cortes e Ze Ramalho, the Zep-worthy hard rock groove (with a touch of proto-new wave in one guitar break) of Terco, and a track by Spectrum (whose utterly brilliant film soundtrack album "Geracao Bendita" album has been reissued in its entirety, due for review soon in an upcoming New Arrivals list, although you can come buy it now if you want!). Some tracks pay allegiance to Tropicalia, others are straight-up freak rock, and all are pretty cool.
As with all the Love, Peace and Poetry comps, this is highly recommended not only because it's good listening, but also because it's damn hard to find full lengths from most of these groups, not 'til someone reissues 'em! The liner notes are again by our pal Stan Denski, cover art is again a cheesecake blond go go girl courtesy famed photog Bunny Yeager.
For their tenth installment in the Love Peace and Poetry series, Shadoks once again takes us to South America. At first we must admit we were disappointed. This is the fourth volume in the series to cover Latin American psych and so many other regions in the world remain potentially untapped by this series (Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, Indonesia, North Africa, to name but a few). But then we thought better, because we've always known Chile to be an amazing source of some of the best South American psych and sure enough many of the bands on this compilation are amongst our very favorite: Embrujo, Congregacion, Blops, Los Macs, El Congresso, Kissing Spell. Yet there's others here just as good we'd never heard before. In fact this is one of the better volumes in the series, not just because the music is so good, but that much of it was made under hostile political conditions and barely managed to survive, as most records made after 1973 were often contraband, and many master tapes were subsequently destroyed. (Pinochet's CIA-installed military dictatorship ruled until 1990!) It's surprising that given the constantly changing political climate, that bands took so much risk with their music, and album art. Like Aguaturbia, a sort of Latin Brainticket featuring a female vocalist (a rarity on these comps), depicted the singer naked and crucified (a la Salvador Dali) on their second album cover, and even one of the two songs representing them is called "Erotica" feauturing some hot and heavy sounds. Other bands like Congregacion and Sacros take a more mystical and spiritual approach. Some bands are deeply inspired by Hendrix and Deep Purple (Tumulto and Escombros), and others more influenced by the jangle pop of the Byrds and Beatles (Los Macs, Los Beat 4 and Los Vidrios Quebrados). But for all the bands heavily influenced by American and British psych and R&B, it's nice to hear more Andean roots come in to play from bands like Los Jaivas, who mix electric and traditional folk instruments. Another score in this amazing series with hopes for farther flung outings in the future.
Ignore the cheesy pinup girl cover art and instead give thanks that someone finally compiled someof the best tracks from Latin American psych pop groups of the '60s, most of whose original LPs now change hands for hundreds of dollars, and whose cd reissues even seem overpriced. We're talking bands like Traffic Sound, Laghonia, Kissing Spell, and Kaleidoscope, etc. A great intro to this scene, provided you have a very strong stomach for Beatles ripoffs; it sounds very much Of Its Time.
Any disc that opens with Los Dug Dug's doing their super catchy and fuzzed-out "Lost In My World" is all right by us! The rest of the cd is pretty great too. This new installment in the always-cool Love, Peace & Poetry series of comps -- which bring us an international array of wonderous '60s and '70s psych songs you might never otherwise encounter -- proves that things were shaking south of the border way back when, in the realm of rock n' roll. The strength of the Mexican psych rock scene was hinted at by an earlier volume in this series, Latin American Psychedelic Music, which is where we found out about Dug Dug's in the first place.
While the USA had Woodstock (and Altamont), Mexico had 1971's Avandaro Music Festival, and several of the bands featured here performed at that event -- and were then banned from playing regular clubs because of government repression. Bummed out by politics and driven undergound, these bands let loose with tons of fuzz (and some melody). These 17 tracks mostly date from about 1970-72, with a few late '60s entries. You'll experience punky garage numbers, some hippy blues workouts, lots of acid rock dementia, and even some lighter, folk-rock efforts -- all sorts of psychedelic era indulgence indeed. The bands: Dug Dug's, The Kaleidoscope, El Tarro De Mostaza, La Vida, The Flying Karpets, The Spiders, Tocho Pilatos, Three Souls In My Mind, Grupo Ciruela, Los Ovnis, The Survival, Nahuatl, La Fachada De Piedra, La Libre Expreession, Ernan Roch, Renaissnace, and La Revolution De Emiliano Zapata. As with the rest of this series, unrelated-to-the-music beach bunny cover photos by Bunny Yeager, informative-about-the-music liner notes by Stan Denski.
We were so excited when we heard that the newest installment in the always-cool Love Peace And Poetry series was going to focus on Turkish Psychedelic music! For a few years now, we've been loving all the '60s and '70s Turkish psych we could lay our hands on (which unfortunately is not as much as we'd like). We've had reissues of such bands as Mogollar, 3 Hur-el, Erkin Koray, Edip Akbayram, and Bulent. So, when we heard about this comp, we were excited -- but also wary of getting TOO excited, faced with the possibilty that this would simply consist of tracks by artists we already know and love, from records we already own, with nothing new and unknown to sate our appetite for more Middle Eastern psych treats. Well, holy halva! We couldn't have been more blown away when we finally got this in. Of the sixteen tracks, only five were by the above mentioned artists, while the rest were by artists totally unknown to us. And on top of that, EVERY track is amazing! From the Eastern-tinged, faux sitar, raga-like sixties garage rock of Selda, to the sunny proggy keyboard heavy folk of Ozdemir Erdogan, to the crooning soulful psych of Alpay, to the almost disco-y wild guitar groove of Hardal, to the strange Ethiopiques meets ska horns of Erkut Tackin. Wow! A lot of killer cuts on this one. We just can't stop playing it. Definitely lives up to the standards set by the two compilations that pretty much first introduced us to the Turkish psych scene, Hava Narghile on Bacchus Archives and (the now out of print) Turkish Delights on Grey Past.
And why do we like Turkish psych so much? Well, Turkey has a long tradition of musical talent to begin with, and being a part of Europe as well as Asia, the whole phenomenon of East-meets-West hybridization (in this case, traditional Anatolian folk and '60s pop beat) makes for some amazing music that couldn't come from anyplace else. Plus, psychedelia as a musical genre has always held a fascination with the East, the exotic... so psych music FROM such lands has a built-in advantage. Just check this out and you'll see.
We recently went a little crazy for a compilation on Finders Keepers called Thai Dai, which was was more specifically, a collection of tracks from "The Heavier Side Of The Luk Thung Underground", Luk Thung being the 'country music' of Thailand, a form of pop song that is the voice of the rural community, of the disenfranchised, and thus is a powerful and important part of Thai culture, past and present. Unlike the Thai Dai collection, which explored the sound of Luk Thung tethered to heavier fuzzier rock, and a more Western sound, even going so far as to reinterpret songs by Chicago and Black Sabbath, the songs here are gathered up from obscure 78s, all from the sixties, none of them EVER available outside of Thailand before, offering a fantastic overview of the sound and the songs of the time. Sublime Frequencies and Mississippi records obsessives, anyone who loved the Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan compilation (sadly now out of print), folks who dug the Excavated Shellac comp (also on Parlortone) odds are this is gonna hit the spot too, the sounds are lush and lovely, the vocals so emotional and distinctive, warm wheezing accordions, traditional hand drums, Latin style horns, the melodies so intoxicating, so distinctly Thai, Gamelan like rhythms, the sound percussive, and propulsive, groovy and funky, the arrangements intricate and complex complex, but still immediate, and intimate and heartfelt and joyous, even when singing about loss and struggle, the sounds seem infused with hope, joyful and exuberant.
Packaged in a gorgeous eye popping full color cover, with an extensive full color six page insert, with photos, reproductions of 78 labels, a history of Thailand, and the music and musicians featured on the compilation.
Originally released on vinyl, now available on cd, here's our review from when we reviewed the lp version back in 2011:
We recently went a little crazy for a compilation on Finders Keepers called Thai Dai, which was, more specifically, a collection of tracks from "The Heavier Side Of The Luk Thung Underground", Luk Thung being the 'country music' of Thailand, a form of pop song that is the voice of the rural community, of the disenfranchised, and thus is a powerful and important part of Thai culture, past and present. Unlike the Thai Dai collection, which explored the sound of Luk Thung tethered to heavier fuzzier rock, and a more Western sound, even going so far as to reinterpret songs by Chicago and Black Sabbath, the songs here are gathered up from obscure 78s, all from the sixties, none of them EVER available outside of Thailand before, offering a fantastic overview of the sound and the songs of the time. Sublime Frequencies and Mississippi records obsessives, anyone who loved the Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan compilation (sadly now out of print), folks who dug the Excavated Shellac comp (also on Parlortone) odds are this is gonna hit the spot too, the sounds are lush and lovely, the vocals so emotional and distinctive, warm wheezing accordions, traditional hand drums, Latin style horns, the melodies so intoxicating, so distinctly Thai, Gamelan like rhythms, the sound percussive, and propulsive, groovy and funky, the arrangements intricate and complex complex, but still immediate, and intimate and heartfelt and joyous, even when singing about loss and struggle, the sounds seem infused with hope, joyful and exuberant.
Packaged in a gorgeous eye popping full color digipak, with an thick booklet, with photos, reproductions of 78 labels, a history of Thailand, and the music and musicians featured on the compilation. So great!!
Maybe this will make up for all the Satanic Norwegian church-burning music we sell! A compilation of, as the subtitle puts it, "A Selection Of Norwegian Christian Jazz, Psych, Funk & Folk 1970-1980". And it's quite fantastic. Quasi-kitschy Xtian funky and folky fun, with an acid-rock edge, really good stuff indeed, and 'cause the lyrics are all in Norwegian, those of us with an aversion to God-talk can comfortably listen to this without feeling like we're being preached to! Well you can tell when they sing "Hallelujah" and "Jesus" but the accent makes it cool. Apparently, there was quite a burgeoning youth-oriented Christian music scene and attendant recording industry in Norway in the '70s, kickstarted in the late '60s by something called the Ten-Sing or Teenage Singing movement, a kind of Norwegian version of Up With People!, further powered by the whole Jesus Freak thing that came along when hippies everywhere started to find God. So, this music, while Christian, isn't exactly square. It's full of fuzz guitars and fuzzy analog synth, gorgeous female vocals and bombastic brass, and is moving not just in spiritual way, but also movin' in more of a GROOVY kind of way. And is very delightfully very seventies sounding, from jazzy disco fusion to rock opera to delicate singer-songwriter stuff. There's 20 tracks in all on this import cd (13 on the vinyl version), sunshiney testifyin' from the following artists: Joyful Singers, Good News, That's Why, Arnold Borud, Keryx, The Crossing, Angelos, Sky Sing, The Heralds, Jan Simonsens, Kari Hansa & Gregers Hes, Grete Salomensen, Soli Deo, Reflex, and Presens. The digipak cd comes with a 36 page booklet, and the lp too has a printed insert, featuring extensive liner notes and vintage photos.
Hip '70s Norwegian groovy gospel music, who knew? Hallelujah! Highly recommended.
Another classical tradition on the verge of extinction, thankfully immortalized to some degree on this disc from Smithsonian Folkways. The repertoire of the Burmese harp long considered the zenith of Burmese cultural expression has, like most art forms in this world which require vast study and patience, been on the losing side of a battle with popular music for many years now. It's maybe somewhat ironic that the current repressive government of Burma (since renamed Myanmar) is responsible for the attempted resurgence in the instrument's place in society. The efforts have apparently been too little, too late as the master harpist featured on this recording, Inle Myint Maung, passed away shortly after these recordings were made. Whether he was able to impart enough of his knowledge onto his students and whether they take it to heart to continue the tradition remains to be seen. On these recordings Inle Myint Maung is accompanied by vocalist Daw Yi Yi Thant. The pair mix and mingle their melodic lines in a melodic counterpoint with the vocalist's sustained notes punctuated by percussive embellishments from the harp. As you've come to expect from all Smithsonian Folkways releases, this comes with extensive and well written liner notes.
MPEG Download: INLE MYINT MAUNG & YI YI THANT "The Glory of the King" [/audio/mahagitagloryofking.mp3]
Originally recorded and released on LP in 1970, "Ancient Strings" was the first recording devoted solely to the art of playing the Kora. Though it has been around for centuries in various shapes and under different names, the Kora -- a bridged lute with a large
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!!
After a label collaboration (String of Pearls) and a (sort-of) label fake out (A Orillas Del Magdalena), we now have a genuine Mississippi Records compilation of International selections that feels like the Mississippi Records of old (dig the hand-assembled covers and Chris Johanson drawing adorning the front!). And while we say this about every Mississippi release, we really mean it when we say this one is killer! What we like about it most is its lack of explanatory text, so the only clue to the provenance of the song is through the song title and the name of the singers or groups, and even some of them are unknown. This also makes locating the where's and whens of the song a bit tricky, but it forces us to listen to the songs as they are, and how they relate to and flow into one another. In the spirit of the record, we did no online research to find out where each song came from, so we can't tell you if the song "Danza Mora" by Canajas is Spanish Flamenco or Romanian Gypsy music or if the group called "The Tiger" is Caribbean, Cuban, or African or none of these at all. The Dezurik Sisters' "Arizona Yodeller" seems straightforward enough, until you listen to it and find out it has more in common aurally with the Pygmy sounding Hiran 'Ny Tanoran 'Ny than Ernest Rodgers 1920's (again, guessing) cabaret tale "Willie The [drug-addicted] Chimney Sweeper". Even the blues song, "Honey In The Rock" by Blind Mamie Forehand sounds like it comes from the same plaintive place as the record opener by an unknown female Southeast Asian a capella singer. Add to the mix some tropical island jams, a Mexican chanteuse with an almost punkish delivery and some Cumbia Tipica, and we're immersed in transcendent global sounds without the globe. Mata La Pena roughly translates to "It Kills The Grief", but these lonely sounds also fill the heart. Amazing!
Second in a pair of new releases of early Cuban music on Smithsonian Folkways. They provide their own very good description here: "Recorded in Matanzas in 1957, these ritual rhythms provide a direct link to the music of 19th-century colonial Cuba, and provide
Smokin' collection of Spanish groovers and rockers from the '60s and '70s. The opener from Rudy Ventura could get any disco floor shaking, past or present, while the rest of the record goes more in a catchy pop/rock direction with healthy doses of soul, funk and garage, reminding us a lot of that great Sensacional Soul collection we went crazy for a few years back. Barely any of these artists were familiar to us before except for maybe Los Shakers and Los Rollers, which is fine with us, as it's always exciting to get turned on to all sorts of awesome Spanish sounds we weren't hip to. The price tag might be a bit hefty, but luckily the songs on this collection are well worth the price of admission!
There is no more powerful form of vocalizing than Tuvan throat singing. Tibetan chants, opera, death metal grunts, they all pale in comparison to the gorgeous multi-toned 'whistle singing' that throat singers use to create two distinct tones at once, throat singing is one of the few truly mysterious singing styles, and one that still remains difficult to understand, with no real scientific explanation as to how it is actually done, merely educated guesses. The style has been popularized worldwide by the group Huun-Huur-Tu, who have been performing and recording for almost 20 years, in fact recently they performed here in SF. And speaking to the above mentioned power and mystery, we happen to know that in attendance were several local extreme metal musicians, who for years had been trying to learn to throat sing! We've even mentioned in a review or two how amazing a metal band with a throat singing vocalist would be. Maybe some day...
These recordings from 1969, originally only released in the Soviet Union, are only now being released worldwide for the first time. And like most of the Tuvan music we've heard, it's totally mesmerizing, utterly unique, and so beautiful. There are several distinct styles, but most involve the vocalist producing two tones at once, a low raspy buzz, and a high pitched whistle, the buzz acting as a background for the whistle like melodies. The sound is so completely unique, unlike anything you've ever heard, unless you've heard Tuvan throat singing before. Typically, the singes voices tend to sound a bit like Popeye, a raspy croak, that slips seamlessly into that haunting multi-toned whistle/buzz. Sometimes the sound is warm and shimmery, the two notes, the tones perfectly meshed, other times, the vocals are a long drawn out froglike croak, the whistle not in counterpoint as much as the two tone s being produced simultaneously, often as a harmony to an instrumental melody. And the instruments are quite unique too, lots of buzzing strings, Tuvan instruments, of one, two, three or more strings, much like a fiddle, or cello, various woodwinds and of course the Jew's Harp, which is the perfect accompaniment to throat singing.
The instrumental passages here convey the same sort of spirit even sans vocals, moody and melancholic, longing and wistful, the strings buzz and shimmer, long drawn out tones making up slowly unfolding melodies.
The final two tracks are perhaps the most unique. One features solo Jew's Harp, but with the player incorporating a throat singing style, turning the harp's unique sound into an even more unique, twisted melodic vocalized buzz. And the final track, is one of the few examples we've heard of female singing from the region, and while the woman here does not throat sing per se, her voice is lovely, and the melody haunting, the plucked strings perfectly intertwined with the emotive vocalizing. So lovely.
In fact this whole record is fantastic. Anyone who already loves the music of Tuva will want to add this to their collection, and anyone who is hearing this stuff for the first time, will, like most of us, probably become obsessed and need to track down everything they can. It's that powerful.
Includes a massive booklet with new liner notes, photos and an essay on throat singing.
