[ aquarius records — International ]

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Showing results 1451 through 1500 of 1785.

Another round of great sounds out of Panama from the 60's & 70's from the always reliable Sound Way label. Great stuff!

Now available on vinyl! All June long we've been having a "graycation" here in foggy San Francisco, but yesterday the clouds lifted and it finally feels like summer!! Just in time for weekend barbecues comes this sizzling hottie of a compilation of Cumbia, Salsa and Calypso Funk from the Southern most country of North America, Panama! This is the second volume of sixties and seventies jams from this tiny nation that sees plenty of cross-pollination from many musical forms to the North, South and East. Northern Soul and Salsa influences, Afro-Caribbean calypso, Cubano percussion, Columbian Cumbia and Panama's own Musica Tipica, a black and mestizo rural country form notable for its wide array of rustic percussion as well as its use of multiple violins and accordian-led arrangements. The beauty of these compilations is their flow; traditonal cumbia is followed by sweaty salsa into Latin funk and back like it was tailor made for dance party listening. There's some amazing psychedelic soul funk numbers in here too from The Duncan Brother's "Dreams", The Soul Fantastic's awesome version of Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine", and Lord Cobra's "Love Letters". Summer starts right here!!!

MPEG stream: Decidete Mi Amor
MPEG stream: Dreams
MPEG stream: Ain't No Sunshine
MPEG stream: La Escoba

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Stop Je Peux T'Aimer
MPEG stream: Je Pense A Toi
MPEG stream: Je Ne Peux Pas T'en Vouloir

Quite simply, this is a collection of bands from around the globe circa 1969, who have done their best to emulate "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with very pleasing results. Quirky psychedelic pop from We All Together (Peru), Prudy (Czechoslovakia), Quentin E. Klopjaeger (South Africa), The Twilights (Australia), and more. From the same label who produced the "Peace, Love, and Poetry" compilations!

From Mindanao in the South Philippines comes this great collection of recordings of instrumental lute recordings. Two women, Fingguy Flang and Luming Tuan, nationally recognized for their talents on the hegelung perform six tracks each. The hegelung is a long and slender two string lute. The performer using one string to produce a drone while working out a melody on the other. Alternately simple and virtuosic, the melodies of the hegelung are peppered with ornamental hammer-ons and pull-offs like the best heavy metal lead guitarists or 5-string banjo players out there. Awesome.

MPEG stream: Nadal
MPEG stream: Hekowing Tuko Dol

Those folks at Finders Keepers / B-Music never stop wowing us with the killer stuff they dig up. This list, we've made their reissue of the Aussie psychedelic biker flick soundtrack Stone one of our Records Of The Week, and we're constantly having to order more copies of recent discs like The BYG Deal (documenting rarities released by the radical French underground label BYG) and The Sound Of Wonder (an indeed wondrous collection of music from Pakistan's "Lollywood" cinema). Now, here's Pomegranates, an amazing compilation of "Persian pop, funk, and psych of the 60s and 70s" compiled by a pair of Iranian-American music lovers delving into the pop culture past of their parents' generation, prior to the fall of the Shah, an era of rapid Westernization, economic stratification, and eventual sociopolitical upheaval. Looking back with bittersweet nostalgia, enthusiasm, and curiosity, they've put together a dazzling array of music that's usually quite groovy, also often melancholic, and sometimes subversive. Several tracks are considered classics, some are total obscurities (same to us!), all are irresistible. It's a colorful hybrid of East and West, of Persian musical traditions (already a melting pot of international influences) and electric youth energy. You'll hear strains of Western psych-pop, James Brown funk, Indian raga, Gypsy flamenco, Turkish folk, another other 'exotic' Middle Eastern motifs... So many great tracks on here, the compilers almost making it impossible to select faves 'cause it's all so good, but if we had to pick just one highlight maybe it would be popular singer Googoosh's "Talagh", which sets her sweet voice soaring over one of the most insidiously slinky grooves EVER, pulsating with sinister fuzz-funk energy under flourishes of cinematic strings. She's got a couple more tracks on here, as befits her status as one of Iran's top pop stars of the day, a true sensation. If you like Turkey's Selda, you'll like what you'll hear here from Googoosh and this disc's other female vocalists. We also should note the zinging sitar funk of Abbass Mehrpouya's "Soul Raga", definitely another standout (it also appears on the full-length Mehrpouya reissue we raved about recently). But we haven't scratched the surface, the tracks by the other artists here, including Parva, Zia, Soli, Sima Bina, Ramesh, Noosh Afarin, Kourosh Yaghmaie, and others, are all awesome too, varying from groovy dancefloor workouts to aching love songs, sometimes both in one. Lots to enjoy, dive in!! Oh, and of course like all Finders Keepers releases, this is nicely appointed, in a slipcover, with a thick, illustrated cd booklet featuring extensive, informative liner notes from co-compiler Mahssa Taghinia. FYI we'll be getting a few copies of the import vinyl edition soon, they're not here yet though...

MPEG stream: Talagh
MPEG stream: Kofraim
MPEG stream: Sharm-e Boos-e
MPEG stream: Gol-e Aftab Gardoon

Ohh La La! This is pretty undeniably AMAZING! A snapshot of 60's French-pop perfection. We dare you to put this on and not start feeling a little more stylish, a little more classy, a little more sassy, and a whole lot more happy! This is hands down one of the best collections of dance-party inducing French pop to grace our ears in ages. While we loved the Swinging Mademoiselles comp covering the same era, this collection almost makes that record pale in comparison. Pop A Paris is pretty much a who's who of French pop during this golden-era. Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Brigitte Bardot, Michel Polnareff, Delphine, Marie Laforet, etc etc! But what makes this comp so incredible are the songs! Not one snoozer in the bunch, every single one bursting with color, spunk and f-u-n-! Cover versions of "These Boots Are Made For Walking", "My Generation", "Paint it Black", and "Happy Together" all somehow manage to make us only want to hear these versions from now on and NEVER the originals. And the non-covers are just as spot-on-perfect. This has been out for a few years now and had been a kind of secret weapon in DJ sets by Irwin. Can't count the times that putting one of these songs on during a show has resulted in a dancefloor packed with wide smiles and shaking booties. So totally recommended!

MPEG stream: Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher
MPEG stream: Dady Da Da
MPEG stream: Les Petits Boudins

Subtitled Les Plus Grands Groupes De Rock Des Annees 70 En France, here's a 23 track collection of, indeed, swinging '70s French rock n' pop... we imported 'em directly from France just about as soon as we found out about this and scoped the track list. It's on the same label that brought us those Sixties Girls comps, as well as the now out of print Les Variations and Triangle anthologies, amongst other goodies. Styles here vary, and not every track is a killer, but that's how comps go. We certainly found enough tres bon poppy psych, prog rock bombast, AM radio sunshine, melancholic balladry, glam production and fat beats and flutes and grooves and blues and more to enjoy, for sure! Some of it's seriously cookin', some of it's on the softer side, and either way for the most part we're falling for the combination of Gallic charm and '70 kitsch on display here. There's some groups here we'd heard of and many more we hadn't. Here's the line-up: Triangle, Time Machine, Les Variations, Dynastie Crisis, Jupiter Sunset, Ange, Alan Jack Civilization, Zoo, Costa-Yared-Costa, Trust, Tai Phong, Presence, Doc Dail, Martin Circus, Alice, Ilous & Decuyper, Labyrinthe, Trianglophone, Starshooter, Pop Tops, Total Issue, and two "bonus instrumentaux" from Le System Crapoutchik and Pachyderm. Too bad there's not much info given in the cd booklet about all these.

MPEG stream: Turn Back Time
MPEG stream: City Break Down
MPEG stream: Le Roseau
MPEG stream: Les Marins

Intriguing collection of diverse folks doing versions of classics like "Si Tu Dois Partir": Apples in Stereo, Ivy, John Wesley Harding, Lloyd Cole, Heavenly, Magnetic Fields, Sukia, Air featuring Francoise Hardy, and The Ladybug Transistor featuring Kevin Ayers!

By now, we're used to the idea of rock n' roll in its sixties heyday as a GLOBAL phenomenon, kids everywhere, East and West, North and South, rockin' to that crazy beat. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of quite a few internationally-digging DJs and collectors, the past few years have been especially fruitful ones for reissues of far-flung rock artifacts on labels like Sublime Frequencies, Now-Again, and Soundway. We've heard groovy groups from Turkey, Cambodia, Ghana, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and seemingly every place else. Certainly there's been a few releases that have delved into the scene in Malaysia and Singapore, but this fabulous new collection on Sublime Frequencies is THEE one to get if you want to learn about the great electric beat music being made by and for teenagers in that part of the world, circa 1964-1970. Despite the conservative nature of Malaysian society, the rock n' roll revolution took root among its youth too. This Pop Yeh Yeh comp proves it! (The term "Pop Yeh Yeh", by the way, referring to rock music sung in Malay, was apparently derived from the "yeah yeah yeah" chorus of The Beatles' song "She Loves You", though it may have been another British band, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, that was the bigger influence on the nascent Malay rock scene.) While the kids there didn't get as wild in the streets as they may have elsewhere, with drugs and sex and all of that, they were still happy to let their hair down (if only just a bit) to make some sweet rock n' roll records. There's 26 such tracks are collected here, full of catchy melodies, fuzzy guitars, warbling organs... There's energetic dance numbers, and lovely ballads both. Some have the twang of surf music, others the sultry singers and lush arrangements of Hindi movie soundtracks, which were another big influence on Pop Yeh Yeh, besides Western pop rock and traditional Malay folk music forms. This compilation is an obvious labor of love, years in the making, and can't be faulted for any lack of thoroughness. The physical product and depth of research set the bar pretty high for future collections of this type! It's a big package all right, colorful and informative. The tri-fold digipack contains not one but TWO thick booklets, they're both needed to contain all the extensive liner notes (book 1, a general essay on the history of rock n' roll in Malaysia and Singapore, plus lyrics to the songs on the cd; book 2, detailed write-ups on each and every track on the disc) plus tons of vintage photos of the sharp-dressed young men and women who made this delightful music, which despite all the interestin' reading, is still the main draw here after all! Another winner from Sublime Frequencies, guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

MPEG stream: Syurga Idaman
MPEG stream: Revolusi
MPEG stream: Rindu
MPEG stream: Sidia Siapa

One of two Sublime Frequencies vinyl reissues for Record Store Day (the other being by Omar Souleyman). This fave is out of print on cd, and also already out of print in the this new vinyl version, too. We didn't even think we'd be able to list it, but one our our suppliers got their copies late so we snagged a few post-RSD. But this is probably it. Here's what we said about this great comp before... By now, we're used to the idea of rock n' roll in its sixties heyday as a GLOBAL phenomenon, kids everywhere, East and West, North and South, rockin' to that crazy beat. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of quite a few internationally-digging DJs and collectors, the past few years have been especially fruitful ones for reissues of far-flung rock artifacts on labels like Sublime Frequencies, Now-Again, and Soundway. We've heard groovy groups from Turkey, Cambodia, Ghana, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and seemingly every place else. Certainly there's been a few releases that have delved into the scene in Malaysia and Singapore, but this fabulous new collection on Sublime Frequencies is THEE one to get if you want to learn about the great electric beat music being made by and for teenagers in that part of the world, circa 1964-1970. Despite the conservative nature of Malaysian society, the rock n' roll revolution took root among its youth too. This Pop Yeh Yeh comp proves it! (The term "Pop Yeh Yeh", by the way, referring to rock music sung in Malay, was apparently derived from the "yeah yeah yeah" chorus of The Beatles' song "She Loves You", though it may have been another British band, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, that was the bigger influence on the nascent Malay rock scene.) While the kids there didn't get as wild in the streets as they may have elsewhere, with drugs and sex and all of that, they were still happy to let their hair down (if only just a bit) to make some sweet rock n' roll records. 26 such tracks are collected here, full of catchy melodies, fuzzy guitars, warbling organs... There's energetic dance numbers, and lovely ballads both. Some have the twang of surf music, others the sultry singers and lush arrangements of Hindi movie soundtracks, which were another big influence on Pop Yeh Yeh, besides Western pop rock and traditional Malay folk music forms. This compilation is an obvious labor of love, years in the making, and can't be faulted for any lack of thoroughness. The physical product and depth of research set the bar pretty high for future collections of this type! It's a big package all right, colorful and informative, with extensive liner notes (first, a general essay on the history of rock n' roll in Malaysia and Singapore, plus lyrics to the songs on the cd; second, detailed write-ups on each and every track) plus tons of vintage photos of the sharp-dressed young men and women who made this delightful music, which despite all the interestin' reading, is still the main draw here after all! Another winner from Sublime Frequencies, guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

MPEG stream: Syurga Idaman
MPEG stream: Revolusi
MPEG stream: Rindu
MPEG stream: Sidia Siapa

A couple years ago we got a hold of an irresistible compilation of '60s French-pop perfection called Pop A Paris. One of the best and most fun filled collections of the golden era of suave and sassy French pop delights. Well it's time to put on your finest and most colorful outfits, stir up a tasty cocktail and gather up your favorite friends cause volume two of Pop A Paris is here (although it too came out a few years back) and it's just as fun and infectious as the first collection was. All the names you want from a topnotch French pop collection are here: Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot, Michel Polnareff, France Gall, Eddy Mitchell, etc. Like the first outing there is not one dud in the bunch! Every single song has been making us strut our stuff and it's one of those records that's so fun to put on when the store is crowded and watch all the different kinds of AQ customers tapping their feet, shaking their hips and bobbing their heads. It's pretty damn impossible not to, when the songs are as charged, catchy and perfectly executed as these are!

MPEG stream: Les Filles C'est Fait
MPEG stream: L'anamour
MPEG stream: Psych Rock

Ich habe ein Problem. Ich spreche nur sehr wenig Deutsch! Or more accurately, I can't speak a lick of it and Winni (AQ pal and native speaker of German) ain't around to help me out with this. Funny how when I need the guy to help me with 80+ pages of German liner notes to translate, the guy is like totally scarce. Actually, between these two collections and three separate booklets there does exist three pages of English translation (each one on the back of each booklet.) The 72 tracks on these two sets collect recordings from the Jewish communities that existed in Vienna (Wien), Berlin, Hamburg and Munich prior to the holocaust. The tracks date back as early as 1903 on up to 1936. The music on the disc is a mix of either piano or orchestra accompanied songs (some male, some female, some choral) with a handful of spoken tracks thrown in for good measure.

RealAudio clip: La Bella Tangolita
RealAudio clip: Tamelan

RealAudio clip: Frauen Sind Zum Kussen Da
RealAudio clip: Umgebrungen

The Sublime Frequencies vinyl reissue campaign continues. A few weeks ago, the long out of print Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol. 1 cd was repressed on lp, and now another old fave, Princess Nicotine: Folk & Pop Music Of Myanmar gets the same treatment, pressed on vinyl, in a super deluxe full color gatefold sleeve. And while the cd remains out of print, this amazing sonic document is available again, at least for a limited time... If you have seen the Sublime Frequencies Nat Pwe dvd, then you at least have a rough idea of what you're getting yourself into here. But even if you're not all that familiar with Burmese music, you'll find this compilation truly weird and wonderful. Unlike the handful of Burmese releases on other world music labels, this is something else entirely, a completely raw and unfettered, whole grain Burmese sonic assault. In other words: it's absolutely manic! At its most insane, it's akin to taking your standard, off-the-wall Bollywood arrangement and running it through a prog rock or free jazz filter. Nasal double reed instruments parallel vocal lines, clashing cymbals emphasize every beat, while the pat wain (a set of rice paste tuned drums which encircle the performer) smacks out its own melody like a set of out of tune roto-toms. On the mellower side of things there's strange hallucinogenic Appalachia featuring sudden bursts of piano, interjecting banjo, violin, flute, horn and most oddly: sultry female vocals offset by distorted male vocals. There's also hazy semi-Hawaiian psychedelia, with piano and keyboards pounding out the occasional random chord progression. So intense, and unique and utterly amazing. If you have to chose just one record to blow your mind, this could very well be THE ONE!

MPEG stream: Beautiful Town
MPEG stream: The Tune of the Second Entertainment
MPEG stream: My Darling's Love Arrow

If you have the Sublime Frequencies Nat Pwe DVD reviewed a few months back, then you at least have a rough idea of what you're getting yourself into here. But even if you're familiar with Burmese music, you'll find this compilation truly weird and wonderful. Unlike the handful of Burmese releases on Shanachie, this is a completely raw and unfettered, whole grain Burmese sonic assault. In other words: it's absolutely manic! At its most insane, it's akin to taking your standard off the wall Bollywood arrangement and running it through a prog rock or free jazz filter. Nasal double reed instruments parallel vocal lines, clashing cymbals emphasize every beat, while the pat wain (a set of rice paste tuned drums which encircle the performer) smacks out its own melody like a set of out of tune roto-toms. On the mellower side of things there's strange hallucinogenic Appalachia featuring sudden bursts of piano, interjecting banjo, violin, flute, horn and most oddly: sultry female vocals offset by distorted male vocals. There's also hazy semi-Hawaiian psychedelia, with piano and keyboards pounding out the occasional random chord progression. If you have to chose just one record to blow your mind this year, definitely make it this one!

MPEG stream: Beautiful Town
MPEG stream: The Tune of the Second Entertainment
MPEG stream: My Darling's Love Arrow

The second of two new releases in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding catalogue of 'world music'. The first, reviewed elsewhere on this list, is the wild Latin American psych rock vinyl sampler Latinamericarpet, one of the weirdest and wildest in the series so far. But this one is pretty weird and wild as well, but in a completely different way, though it's also Latin American. Remember those Rio Baile Funk comps we reviewed a while back, killer mashups of Miami Bass, new wave, techno, top 40, all wrapped up into super dense and wild sexy dancefloor freakouts? Well this is similar in that this too is the music of the favelas, and features some of the same elements, but unlike the jubilant party vibe of the Rio Baile Funk stuff, this is much more stripped down, much more intense, and aggressive, and is closely linked to criminals, drugs, gangs, murder and mayhem. Proibidao is the name given to an electronic funk which grew in popularity alongside the blossoming drug gangs in the nineties. The music is basically a stripped down Miami bass style rhythm, mesmerizing and tribal, there are not really any parts, just the drums looped over and over, while MC's and vocalists improvise over the top, toasting, howling, crooning, shouting, singing. Gang leaders set up big parties, hire DJ's and MC's do their thing, the tracks are often recorded and distributed as cd-r's or MP3's... On first listen, we actually weren't all that into this, it just sounds like super simple stripped down electronic music with way too intense vocals over the top, but the closer you listen, the more you can hear traditional Brazilian musics incorporated into the jams, the sound becomes more and more musical, more powerful, on some tracks you can hear massive crowds responding with call and response vocals, there are lots of sirens, machine gun sounds, the rhythms are WAY down in the mix, offering up the simplest of frameworks for the sweatsoaked distorted vocals. And it IS all about the vocals, strident and urgent, intense and passionate, so much so that a lot of the time it ends up sounding almost like a Rio Baile Funk Fugazi! Repetitive, hypnotic, stripped down and funky, but at the same time, dark and dangerous, mysterious and really intense and aggressive. Not necessarily recommended for your next dance party (unless there's something we don't know about your dance parties), but recommended nonetheless.

Looking at the cover of this comp, what catches our eye? Well, of course the words PSYCH and FUNK in big electric pink letters. Pretty much had us right there, we're easy like that. But then the fine print on the sticker on the front adds an extra tingle of excitement: "None of these tracks have ever been reissued"! So what we have here is a survey course on some obscure shit, an international collection of freaky, fuzzy, funky jams from the golden years, circa 1968-1975 or so, mostly from groups we'd never heard of before. The ones did know were a good sign, being super groovy and decidedly eccentric. (Though we do have to point out that at least a few of the cuts here actually have been reissued before, that's how we knew 'em!). Here's the lineup: Hunsu Ozkartal Orkestrasi (Turkey), Kukumbas (Nigeria), Mulatu Astatke feat. Belaynesh Wubante and Assegedetch Asfaw (Ethiopia), Kim Sun (South Korea), Petalouda (Greece), Mehr Pooya (Iran), Staff Carpenborg and The Electric Corona (West Germany), The Group (Italy), Armando Sciascia (Italy), Wadih Essafi (Lebanon), Omar Khorshid (Egypt), Metin H. Alatli (Turkey), George Garanian with The Melodiya Jazz Ensemble (Russia), and Eskaton (France). 14 tracks in all, all of 'em b to the a to the d to the ass. Get ready for plenty of percolating percussion, infectious bass lines, analog synth buzz, chicken scratch guitar, greasy organ, drugged out FX, and in many cases Middle Eastern or African or other 'exotic' ethnic elements as appropriate to their nation of origin. Highlights are almost impossible to pick. All the African stuff is killer (Ethiopiques fans take note), so are the Turkish tracks (you want weird? check out how the Metin H. Alatli cut somehow segues from Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith music to stoned cocktail bellydance improv!!), so is everything else. We dig how eerieness and jazziness are combined on "The Feed-back" by The Group (aka Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, featuring Ennio Morricone), and also Armando Sciascia's suspenseful "Circuito Chiuso" is pretty eerie too. Both are from Italy, where it seems that it's hard NOT to sound like you're scoring a phantasmagoric horror flick a la Goblin. Also, we love love love the grandiose extended electro-funk from Magmoid progsters Eskaton that closes out the disc. But why keep writing about this, you know you need it - unless your record collection already includes all these rarities, and there's no way it does. Lovingly compiled with the help of DJs like Cut Chemist and Stone's Throw's Egon, Psych Funk 101 is truly a lesson in, well, a variety of awesome vintage funkiness, in the tradition of other cool comps like Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Obsession, Trap Door, and the Afro-centric Love's A Real Thing. Housed in a handsome digipack, it boasts a thick, 36 page booklet featuring a two-page spread on each track, with full color repro of the original LP or 45 sleeve from whence the cut originated, along with a page of text giving more info than you'd expect. FYI this also came out on vinyl, but was gone so fast, we don't have any to list. However, we are told it is being repressed, soon we hope...

MPEG stream: What You Can Do In Your Life
MPEG stream: Rakset El Fadaa
MPEG stream: Dagon

Psych. Funk. India. The '70s. Yes it's gonna be awesome. Sitars and Bollywood stars, badass grooves and acid rock guitars. This excellent new collection comes from the same folks (deeeeeeep diggers they are) who brought us that incredible international Psych Funk 101 comp a while back. They are EXPERTS. It's not entirely a joke that they present these comps in the guise of academic coursework, their research is extensive and if you pay attention you're gonna learn somethin'. According to the liner notes, Psych Funk 101 is considered a pre-requisite to this new "seminar", which is subtitled "Aesthetic Expressions Of Psychedelic Funk Music In India". Fortunately they don't carry the academic gag too far, and keep grad school jargon to an amusing minimum. (By the way, if you don't have Psych Funk 101, well, we figure you can still audit this course... though we DO recommend picking that one up too). So, what's this Sa-Re-Ga! all about? 20 tracks, all killer no filler, circa 1970-1983, that showcase several "key figures / movements in Indian Psych Funk", from the garagey late '60s Sgt. Peppery stuff you'd expect from a former British colony (and from anywhere else in the world the Beatles had made their way), to the work of genius Bollywood composer R.D. Burman (and his eventual wife, the famous singer Asha Bhosle), to the Go-Go stylings of brothers Kalyanji Aalyanji Anandji, to hard rock bassist Keith Kanga's "wild beat group" Atomic Forest and related acts. Much information is provided about all of those artists and more in what must be the BIGGEST damn cd booklet we've ever seen. 52 pages!! The digipack sleeve can barely contain it. Packed with tons of dazzling full color graphics and learned text. Totally gettin' your money's worth with this one. (It's packaged like the Forge Your Own Chains comp, equally fat and deluxe.) But even without the frills, just the music alone would make this a must. You can't listen to this without getting a gleeful smile on your face, from the get-go it's great and then somehow each song manages to top the one before it, with insistent propulsive percussion, bombastic orchestration, impassioned vocals, musique concrete techniques, and indeed some heavy, Hindi, FUNK. We're having trouble picking individual tracks to single out, only because they're ALL so good. But we gotta mention just a few of the super standouts, one of 'em being a live version of the classic "Dum Maro Dum" performed Bhosle and Burman and band at the Royal Albert Hall in 1978. That's a song you've heard before, most likely (the Kronos Quartet even recorded it, on their 2005 album with Bhosle), and it helps to realize that not only does a lot of the music on this disc seem like it oughtta be the most popular stuff in the world, in many cases, it really was quite popular, and not just in India. This rendition of "Dum Maro Dum", which means "Take Another Toke" by the way, was their concert's deliriously ecstatic, well-received finale. Then there's "Freak Out Music", another R.D. Burman number, that couldn't have been a hit, but is certainly Freaked Out. (And it's not even the one here by him that combines the sounds of strings with that of smashing glass.) We also were excited to hear more from Atomic Forest, a band that provided the title track to the great international fuzz compilation Obsession a few years back (now out of print). They do a cover of a Deep Purple tune, "Mary Long", and of course laden it with extra fuzz. Another one for classic rock fans would be Bappi Lahari's "Everybody Dance With Me", which sounds suspiciously like Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" given an exotic Indian disco makeover, with bongos and wild wails... And, conversely, as an early example of Indian groove filtering into the West, the compilers have included a track by krautrocker/fusioneer Klaus Doldinger, "Sitar Beat", which is indeed just that, and must have been a highlight of the 1969 spy movie soundtrack on which it originally appeared. Which is interesting, 'cause the entry by Indian garage band X'Lents, "Psychedelia", originally from the Simla Beat 70 compilation, sounds like it would be perfect for a James Bond style spy movie too. So, in sum, quite a lesson, and definitely a fun one. We'd go so far as to say this should be a required course/comp. We've been lucky lately with the quality of comps and other archival releases coming out, documenting vintage music from (for us) far off lands. We recently made the Soundway's The Sounds Of Siam a Record Of The Week, now this Sa-Re-Ga! is making us so happy... and we've got our eye on an upcoming Now-Again comp devoted to '70s Indonesian rock and funk, called Those Shocking Shaking Days, we've got high hopes for that one, it promises to be rad too. The vaguely connected network of collectors and DJs who are responsible for these comps, true labors of love, deserve all our thanks!! As we said, the compact disc version boasts a massively thick booklet, and the swank double vinyl comes with a large 20 page one too.

MPEG stream: Psychedelia
MPEG stream: Somebody To Love (edit)
MPEG stream: Dance Music From Hare Rama Hare Krishna
MPEG stream: Everybody Dance With Me
MPEG stream: Meri Aakon Mein Ek Sapna Hai (edit)

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Since the beginning of the Century, there has been a growing community of Puerto Ricans in Hawaii. These recordings made in 1990, reflect their unique niche. At times, the music is archaic in comparison to mainland Puerto Rican music, yet is spiced with influences from both Hawaiian and Japanese neighbors.

The Sanity Muffin cassette label just keeps bringing out the gems. This one is a fantastic mix of obscure psych guitar gems from Asia from the '60s and '70s. From cinematic Spaghetti Western-ish sojourns to go-go pop, electric guitar weirdness, pastoral exoticism and funky eastern soul. Like the Teenage Dance Music from China, Indonesian guitar, Shadow Music of Thailand and Cambodian Rock comps, this is an incredible mix of little heard guitar driven music coming out of various Asian countries. Here are the groups included: The Red Stars, Cousen Brothers, M. Shariff and The Zurah, Salim I., The Caterpillars, Adnan Othman & The Wanderers, The Tones, The Steps, Jong-Yee Sho, The Hawks, M. Johari & Quandos, TLA Production Group, Mei Fong W/ Tony & The Polar Bear Five, Charlie and The White Cloud Orchestra, Group 123, and Apollo Band. Super limited to 100 copies! Get it while you can!

FINNISH PUNK! PRE-ORDER! FINNISH PUNK! PRE-ORDER! Holy shit does this look amazing. 4 cd's, 132 songs, 78 bands, 5 hours of classic FINNISH PUNK! Comes with a massive 76 page booklet (probably in Finnish though, but bet there are lots of pictures!). We don't have this in stock, nor have we even seen one, but we freaked out when we found out about this and thought you might too. We hardly know any of the bands, Terveet Kadet, Radiopuhelimet, a few others, but considering how much we dig those bands, and Finnish music in general, this seemed pretty amazing. They are a bit pricey, so we're only gonna get as many as we get orders for, so think long and hard, if you want one, add it to your cart, and we'll have one for you in the next few weeks, hopefully. Needless to say, this is a pre-order, so whatever else you order will NOT be held for these, we can ship your Finnish punk box on its own when it arrives, or with your next order. And if you weren't already convinced, have a gander at all the cool-sounding acts/songs on the track list: CD 1: 1. Briard: I Really Hate Ya 2. Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S.: Olen tyoton 3. Eppu Normaali: Poliisi pamputtaa taas 4. Problems?: Ei taa lama p��h�n k�y 5. Pelle Miljoona: Lahdetaan kiitamaan 6. Se: Ei asfaltti liiku� 7. Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S.: Vakivalta ja paihdeongelma 8. Eppu Normaali: Nipa� 9. Maukka & Nahkatakit: Tahdon sotaa apatiaa vastaan 10. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Pelkistettya todellisuutta 11. Problems?: Tapan aikaa 12. Ratsia: Lontoon skidit 13. Maukka ja Nahkatakit: Sapinaa� 14. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Mulla menee lujaa� 15. Eppu Normaali: Mekin tehtiin rakkautta 16. Ratsia: Ole hyva nyt� 17. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Nuoret sankarit � 18. Ratsia: Tama hetki ja tulevaisuus 19. Hassisen Kone: Muoviruusuja omenapuissa 20. Problems?: Katupoikien laulu� 21. Hassisen Kone: Hassisen Kone� 22. Pelle Miljoona Oy: Viesti� 23. Problems?: Maanantaina 24. Ratsia: Taalta tulee yo � 25. Hassisen Kone: Rappiolla � 26. Pelle Miljoona Oy: Moottoritie on kuuma� CD 2: 1. Kollaa Kestaa: Musti sotakoira� 2. Sehr Schnell: Orja� � 3. Ypo-5: Energia on A ja O � 4. Briard: Fuck The Army 5. Sehr Schnell: 18 v.v.k 6. Karanteeni: Kaljupainen gangsteri 7. Sensuuri: Kirjoitan seinaan 8. Sehr Schnell: Vaihda vapaalle � �� 9. Kollaa Kestaa: Kirjoituksia kellarista 10. Loose Prick: Mua potkitaan paahan 11. Sehr Schnell: Neuroottiset pohkeet � 12. Ypo-5: Mari pogoaa � 13. Widows: Famous Five � 14. Briard: Miss World � 15. Karanteeni: Sid Vicious � 16. Vaavi: Mihin jai punk? � 17. Vandaalit: Ala pilaa nuoruuttasi 18. Ypo-5: Kaupunki muistaa nuoria 19. Karanteeni: Ei ole meilla mitaan paikkaa � 20. Sensuuri: Kaupunki nukkuu�� 21. Widows: Wall Of Berlin � 22. Loose Prick: Kaupunki elamaa � 23. Kollaa Kestaa: Jaahyvaiset aseille� 24. Vaavi: Tytot hymyilee � 25. Kadotetut: Anna syd�mesi � 26. Vaavi: Rakkauden orjat �� 27. Widows: We�re Comin� 28. Sensuuri: Hengissa lapi Helsingin 29. Vandaalit: Betonikolossit � � 30. Fucking World: Human Rights 31. Kadotetut: Hiljaiset kyyneleet CD 3: 1. Lama: Totuus loytyy kaurapuurosta 2. Rattus: Muotipunk 3. Terveet Kadet: Vapaa Pohjola� 4. Lama: Nimeton 5. Kohu-63: Paavola � � � 6. Terveet Kadet: Mull on liian lyhyt sanky 7. Kaaos: Kytat on natsisikoja � 8. Cadgers: Kaaosta taa maa kaipaa� 9. Appendix: Ei raha oo mun valuuttaa 10. Rattus: Rajoitettu ydinsota � � 11. Bastards: World Burns To Death 12. Terveet Kadet: Tornion kevat � 13. Riistetyt: Poliisivaltio � 14. Lama: Penisten vapautusrintama� 15. Maho Neitsyt: Ne ei myyneet mulle viinaa � 16. Kohu-63: Kaatakaa rauhanjuna � 17. Riistetyt: Ala luota systeemiin 18. Nato: Helsingin yot 19. Antikeho: Suomi -83 � 20. Maho Neitsyt: Mika mun paassa nykii � 21. Dachau: Huomenna haudassa 22. Lama: Ajatuksen loppu � 23. Unicef: Kakimassaa � 24. Kaaos: Mellakka � � 25. Destrucktions: Hinta� 26. Tampere SS: Painajainen olohuoneessa � � 27. Riistetyt: Systeemi tappaa � 28. Fucking Finland: Loputon sota� � 29. Marionetti: Palvele valtioo � 30. Terveet Kadet: Jeesus perkele � 31. Appendix: Huora � � 32. Bastards: Jumalan sotilaat�� 33. HIC Systeemi: Ei ikina � 34. Kansan Uutiset: Koira on parempi kuin poliisi � 35. Aivoproteesi: Porojen maa � 36. Klimax: Suvivirsi � � 37. Varaus: Syyllinen � 38. Riistetyt: Bella Ciao � 39. Vaurio: Musta unelma � 40. Maho Neitsyt: Ei tippa tapa � � 41. Kansan Uutiset: Ankee aamu 42. Mellakka: Kiitollinen kansalainen � � 43. Pyhakoulu: Sa keinut � 44. KTMK: Kalinka� � � 45. Euthanasia: CCCP (Stalishnaja Hojo) 46. Maaseudun Tulevaisuus: Verenkuva � � 47. Radiopuhelimet: Saalimattoman ovela mies� � 48. CMX: Lapsi � � CD 4: 1. Popeda: Erkki ja Leena 2. Se: Tulitikkutytto � � � 3. Vihan Muna: Terasmies � 4. Wrum: Takapihojen rocktahdet 5. Hellhound: Pakoon neonarmeijaa � 6. Raime: Ottaa paahan � 7. Paat: Jet set � � � 8. Tinneri: Mustavalkoinen maailma 9. Sig: Lauantaina � � 10. Se: Punk on typeraa � 11. Maukka ja Nahkatakit: Kun sa tuomitset mut 12. Paat: Rotat � 13. Hymy Taskinen & co: Hei, tytto, hei! � 14. Korroosio: Hei hei hei � � 15. Rattlers: Vaahtopaat� 16. Lola Ego: Kaupungin tytto � 17. Xtaasi: Er�s lauantaiyo � 18. Woude: Vanhat pierut 19. TV:n Orjat: Tavallinen ihminen � � 20. Vau!!: Yo asematunnelin keskitysleiriss� � � 21. Hurskas: Isanmaa huumaa � 22. 000: Silminnakija 23. Teurastamo 5: Elavia ruumiita � 24. 013: En jaksa enaa � 25. 000: Tanaan taalla, huomenna poissa� � � 26. Ne Luumaet: Sam pani kai jotain juomaani 27. Reds: Sydamenmurskaajat �

Yet another incredible comp from the fine folks at Dust-To-Digital, after two recent aQ faves, the Luk Thung collection of obscure Thai 78's, and the Kassidat compilation of rare, raw 45's from Morocco. Well if you dug those, you're gonna want this one too, another collection of rare 45's, this time from Yemen, a handful of singles released in the sixties and seventies, documenting a sound and music that has historically remained immune from Western influence, and thus offers a true glimpse into the lives of the Yemeni people, and gives Westerners perhaps one of their first glimpses of Yemeni music. And as you might imagine, it's pretty magical, lots of oud, a buzzing guitar like instrument, that's rich and resonant, accompanied by fantastically expressive and emotional vocals, laid back and weary on some tracks, effusive and wild on others, some call and response, accompanied occasionally by simple percussion, handclaps, one track forsakes the oud completely and instead lays down an amazing percussive backdrop, all clattery and clangy and metallic, a shimmery pulsing field of hypnotic metal, over which some of the most beautiful vocals soar and swirl. The whole collection is stunning, by turns mysterious, intimate, playful, passionate and completely mesmerizing. As always, the packaging is top notch, tons of photos, and extensive liner notes, on the region, the history, the songs and the musicians.

MPEG stream: Raee Al-Gamel (The Owner of Beauty)
MPEG stream: Bellah Alek Wa Mosafer (Hey You, Passenger!)
MPEG stream: Ya Mun Dakhal Bahr Al-Hawa (Hey, Who Enters the Sea of Passion?)
MPEG stream: Mushtaq (I'm Yearning)

Of all the Sublime Frequencies collections, the various 'Radio' compilations are definitely our favorites. But at the same time they are also maybe the most problematic, It seems somehow disingenuous to travel to another country, turn on the radio, record several hours worth of music and sound, come home, put those recordings on a cd and then sell them. Not just disingenuous but quite possibly dishonest. It also seems a little weird to be thrilled by all the 'crazy' sounds we hear on the radio in these various countries. A guilty pleasure, very much that aspect of cultural tourism. "The music there is SO WILD!! And SO WEIRD!!" And it seems inconceivable that someone from some other country would come to the US, and do the same thing, returning to their countries to release discs packed with shock jocks, and crappy pop music, and morning zoo's and dry NPR discussions and modern rock and Loveline. But you never know. Although part of the reason that something like that would probably NOT happen, is that American culture, from the music to the clothes to the television shows, is already so invasive, there's probably not a corner of the world where people aren't discussing Lost or Paris Hilton or Brad and Angelina's baby or rocking out to the new Red Hot Chili Peppers. But the music and culture of these other countries does not have the same sort of universal reach. So it is actually quite a thrill to hear all of this amazing music, all of these voices, ads and commercials and songs. It's absolutely fantastic. It's just worth thinking about all that other stuff once in a while and realizing that in a sense, even just listening to these discs, we are guests, and we are digging the work and art, the livelihood and passion of hundreds of musicians and vocalists and deejays and artists. And we are digging it. A whole lot. The first few 'Radio' compilations were a little too schizophrenic, only allowing us to hear a few seconds of a song before the dial was spun and we were bombarded by some new burst of musical randomness. It was pretty amazing in a totally overwhelming ADD short attention span sort of way, but they rectified that, realizing it was just as dizzying but way more satisfying if we got to hear whole songs. So here we are. Radio Algeria. A sampling of wonderful sounds from the Mediterranean coast, all the way to the Saharan desert. According to the liner notes, the music represented here includes sacred Islamic traditional music, Berber folk, Andalusian Orchestral music, Tuareg, modern Arabic pop as well as Guesba, classic early Rai, Khabyle and Saharaui, ummm, sorry to say none of us actually know what any of those in the last batch sound like, but needless to say, like the rest of the 'Radio' series, this is a wild, eye opening ride through the airwaves of Algeria. Compiled from recordings made in 2005 of AM, FM and shortwave broadcasts, this is a heady mix of musics new and old, the sound is definitely Middle Eastern, with plenty of tracks sounding almost Bollywood, and a definite French music influence all over the place, the sounds range from modern sounding hip hop double dutch but with the melody played by a snake charmers flute, cheesy eighties schmaltz, groovy twangy buzzing dreamy psych pop, old timey fuzzed out Eastern jazz (like a Middle Eastern Django Reinhardt), killer sixties sounding fuzz rock, that almost sounds like the Butthole Surfers at points, groovy sing songy folk, MTV style romantic ballads, flamenco guitars, and crooned vocals, keening fiddles, tribal drums, some Middle Eastern sounding blues, with sweeping strings and weeping melodies, wild solo female vocals drenched in reverb and soaring, warm operatic male vocals, glossy melancholic pop, shuffling rhythms, strummed acoustic guitars, murky modern pop rock and militaristic big band marches, all interspersed with different variants of local and regional musics. All totally fascinating and completely overwhelming and one of the most amazing sonic travelogues ever! If only the stereos in our cars could pick up Algerian radio, we'd most likely never listen to anything else ever again! SO RECOMMENDED!

MPEG stream: Disco Maghreb
MPEG stream: Exterior Grooves
MPEG stream: Evaporating Borders

Another special release for this year's Record Store Day, that we managed to get enough of to list and review for all the aQ peeps who weren't able to visit the shop in person. By now most regular readers of the aQ list are well aware of just how much we love Andy Votel's B-Music label, the dizzyingly eclectic home of recordings from Jean-Claude Vannier, Selda, Mustafa Ozkent, Sarolta Zalatnay, as well as purveyors of all things Turkish psych, lost disco, weirdo proto metal, lost soundtracks, Pakistani film music, Hungarian psych prog and more more more. We raved about the Pomegranates comp recently, as well as The BYG Deal collection, also, the Sound Of Wonder, Well Hung, if there's one thing these guys do better than anyone, it's make mixtapes, transformed into head spinning, ear tickling compilations, so it should come as no surprise that their Record Store Day sampler is another killer mix. And instead of just being ONLY a handful of tracks you can get on other releases (although some in fact are), it focuses on harder to find B-Music gems, whether from WAY out of print records, or not yet released jams. Beginning with a killer chunk of slice and dice space synth disco from weirdo French mad scientist Jean-Pierre Massiera, the record flits from sound to sound, from country to country, from era to era, but somehow still manages to flow. Persian psych pop slips right into some gritty synth funk, which leads right into some woozy, tripped out Asian psych, finishing off with some awesome Italo fuzzfunk, wild and trippy and druggy and awesome. The flipside begins with some warped easy listening which is transformed into some seriously far out skittery fuzzy outsider funk, followed by some "synth bass stoner funk", then a Curved Air cover, taken from the Absolute Belter comp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, sequing into some exotic soaring string driven dancefloor Bollywood style groove, before finishing off with a bit of Welsh Rare Beat. Awesome stuff. An absolutely killer mix, and maybe the ultimate party platter of the year. LIMITED too, we probably won't be able to get more of these, so best to snag one while they last...

The fourth installment of Sublime Frequencies' Radio series of recordings lands us safely in India. We are led, blind folded through a thousand bazaars and fed a steady diet of Indian film. Indian culture has the most advanced knack for absorbing all other musical art forms and completely subverting them to their own purpose. You've undoubtedly heard a myriad of Bollywood soundtracks by now, so you can consider yourself somewhat prepared for this journey. What you will be overwhelmed by is the sheer immensity of the trip's itinerary. Radio India is like a thousand bollywood cassettes crammed together into one. Yes, like Radios Java, Palestine & Morocco, this one's a channel surfer. Fortunately the Bishops have now mastered the attention spans of the average listener and have thus included somewhat longer snippets -- generally -- softly crossfading to the next selection. And to be fair, you get a lot more than the standard fare that you know from all those Bollywood comps. Along with those -- the most frenetic and maniacal samples to be found -- there's a myriad of other bizarre amalgams of traditional Indian music, traditional Indian music fused with electric organ, veena drones harmonizing with the humming and buzzing of short wave radio anomalies along with soothing voice-overs set to gregorian chants and primitive drum machines. Wow.

MPEG stream: Radio Jaipur
MPEG stream: Trolling the Crossroads of Bliss

We're pretty damn excited by Sun City Girls 33.3 percenter Alan Bishop's new Sublime Frequencies label. "Dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers" Sublime Frequencies is slipping on the shoes apparently discarded by such pioneering labels as Smithsonian Folkways, Nonesuch Explorer, et al. Unlike previous explorers in such unheard music, Sublime Frequencies is not restricted by academic or commercial purposes. The latter probably deserves a bit more explanation; for where much of the post-Explorer purveyors of "world music" shamelessly produce an endless slough of slick garbage that sounds like the crap you can hear on any U.S. top 40 radio station merely sung in another language (Christ, if I had a wooden nickel for every fuckin' starry eyed NPR music review extoling the uniqueness of some generic world music outfit that combines electronic music with traditional folk, yadda, yadda, yadda the world's forests would be clear cut by now) the recordings you'll hear presented by Sublime Frequencies come from the cracks in the pavement of the culture makers. Through field recordings (many made by Bishop himself in his travels), radio and shortwave broadcasts, some of the most amazing music and audio you've never heard has been assembled. Balls to fidelity, none of the artists here would be allowed within 10 miles of a Putamayo A+R executive, this is the punk rock of field recordings! Radio Java is volume 2 in Sublime Frequencies' catalog, and is an absolutely amazing collection of tracks recorded off of stations in Jakarta, Surabaya, Yokyakarta and Bandung in 1989 by Alan Bishop and Manford Cain. Along with some familiar tunes, including a wealth of amazing Jaipongan tracks from West Java (See "West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and Other Popular Music" we listed from the Nonesuch Explorer series). But along with the snippets of Kerongcong (a bizarre amalgam that sounds like lopsided Hawaiian music) and Dangdut (an electrified pop music with ties to Indian film music) there are some insane cuts from radio commercials, enthusiastic DJ's,theater excerpts that are just plain remarkable. The disc is cobbled together in a channel surfing collage that continues to catch you off guard. Just when you've been lulled into teary-eyed submission by some sultry Sundanese singing, you're treated to a noise blast that would make Masami Akita blush. Radio announcers growl with their microphone inputs overloading, and crazy slapback echo that's just uncomprehensible, a cookoo clock rings and is followed by a strange ringing tone that sounds like early FM Synthesis experiments, and all this from one visit. You know there's more good to come soon, and that's a heartening thought in a world that's ever succombing to the blanding effects of U.S. commercial culture. Wonderful!!

MPEG stream: Radio Jakarta #1
MPEG stream: Radio Republik Indonesia
MPEG stream: Radio Solo/Bandung

Recorded by SCG man Alan Bishop during a summer 1983 visit to Morocco. Like Radio Java and palestine discs, the material for this 20 year old collection of recordings is taken straight off the radio. But unlike the Radio Palestine recording Morocco is much less attention deficit disorder ridden. Rather than clipping along in ten second and less sound bites, songs are actually allowed to develop and even finish on many a track. Tucked in alongside news reports, commercials and short snippets of Moroccan Serge Gainsbourg impersonations there are some really amazing Moroccan originals. "Radio Fes" features a live recording of a Moroccan orchestra supercharged with organ and electric guitar -- listen for the howls of joy from the back of the hall during the quiet sections. Other tracks feature traditional musicians cranking their sound out via low wattage transmitters and lo-fi equipment to produce a squashed ethno garage sound. There's a huge variety of stuff here and it all mixes well together without sounding too chaotically eclectic. As a bonus for those die hard SCG fans, there's a couple of classics that you may recognize here in their original form. A few more Sublime Frequencies recordings like this and someone will be able to put together a handsome "Roots of the Sun City Girls" comp.

MPEG stream: Radio Chechaouen
MPEG stream: Radio Fes

It's a strange time to be reviewing a disc collecting various Burmese radio broadcasts, considering the recent natural disaster and the extreme and heartbreaking loss of life. But in some ways it's quite timely, as even in the face of nationwide disaster, the Myanmar government continues to be suspicious of outsiders, refusing international aid, and making recovery and rescue even more difficult that it would already be. This collection addresses a similar situation, the Burmese government's obsession with controlling everything people outside of Myanmar read or hear about the country, to the point of draconian rules and regulations, and near total control of TV and radio. So, like the liner notes say, here is a rare glimpse of real Burmese life, music, news, commercials, all of the sounds one might experience in an urban center in Myanmar, car stereos, shops, street corners, a gloriously varied collection of sounds and music, voices and broadcasts. It's tough to make peace with these collections. We've written extensively about it in other reviews. On the one hand they are totally fascinating, the sounds are weird and wild and wonderful, but one must be wary to not objectify and exoticize the people and cultures represented. It's definitely a fine line, and this series and others like it constantly toe that line, but it does seem like these are respectfully assembled and they do seem to help bring people together, to help us familiarize ourselves with worlds we would otherwise never experience in our day to day lives. And from a purely sonic standpoint, these recording are dizzying, fantastic, so varied and wondrous. It sometimes seems depressing to think about US radio, if we're getting a glimpse of real life in Myanmar, what would people think about us? Car commercials, Madonna, sales, shock jocks, hmmm, then again maybe it is an accurate way to get a feel for a place... Anyway, all of the politics aside, world music obsessives and field recording geeks will have a field day. These Radio comps are definitely an acquired taste as they have a serious short attention span vibe to them, like driving in a car while some little kid in the front seat randomly switched stations. But unlike here, pretty much every stopon the dial reveals something amazing, or at the very least interesting. All kinds of music, classical Burmese, Western style pop songs, schmaltzy ballads, country, surf, fuzzy psychedelia, commercial jingles and every possible stop in between. But it's definitely not just music. Lots of news broadcasts, some in Burmese, lots in English, commercials, what sound like radio dramas or soap operas, and then a whole bunch of sounds and voices where it's difficult to tell what they are. All in all, an absolutely fascinating sonic document, and another excellent Sublime Frequencies release. But if you're still feeling a little bit weird, maybe if you buy one of these, you can also send a little scratch to the Burmese cyclone relief effort. In fact even if you don't buy one of these you still should...

MPEG stream: Tatmawdaw Army Song
MPEG stream: National Objectives
MPEG stream: Mr. Radio (Playboy Group)
MPEG stream: Classical Music (Female Vocal #11)
MPEG stream: National News In Brief
MPEG stream: Female Vocal Ballad

Of all the Sublime Frequencies releases, we'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite. We've made a BUNCH of them our Records Of The Week, and rarely does a couple lists go by without some new fantastic world music obscurity for us to rave about. But if we had to, we'd probably have to go with the series of 'Radio' releases. They're essentially recordings straight off the radio, the Sublime Frequencies guys traveling all over the world, sitting in their hotel room, or at someone's house, and just recording the radio. The results are fantastic and fascinating, and pretty excellent sampling of the culture, not just the music, cuz you get songs and bands and singers of course, but also advertisements, talk shows, politics, DJ's, and often, it's kind of dizzying, almost like someone's just flipping through the stations. But every one so far has been a blast. For Radio Niger, the pace is not so frenetic, but the sonic breadth is as expansive as ever, with some of the coolest music we've heard, but liberally laced with all manner of diverse sounds and sonics, as the liner notes describe, some of what you hear: shout-outs to girlfriends, drunken storytellers who just wander into the studio, comedy skits, lots of amazing Tuareg desert blues, news snippets in English from the BBC, lo-fi marketplace cassettes, auto-tuned Nigerian pop, DJ's sing along with songs on the air, there are super avant cut up collages, classic African folk... It's all pretty fantastic, but unlike the other installments in the 'Radio' series, this one is much more musically fleshed out, with almost full songs getting played, and lots of it amazing, from dirgey desert blues to wild psychedelic guitar buzz, cool, groovy new wave pop to wild drum heavy, high life, some minimal vocal/hand drums, and some seriously twisted juxtapositions, a jam that sounds like an African Steve Miller, bumped up next to wild, spastic tribal drumming, and rapid fire vocalizations, or more modern radio pop nestled right next to cool soundtracky, horn flecked funk! Like the other comps, Radio Niger is another fascinating sonic travelogue, and a glorious glimpse into the music, the culture, and the people of Niger. Includes a booklet with liner notes, and lots of photos! (Oh, and did we mention the awesome song titles? "Sahel Drum-Machine Gun", "Moussa Poussy Galore", etc.)

MPEG stream: Radio Tenere / Goudel Mollo Swagger
MPEG stream: Death On The Back Of The Neck
MPEG stream: Hauka Possession Splendor

Another collection of music, commercials, news reports and noise culled from radio broadcasts recorded by Alan Bishop. The tracks here were captured by Mr. Bishop in 1985 in Egypt and Jerusalem. Of the three radio discs released to date by Sublime Frequencies, this one is the most ADD afflicted. The bulk of the sound samples collected here are less than 30 seconds in length, some of them mere seconds, with most of the edits even seemingly to have been done using the radio dial at the time of their being recorded. That said, there's an abundance of odd music and sounds crammed into the 66 minutes of this disc: BBC news, a Soviet-esque female chorus with piano, romantic instrumentals, hammered dulcimer and drone, chipper singers with orchestral accompaniment, psychedelic electric oud solos, commercials, religious broadcasts, radio noise and more. Sit back and let Alan take control of the remote for an hour.

MPEG stream: Bedoin Sparklers
MPEG stream: Voice of Peace?

We know you love that Cambodian rock. And you know what? We love it too. Of late there seems to be an obsession with it; between the 4 Cambodian Rocks collections, the Cambodian Cassette Archives and Dengue Fever, we've had a pretty good run of it thus far. But now Sublime Frequencies is upping the ante with a collection unlike all those that preceded it. While the Khmer Rouge did a pretty good job of wiping out all the original performers, along with thousands of other innocent people and displacing the population of Cambodia, it couldn't completely wipe out the music. The original cassettes, still floating around are still being played on the radio to this day. Except that they aren't always played in strictly original form. Most stations, with the exception of the state run AM one, have taken to playing re-mixed versions of the songs with overdubbed instrumentation ranging from guitars and drums to synth keyboards in an attempt to keep the music fresh with the younger generations of listeners. This collection includes both the un-mixed originals taped off of the state run AM station and the re-mixed versions from the FM stations. Those of you already well suited with the previously released Cambodian rock collections will certainly get a kick out of several cuts here (some of which are most certainly completely different recordings from the ground up). Much more even than the Khmer Rocks releases, this collection has a great deal more variety of tunes (not just the garagey numbers), including some that feature traditional instruments, or at least traditional sounding. One tune in particular features just vocals and solo electric guitar which could easily be the Cambodian Lightnin' Hopkins. Additionally, Radio Phnom Penh differs greatly from the other discs in the Radio series on Sublime Frequencies in that not only are the songs allowed to play all the way through, in their entirety for the most part, but there's only very brief station ID's and disk jockey talking included.

MPEG stream: Blondie In Khmer Camouflage
MPEG stream: Street Guns And Studio Drums
MPEG stream: Sign-Off/The Venerable Anthem

Now all Sublime Frequencies needs to release is an Iranian disc and we'll have big W's "axis of evil" covered. But seriously, of all the countries on the globe -- axis or no -- the biggest cultural blackout has to be North Korea. Assembled by Christiaan Virant from a variety of source material: shortwave radio intercepts, field recordings (recorded in stealth mode in North Korea) and CDs produced by the North Korean government. Virant recorded and or collected most of the tracks between 1995 and 1998, though some of the shortwave tracks were recorded in 2005. Listening to Radio Pyongyang it's hard not to imagine North Korea as being a big version of the Small World exibit at Disneyland. The my-way-or-the-highway solipsist cultural imagineering is something uncle Walt could certainly appreciate. As such, this album is stuffed with Soviet style choruses singing victorious sounding patriotic hymns supported by pounding polka-meets-house beats, and cheery children's choruses doing much the same. That shouldn't be much of a surprise, but there will be sudden breaks in the songs with eighties pop-rock power chords, think the Miami Vice theme, and then suddenly take a wide left into pastoral schmalzy pseudo-classical refrains (often with voice-overs extolling the greatness of the North Korean government and Kim Jong Il). We actually really really enjoyed this, but at the same time are glad we don't have to listen to this sort of stuff 24-7 like those poor folks in North Korea!

MPEG stream: Motherland Megamix
MPEG stream: Numbers Game

Fuck! What a mess of a weird fucking album! This is the sixth "Radio" release from Sublime Frequencies and quite possibly the best (for those who can appreciate the most damaged aspects of bizzare station ID's and channel surferyness). People in the United States sometimes don't realize just how loud our country is. We inundate the world with our radio, television and movies, but rarely have a clue as to what's happening elsewhere in the world. The rest of the world does have to listen to us, like it or not. We hold the cultural bully pulpit. So it's always nice to hear our own cultural exports turned inwards upon themselves, and the "Radio" series from Sublime Frequencies allows us to hear from around the world. Radio Sumatra begins with a seriously demented melange of eighties guitar rock pre-empted by evil gremlin voiced disc jockeys, like the voices you hear in your head after you eat an entire box of Captain Crunch in one sitting. Later, chipper voice talents intone over the what sounds like Sumatran black metal and phone callers to another station perform live karaoke on the radio. And this is only 15 minutes in. Towards the end the sounds of Islamic hip hop and primitive techno hold sway. We won't kid you though: there's a lot of super saccharine pop sandwiched in here. We're talking top forty radio... even if it is Sumatran. But this collection will slay you despite that. Or maybe because of that!

MPEG stream: All Hit Music
MPEG stream: FM Bagus
MPEG stream: The Islamic Experience In Frequency Modulation

Of all the Sublime Frequencies collections, the various 'Radio' compilations are definitely our favorites. But at the same time they are also maybe the most problematic, It seems somehow disingenuous to travel to another country, turn on the radio, record several hours worth of music and sound, come home, put those recordings on a cd and then sell them. Not just disingenuous but quite possibly dishonest. It also seems a little weird to be thrilled by all the 'crazy' sounds we hear on the radio in these various countries. A guilty pleasure, very much that aspect of cultural tourism. "The music there is SO WILD!! And SO WEIRD!!" And it seems inconceivable that someone from some other country would come to the US, and do the same thing, returning to their countries to release discs packed with shock jocks, and crappy pop music, and morning zoo's and dry NPR discussions and modern rock and Loveline. But you never know. Although part of the reason that something like that would probably NOT happen, is that American culture, from the music to the clothes to the television shows, is already so invasive, there's probably not a corner of the world where people aren't discussing Lost or Paris Hilton or Brad and Angelina's baby or rocking out to the new Red Hot Chili Peppers. But the music and culture of these other countries does not have the same sort of universal reach. So it is actually quite a thrill to hear all of this amazing music, all of these voices, ads and commercials and songs. It's absolutely fantastic. It's just worth thinking about all that other stuff once in a while and realizing that in a sense, even just listening to these discs, we are guests, and we are digging the work and art, the livelihood and passion of hundreds of musicians and vocalists and deejays and artists. And we are digging it. A whole lot. The first few 'Radio' compilations were a little too schizophrenic, only allowing us to hear a few seconds of a song before the dial was spun and we were bombarded by some new burst of musical randomness. It was pretty amazing in a totally overwhelming ADD short attention span sort of way, but they rectified that, realizing it was just as dizzying but way more satisfying if we got to hear whole songs. So here we are. Radio Thailand, two whole discs culled from 15 years of recordings, captured between 1989 and 2004. A wonderfully confusional blur of Thai radio craziness, and crazy it is. A glorious hodge podge of everything under the sun, including cheesy eighties Indian disco, bizarre Thai arena rock, with wailing guitar leads, and murky Casio style rhythms, English language radio announcements, funky hip hop rock with guttural Muppets like vocals and a braying donkey chorus, complete with Knight Rider synths, Thai style Miami bass, with bumping beats and rapid fire rapping, goofy funky ska, groovy late night lounge funk, old soundtrack music, fuzzy, old school soul with big boomy drums and sweet horns, weird American style rapid fire commercials, distorted shortwave transmissions, haunting otherworldly piano, what sounds like Thailand's answer to Humpty Hump, but with wild swaths of LOUD synthesizer, full on sitar jams, Japanese style pop, sixties girl group harmonies, groovy exotica, radio dramas, solo blues vocals, and all sorts of traditional Thai musics mixed in with this dizzying barrage of music and voice and sound. So totally amazing!

MPEG stream: Lam Barometer
MPEG stream: 21st Century Perspiration
MPEG stream: 543 Years Ahead of YOU
MPEG stream: Giant Catfish Fry
MPEG stream: Krung Thep Marketing
MPEG stream: Space Station Hilltops

Sublime Frequencies' fantastic 'Radio' series continues. We've loved em all: Radio Palestine, Radio Thailand, Radio India, Radio Pyongyang (!), and all the rest... The series took a hiatus for a few years, but then came back with Radio Niger last year. And now, thanks to the travels of SF stalwart Mark Gergis, we've got Radio Vietnam! For those unfamiliar with the 'Radio' series, it's basically like (in fact, IS) someone in a hotel room someplace in a foreign country, spinning through the radio dial, recording whatever weirdness catches their ear, and putting it together on disc as a sort of sound-collage sampler of the sublime (and otherwise interesting) AM and FM radio frequencies found in whatever locale is the subject. There's a variety of music, of course, and also DJs and ads and talk shows and whatever else is on the radio. Even some static. Always a crazy 'sonic window' into a non-Western culture. Radio Vietnam finds Gergis recording radio signals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City over an 11-month period between December 2013 and November 2014. You get the his most interesting and out-there finds, ranging from traditional ethnic music, modern pop, advertising jingles, news broadcasts, exercise programming, and much more. A treat for the armchair traveller in all of us, as always. Digipack with detailed liner notes by recordist/compiler Mark Gergis.

MPEG stream: Morning Exercise In The Coded Ether
MPEG stream: America Lost The Vietnam War
MPEG stream: Hit Zones

Holy cow! Yet another fantastic Sublime Frequencies release, this one a double lp of Rajasthan street music from Western India, a region plagued by power failures, droughts, dried up rivers, and the ever encroaching deserts, with a history of continuous invasions, epic battles, and brutal slaughters. (Sorta sounds like this is gonna be a metal comp, but no it's not.) The people of the region are resilient, and this history and the surrounding folklore are forever immortalized in music, a sound at once devotional, traditional and celebratory, the songs on this compilation collected over a two year period between 2007 and 2008, recorded live on street corners, and in people's homes, capturing the raw emotion and deep beauty of the music, and all it embodies and represents. The sounds are super varied, from droned out ragas, trancey and hypnotic, with gorgeous lilting vocals and long layered tones, some peppered with wild percussion, and on some tracks, the singer will just break from the song, and talk to someone else in the room before slipping right back into it. Other tracks sound a bit like stripped down Bollywood musicals, soaring female vocals, buzz wreathed rhythms, and still others are groovy, hazy, psychedelic Indian folk music, shimmering strings, stunning vocal melodies. And while there are moments of meditative melancholia, much of the record seems to celebrate life, the music and voices, infused with a vitality and positive energy, that belies the trials and tribulations of the region and its people. Truly gorgeous stuff. Packaged in a super heavy, full color gatefold jacket, with tons of cool photos, and extensive liner notes, as well as a two sided printed insert, with still more liner notes, on these recordings, the region and its history, as well as notes on each song and performer.

At this point, sixties psych reissues are a dime a dozen. We have a whole section in the store, packed with good ones, and those are only a tiny fraction of what gets released. We've groused about it before, but just cuz it's old and rare, doesn't make it worth reissuing. Though sometimes, wow, is it ever! The one thing we had never seen though, was a collection of sixties garage and psych from Iran. Then again, we had probably never wondered about the garage psych scene in Iran at all, but Raks Raks Raks has set us straight, and has us wishing we had. As one might imagine, playing in a psychedelic rock band in the Middle East in the sixties was no cake walk, although according to the liner notes, it was maybe not as bad as we in the West might imagine, but amidst the various restrictions, political and personal, folks were of course still expressing themselves, and making music, and the results speak for themselves. Odds are, like us, you won't recognize a single band here, but it hardly matters, every track here is a winner, from Asian sounding grooves, to Ventures like surfy twang, to distinctly Middle Eastern sounding melodies, to fuzzy fifties-ish vocal doo wop, to twisted Monkees-like catchy pop, to Ethiopiques-ish jazzy funky grooves, to jangly psych folk, to fuzzy organ driven Joe Meek like grooviness, all infused with a distinctly Middle Eastern vibe, not just the language, the sound itself. Lo-fi, but so bursting with life and color and energy, classic sounds but imbued with elements and twists that make the tracks on Raks Raks Raks stand WAY out from the ordinary sixties psych reissue crowd BIG TIME! Expensive maybe, but so so worth it! Massive booklet with extensive liner notes, as much about the history of the era and the politics of the region as the music and the artists.

MPEG stream: Fatemah Sultan
MPEG stream: Sheesh Va Hesht Moha Jamin
MPEG stream: Meekshi Manoo
MPEG stream: Dkhtar E Darya
MPEG stream: Man Kiam?
MPEG stream: Sartegar Nakesh Chen

Over the last few years, thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of a bunch of excellent globally-focused "research & reissue" labels, the typical AQ customer, as a dedicated sonic adventurer in the pursuit of cool music, has likely amassed quite a collection of vintage international pop, often on the psychedelic side of things, lots of great stuff previously obscure to Western ears. We've been introduced to surf rock from Thailand, funk from India, fuzz rock from Africa, film music from Pakistan, etc., etc. One of our faves has to be B-Music's Pomegranates comp of Persian grooves from the pre-revolutionary era, the '60s and '70s. Now here's a double cd/triple lp collection on Vampisoul deeply mining the same territory. And chances are, you'll recognize some of the names on here, like Googoosh and Kourosh Yaghmaei, from various other reissues/anthologies that have come out recently. There's 28 tracks/treats dusted off from a scene that "flourished during the 1960s and 1970s before vanishing into exile or oblivion." Sadly, it was the same story elsewhere in the world too - political repression clamping down (with varying degrees of terminal harshness) on the era's vibrant pop music scenes in such far flung locales as Cambodia, Ethiopia, Brazil, and, under consideration here, Iran. The Shah might have sucked, but as the liner notes here put it, after the Ayatollah took over, "'having fun' was banned entirely"! And what fun this is, the songs selected here chock full of impassioned crooning, lush swirling orchestration, bombastic dance beats, slinky grooves, some doleful acoustic balladry, and of course much in the way of ornate ethnic Eastern motifs... It's like an infectious Iranian blend of 50's exotica, '60s easy listening, '70s disco... with some strong hints of freakier, more psychedelic youth sounds like funk and rock. And most of it would make a great soundtrack if the Love Boat ever took Persian Gulf cruise. Artists include: Abbas Mehrpouya, Fereidoon Farrokhzad, Neli, Habib, Hamid Shabkhiz, Simin Ghanem, Dariush, Ahmad Zahir (who is from Afghanistan, but presumably had his records released in Iran), Aref, Leila Forouhar, Giti, Hassan Khayatbashi, Googoosh, Shohreh, Afshin Maghaddam, and Kourosh Yaghmaei. The thick cd booklet (or lp sleeve) contains plenty of interesting notes on each of 'em, each artist/track boasting an informative blurb, lyric translations, and full-color photo. There's a comedian with an operatic voice (and unfortunate Hitler mustache), an openly gay poet/TV host/political scientist (assassinated in exile, presumably by agents of the Revolutionary regime), and many attractive songbirds with celebrated hairstyles....

MPEG stream: Dokhtar Shab
MPEG stream: Moama
MPEG stream: Shahre Paiz
MPEG stream: Bi To Man

Haitian Rara music is the strange street festival music heard in ritual celebrations and processions often during Easter Week, commemorating the African ancestry of Afro-Haitian masses in a celebration that combines elements of Catholicism and Vodou in frenzied, ecstatic and often confrontational musical performances. Instruments are often bamboo trumpets, or metal pipes called vaksen, that are rhythmically struck while being blown into, and drums, metal bells and other percussive elements are combined in a trance inducing call and response of rhythms, horns and voices. For this release, the folks at Soul Jazz ventured to Port-Au-Prince and recorded roving rara groups during Kanaval. The performers often stop traffic and demand money before moving on. Accumulating more followers as they march along, it's a truly communal experience that anyone can join who has any stick or bucket to bang on. Raw and anarchic, a fury of beautiful noise made by people. No amplification necessary!

MPEG stream: Le Map Pale / Reziye / Aroyo / Sepavre / Dilene

This Red Hot compilation (dedicated to fighting AIDS) features a very well-chosen collection of Today's Hot Young Acts covering Brazilian bossa nova classics. All tracks exclusive and new (we think). With Stereolab & Herbie Mann, Money Mark, EBTG, Mad Professor, PM Dawn, etc. Purists may want to get the companion cd which features the same song lineup, but this time it's the ORIGINAL versions as performed by Brazilian musicians, and the money goes to the same place.

Fairly caught with our pants down around our ankles we were when Sharpling & Wurster's "Music Scholar" suggested that every self respecting record store would have a large collection of Greek Rembetika music. Checking our inventory we could only attest to Rembetika music developed early in the 20th century amongst the poor habitants of Greece. Much like the American blues, these marginalized members of Greek society wrote songs about pain, death, prison (many of the rembetika musicians of this time were jailed merely for playing their music), drugs (the word "rembetika" is derived from "tekes", meaning hash den), sorrow, etc. Comparisons have even been drawn to Harlem of the same period. The music is centered around the bouzouki, a home grown lute invented by rembetika musicians, but can include baglama (a smaller bouzouki), santouri (dulcimer), lyra (or violin), guitar, oud, clarinet and vocals of course. One of the things that made their music so rich was the absorption of musical influences from around the Mediterranean. Two tragic events, both in 1922, helped add to this melange: a fire that consumed the island of Smyrna forced the inhabitants to mainland Greece and the Greco-Turkish war, which caused massive shifting of populations. Both events saw a new influx of poor immigrants who added their distinctive styles and melodies to the form. By 1937 the Greek government, viewing the anti-authoritarian and Arab influenced sounds as a cultural and political threat, banned the music from being played on the radio, favoring instead the more mainstream Piraeus style of rembetika. The 45 tracks on this two disc collection capture this brief and musically fertile phenomenon, featuring some of the best of the day, including Markos Vamvakaris, Rita Ambadsi, Evangelos Papazoglu and much more. This fine edition from Trikont comes with two booklets, and though the back cover claims to include an English translation there is in fact only a brief translation of some of the lyrics. All the historical documentation will require an understanding of German.

RealAudio clip: Efumernam' Ena Vradi
RealAudio clip: Hanumakia
RealAudio clip: I Foni Tu Argile