Whoa... please do yourself a favour and check this blog out NOW. I just found it, strangely by Googling my own blog, finding it listed in someone else's Blog Roll!
Basically it's rare 78RPM discs from around the world uploaded for you listening pleasure. NEED I SAY MORE!? EXCAVATED SHELLAC And here's a highlight: "Burmese Female Song" from that blog to give you an idea of what I'm talking about!
The Bauls are a mystical group of minstrel-like musicians from West Bengal, and Bangladesh (formerly East Bengal). They sing religious songs which frequently address their belief of the divine residing within humans (manush), not outside and that one must reach out lovingly to one another in order to commune with the divine.
Here are some songs performed by Binod Das Baul courtesy of beretep
Here is another video courtesy of the same user, this time of Sandhay Das Baul (and others) performing in concert in Paris.
Here is a lovely sequence from the 2002 Bangla film Matir Moina which presents a stylized take on a Baul performance.
Another video from an unknown source that presents a more polished version of Baul music. The visuals are not all that exciting, the music though is quite striking.
What appears to be a no-budget amateur video of Bangla Baul singing, shot with permission (according to the video info on Youtube). Super rugged, without the usual accompaniment of percussion, ektara or dotara.
Another lo-fi intimate pair of videos featuring Satyananda Das Baul:
Three regrettably truncated videos:
Great live video with very pronounced echo on the voice from durdeshi:
Another video captured by an amateur videographer:
Amit, the son of a taxi driver, and Reema, a rich business man's daughter, fall in love. However Reema's father wants to marry her to Vicky, who's father is the biggest gangster in Mumbai. How will their love triumph?
This is the short summary for IMDB's entry on this 1989 Bollywood flick Love Love Love featuring tunes by Calcutta-born Music Director (that means composer to all you goras et. al out there who don't know what that means) Bappi Lahiri. (edit... you all should know that I 100% gora)
I actually discovered this wacky soundtrack thanks to a paper I marked for a course on Bollywood that I T.A. for at York University. The paper, about gujarati influence on Bollywood alluded to the stiff-yet-funky epic "Disco Dandia" from this soundtrack (pictured above) whose picturization and music appropriate elements of gujarati dance.
Being a sucker for the weird end of Bollywood, I fell in love with the peculiar soundworld of the song... Once you take out the instrumental interludes, all that remains is the almost Kraftwerkian drum-machine beat(complete with gated reverb!), adorned with deliciously goofy fills from black-hexagon-pad syntoms and 8-bit timbale samples. And then, on top of that there is just a bunch of monophonic melodies provided by booming voices (solo and in chorus). Only the merest of harmonies supports the voices provided by ambiguous are-they-real-or-are-they-fake strings, so overall the song is quite sparse and futuristic sounding. MIA even pays hommage to the track on "Boys" from Kala which also contains "Jimmy", practically a cover of another one of Bappi's Bollywood disco anthems "Jimmy Adja" from the 1982 movie Disco Dancer
The rest of the Love Love Love album is pretty insane too brimming with grimily psychedelic vocal productions layered atop clean, crisp and tight Eurodisco-informed drum machine, synth and string tracks. The more lush song "Hum To Hain Dil Ke Diwane" bubbles with Giorgio Moroder-style synths, and takes castanet clicks seemingly lifted from the Dinosaur (Aka Arthur Russell) classic "Kiss Me Again". The vocals are evocative of both the aloofness of Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice" and Asha Puthli's smooth, yet slightly nasal cooing.
According to the Wikipedia entry on the film the music was actually informed by Pet Shop Boys, Modern Talking and C.C. Catch and the sound of Italo Disco (which explains my observations!)
In short, with all but the 4th and 6th track, you'd never really think that this music was made in 1989... But alas it was! Funny how for some of the music I imagine dutch women in spandex circa 1981 as much as much as Bollywood musical scene.
Wow... Yet another long wait between posts. My apologies...
Anyway, here goes...
While it is easy for the average World Music listener to complain about Asian and African countries' use of electronics on the grounds that it undermines the 'authenticity' of the music, or that it's "too western", or (in some cases quite legitimately) too cheesy, I don't think its sane to dismiss this very loose category of music wholesale--especially given its massive quantity!
One example of one facet of this music that has broken through somewhat is Omar Souleyman whose reissue disc (thanks to Sublime Frequencies) employs cloying neon-toned synths, monotonous drum machines, intense vocals.
There are numerous others though from around the world which employ (mostly low-budget) electronic sounds in a way that is quite intriguing. Perhaps the synth programming isn't overly sophisticated, perhaps the instruments are used as substitutes for other acoustic (read: more 'authentic') instruments, yet somehow there is something quite distinct about the somewhat cold and stitled electronic versions.
Eritrea is a country with a really strong legacy of excellent and distinct music, including luminaries such as Tsehaytu Beraki (who recently recorded an excellent trad album for Dutch label Terp).
Conveniently the insistent and instantly recognizable Eritrean ch-boom, ch-boom 6/8 beat, which, roughly two-thirds of the way through the song breaks down into a faster 3/4 cheh-cheh, cheh-cheh makes excellent drum-machine fodder. Many Eritrean popular artists have creatively adapted the hallmark rhythms and sounds to more electronic-driven music.
Elsa Kidane's song "Alemna" even feeds the ornamented vocals through the Autotune effect (employed most famously by Cher on "Believe") and actually pulls it off (to my ears). Meanwhile, some of the work of older artist Yemane "Barya" Gebremichael has the sound of classic 1970's/80's drum machines all over it alongside smooth synth pads. His classic style seems to marry dreamy low-fi 1980's R&B stylings to an Eritrean sonic palette. In many cases he opts to eschew the aforementioned beat, in favour of straight 4/4. Torontonian-Eritrean artist Daniel Nebiat takes a utilitarian route with his use of electronics in his backup band, but even while the drum machine seems to present simply to replicate regular drums, the stiff uniformity of the sounds really carries his music well and provides a consistent base for his vocals and krar.
There are several other examples which I've collected here. Hopefully this makes a case for the value of said style, at least within the context of Eritrean music. Enjoy!
And for Toronto residents... remember that you can hear live Ethiopian and Eritrean music on weekends at Habesha Club at Bloor and Ossington (South-East Side)!
Saturday, May 24 @ 8:00 GUNDECHA BROTHERS www.dhrupad.org Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay W. Tickets $25 advance at Harbourfront Centre Box Office 416) 973-4000/ $30 door
Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha are India's leading exponents of the Dhrupad style, the spiritual heart of Indian classical music. Among of the most active performers of Dhrupad, internationally, these dedicated and immensely talented artists have helped to keep alive this ancient and profound tradition, a musical legacy which resonates today amongst yoga and meditation enthusiasts, as well as classical music fans.
The Gundecha Brothers have sung great Hindi poetry by Tulsidas, Kabir, Padmakar, and Nirala in Dhrupad style. They have numerous recordings on H.M.V, Music Today, Rhythm House, Senseworld Music, Sundaram Records, IPPNW Concerts Berlin, Navras and Audio Rec London. They have also sung for many television channels in India and have been broadcast on British, U.S., German and French, Japan and Australian Radio. As well as being an integral part of all of India's most prestigious music festivals, the Gundecha Brothers have performed at many important international festivals and institutions in Europe, the U.S., Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.
An article of mine The Untold Stories of So-Called World Music (consider it a sibling to this blog) is featured in Musicworks' 30th Anniversary (100th)issue.
It is the first in a series dealing with definitions, perceptions, and marketing of world music. Future installments will also include interview fragments with various musicians, and others involved in various forms of non-western music making and marketing. It will also feature hints for finding intriguing sounds online and in the shops of Toronto. Stay tuned!
In addition to having the priviledge of writing for this wonderful publication I will also have the opportunity to play at their anniversary party/ fundraising event in I HAVE EATEN THE CITY this Saturday (April 26th) at the Tranzac at 9PM. The event is $10 and also features Sandro Perri, Feuermusik and Paul Dutton in duo with Michael Snow (aka 2/3s of CCMC!)
