V/A Java: Court Gamelan (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
We just got the first batch of the Indonesia / South Pacific installment of Nonesuch's Explorer reissues, which total 12 in number. Ten of the discs are from either Java or Bali and just about each one features an entirely different form of gamelan. A Gamelan, as a cursory way of introduction, is an orchestra of primarily bronze (though bamboo gamelan are also common) percussion instruments -- metallophones, gongs, gong-chimes -- and drums. Quite often a gamelan will have a specific repertoire that it is exclusively built for the performance of, and certain ceremonial gamelan are limited to the performance of a single piece. On top of this, throughout Java and Bali there is an ever changing world of both village and court traditions which continue to defy definitions. These discs just in from Bali and Central & Western Java just scratch the surface of gamelan throughout Indonesia, but they're a fine introduction anyway.
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.
RealAudio clip: JAVA: COURT GAMELAN "Gendhing Tedjanata"
RealAudio clip: JAVA: COURT GAMELAN "Gendhing Mandulpati"

V/A Java: Court Gamelan, Volume II (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
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!
MPEG Stream: "Gending Babar Layar [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Gending Babar Layar [excerpt 2]"
MPEG Stream: "Gending Ela-ela Kalibeber"

V/A Java: Court Gamelan, Volume III (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
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".
RealAudio clip: GAMELAN OF KRATON YOGYAKARTA "Gendhing Sumyar"
RealAudio clip: GAMELAN OF KRATON YOGYAKARTA "Gendhing Rangu-rangu"

V/A Java: The Jasmine Isle: Gamelan Music (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
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.
RealAudio clip: ANONYMOUS "Pangkur (solo gender)"
RealAudio clip: ANONYMOUS "Bendrong"
RealAudio clip: ANONYMOUS "Bendrong (solo gambang)"

V/A Kalimantan Strings (Music of Indonesia 13) (Smithsonian Folkways) cd 16.98

V/A Konkani Songs: Music From Goa - Made In Bombay (Trikont) cd 17.98
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.
MPEG Stream: ALFRED ROSE "Munglurkar"
MPEG Stream: LORNA "Lisboa"
MPEG Stream: ROBIN VAZ, CECILIA MACHADO & CHORUS "Staram Gaddiwalla"
MPEG Stream: HENRY D'SOUZA & HELEN D'CRUZ "Cathrina"
MPEG Stream: BAB PETER "Mog Boom Boom Boom"

V/A Land Of The Sufis: Soul Music From The Indus Valley (Shanachie) cd 15.98
EMI set up recording studios on the Pakastani border, the result is this Sufi hoe down.

V/A Love, Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelic Music (Shadoks Music) cd 15.98
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!

V/A Love, Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelic Music (Shadoks Music) lp 19.98
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!

V/A Mahagita: Harp and Vocal Music of Burma (Smithsonian Folkways) cd 16.98
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 Stream: INLE MYINT MAUNG & YI YI THANT "The Glory of the King"

V/A Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs And Folk Tunes From Tuva (Dust To Digital) cd 15.98
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.
MPEG Stream: OORJAK HUNASHTAAR-OOL "Reka Alash"
MPEG Stream: OORJAK HUNASHTAAR-OOL "Bayan-Kol"
MPEG Stream: SAT MANTSAKAY "TuvinSkiye Narodniye Napevy"
MPEG Stream: KARA-SAI AK-OOL "Uzun-Khoyug"

V/A Mini A Go-Go (Khmer Rocks) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of the latest (and the second to be reviewed by us) in the budget line of CD-Rs from the always wonderful Khmer Rocks label, all of them go-go tunes -- which means that all, but a few have the unifying element of the chorus "ah go go". One would think that would get a little monotonous, but the tracks are sufficiently different from one another that one hardly notices the redundancy of lyrics. The sprightly tempoed numbers on this collection begin with Sinn Sisamouth's "Navy". Over a backdrop of surfy, reverb-laden guitar, the Elvis of Cambodian rock -- Sinn Sisamouth -- croons a with a healthy dose of slapback echo that seems requisite in all the tracks of this era. There is at least one overlapping song here, "Monkey", which was also on the second volume of Cambodian Rocks. Lots of 60's garagey psych tracks make this collection resemble the Parallel World comp. more on the whole than the three Khmer Rocks versions. It's pretty much a stripped down rock setup on all the songs here, which means not so much keyboard on this one. The guitar's the thing here and each track seems graced with at least one guitar solo. As you might have guessed from the "name dropping" above, this collection does include the English translations of the artists' names and song titles (no lyrics though). About 75 percent of the 13 tracks are Sisamouth's, four are from Pan Ron and one is by Ros Sereysothea.
MPEG Stream: PAN RON "Mini Ago-go"
MPEG Stream: SIN SISAMOUTH "Sony Ago-go"

V/A Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I remember when the Butthole Surfers' Locust Abortion Technician came out, how blown away I was by the album. On top of all their own material, here was this totally weird song which they irreverantly looped over one word that happened to sound like an English vernacular term for female genitalia. Funny the first time through, I always wanted a copy of the original recording which the Surfers lifted that track from because I thought it just kicked ass in its own right. I know you think I'm gonna say that that song is on this collection. Sorry, it's not. But if you loved that song "Kuntz" for what it was (despite Gibby's juvenile chicanery), you'll definitely be excited by the Molam tracks on this disc. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Cambodian Cassette Archives, Neung Phak) from a multitude of sources -- LPs, 45s and cassettes -- this collection of Molam comes from a distinct window in Isan, Thailand history. Molam, which comes from the rural areas of Northeastern Thailand and neighboring Laos, was for many years generally charactarized by male and female vocals backed by the khaen (a free-reed mouth organ). Migrating rural Thai and Laotian people to the cities modernized their Molam with electric guitars, bass, drums and keyboards and the music spread like a fad to the urban population. Inevitably, through the ever changing nature of music, and the economically driven producers, the electronic keyboard surpassed the need for a band and the music was more often than not reduced to the standard pop that is ubiquitous throughout Thailand. This then is a time capsule of the glory days of molam gone electric. Fans of Neung Phak will be familiar with the track which begins this collection, as it's also the opening track of Neung Phak's debut. So those of you who thought Mark couldn't tune his bass can hear his alibi playing the original tune off key as is the style. Certainly fans of the Cambodian Rocks albums should take heed here, but will find a collection of tracks that are much more removed from Western rock. Firstly, there are no covers of rock songs, nor are the melodies here even related -- except by chance -- to Western pop. These are all traditional tunes that have merely been arranged with modern electric instrumentation (which isn't to say that you won't here any khaen on these tunes). It is the vocals though that are what really drive these songs, modernized or no. With melodies that seem utterly independent of what the band is playing, the lilting, almost yodelled, singing is unlike that of any other region in the world. Dare I say it's sultry. Oh so very highly recommended!!
MPEG Stream: KWANJAI KALASIN YUK PATANA "Chiwit Sao Molam"
MPEG Stream: GAWOW SEUNGTHONG "Ow Mai Ow"
MPEG Stream: CHAAN SIANG PHIN "Sao Noi Makaleng"

V/A Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I know we went on about the Butthole Surfers when we reviewed the first volume in Sublime Frequencies' Thai Country Groove From Isan series. Hard not to, considering that most of us were first exposed to Thai music via the Buttholes, and their only slightly altered version of a classic Thai track. Minus some audio fuckery, the track was presented in its almost unaltered original form. And everyone we know loved that track, as much or more than the rest of the disc. At the time, none of the folks we knew really had any idea where to find more music like that. 
Years later, the Sun City Girls' Sublime Frequency label, launched a totally kick ass series of compilations, gathering amazing and mysterious music from all over Asia, one of which focused on Molam Thai music, and while it didn't include THAT track, most of the tracks did sound quite similar, some even weirder and wilder... It ended up being one of our favorite discs in the ever expanding Sublime Frequencies sonic universe... until now!
Volume two is simply more of the same, but more is what we wanted, every track a gem, some weird and wacked, some achingly beautiful, all awesome. 
Quick background, Molam is the music that came from rural areas of Thailand and Laos, dueling female and male vocals, mouth organ, but as folks moved to the city, the music was modernized, incorporating the Western style rock band lineup, adding psychedelic fuzz guitar, electronic organ, and all manner of effects. The results are of course strange and wondrous, quirky, funky and super rocking, the guitars twang and buzz, strange little curlicues of melody, over relentless, propulsive grooves, the drums, simple and motorik, over the top, keyboards drift, and guitars occasionally explode into wild overdriven leads, before settling back into their strange convoluted melodic framework, horns moan and bleat, disco wah guitars drift over reggae like rhythms, but the vocals, wow! Much like in the first volume, it's the vocals that make it, they all seem to be singing variations of the vocal line in the Butthole Surfers' "Kuntz", that particularly sing songy lilt, sometimes spoken, other times wailed, always introducing their own melodies to the already melodically complex musical backdrop... so so so so good! Can't wait for volume three! (and while you're at it, check out the amazing Ghost Of Isan: Thailand's Psychedelic Ghost Festival dvd, rife with breathtaking imagery, and more remarkable Molam sounds...)
MPEG Stream: THONGMARK LEACHA "Are You Tired of Me Already?"
MPEG Stream: PALATNOI SONGSIM "I Love Thai Films"
MPEG Stream: GROUP SOONTOON CHAIROOGRUEN "Rice Farm Girl"
MPEG Stream: GROUP KALASIN "Instrumental Lam Sing"
MPEG Stream: SODSRI & THEPPON "Community People..."

V/A Mongolie: Chamanes Et Lamas (Ocora) cd 13.98

V/A Music Of Nat Pwe: Folk And Pop Music Of Myanmar (Burma) Vol.3 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Another volume in Sublime Frequencies series of compilations documenting the amazing and mysterious music of Myanmar (aka Burma). The first volume was an intense barrage of manic Burmese pop, the second focused on guitar music of Myanmar, and this new volume is all about the Nat Pwe. You may remember the DVD on Sublime Frequencies from a while back, which visually documented various Nat Pwe's in Burma, and if you were like us, you were completely blown away, by not just the spectacle, but the amazing music as well. For those new to the Nat Pwe, Nats are ghost spirits, most often historical figures who met tragic ends, and who are believed to have the power to change lives, for better or for worse. So Pwe's are ceremonies designed to appease the Nats and occur on a daily basis, for almost any reason, health, good luck, weddings and new businesses, but like any powerful ceremony, they cam also be used for evil. 
The festivals are amazing. Celebratory, wild and raucous, huge floats, giant phalluses, people throwing money and cigarettes, costumes and headdresses, lots of crossdressing, lots of drinking, folks going into trances... all to the strange and amazing strains of this fantastical music.
And it is fantastic, some of the wildest and most jubilant music we've heard. The root sounds are definitely Burmese, the percussion and the vocals will definitely sound familiar to fans of Burmese music, this is somehow even more manic and spirited. A dense assemblage of bells, cymbals, gongs, xylophones and drums drums drums. A gorgeously clattery percussive wonderland, dense and complex, with vocals that soar over the top, drenched in reverb. It's all acoustic, but it sounds so loud and incredibly intense. And beautiful. Hard to describe, as all great music is, it makes you want to dance, and trance out simultaneously, powerful, emotional and so wild and wonderful. 
Compiled from numerous live recordings, and featuring many popular Burmese songs and many famous Burmese performers. As always, tons of liner notes, and amazing photos. And if this has at all piqued your interest, see if you can find a friend who's got that now out-of-print (bummer!) DVD, as the Nat Pwe's have to be seen to be believed!
MPEG Stream: SEIN MOOTA / KYAW THET AUNG "Shwe Ku Ni Pwe Daw"
MPEG Stream: BO HEIN & BO MEIN "Master Of The Nine Cities"
MPEG Stream: BOBADIN "Di Kanar Mandut / The Hut"
MPEG Stream: BOBADIN "Mother Jhan Who Curses People"

V/A Music of the Gamelan Gong Kebyar Volume 1 (Vital Records) cd 14.98
Early on in the 20th century a new genre of gamelan emerged in Bali and became known as Gong Kebyar (meaning "to burst" or "bloom"). Kebyar is a populist form born, ironically enough, out of the Dutch supplanting of the Balinese court. Accounts as to the actual creation of kebyar are sketchy, but the most oft repeated is the story of two gamelan groups engaging in a competition to the pleasure and amazement of thousand of gathered villagers. Said to have occurred in 1914, the two groups presented a program of wild and fast paced gamelan unlike what anyone had heard before. Arguments to the story's validity aside, the genre spread like wild fire throughout Bali and has exceeded the popularity of all the island's various gamelan forms (many groups even melted down their sets at the beginning of the century to have kebyar ones built.) Many early compositions were reworked repertoires from other genres, often borrowing from the sacred, but with its growing popularity it soon worked its way into religious ceremonies. Rhythmic precision within the kebyar ensemble is of utmost importance as many of the music's parts are composites that are dependent not only on their counterpart for the realization of their role within the gamelan, but the ensemble as a whole must respond as one to tempo changes, starts and stops -- often quite abrupt -- seamlessly as even the slightest deviations can be noticeable and disastrous. Imagine playing a difficult piece on piano, but first dividing up the notes so that you only play every other note while a partner plays the others, a sort of musical three-legged race of Olympic proportions. Kebyar has continued to increase in popularity in the brief 90 years since its inception and with regular public competitions the genre has spurred groups into increasingly faster tempos and stylistic flourishes as well as challenging young composers to be constantly vigilant and innovative in creating new works.
Volume one features a wide selection of pieces including the now famous dance Teruna Jaya, composed in 1914, which is the cornerstone of the kebyar style, three pieces written between 1925 and 1984 and three traditional pieces arranged for gamelan gong kebyar. The tracks were all recorded live, many of them at Bali's prestigious National Institute of the Arts (S.T.S.I.) in Denpasar, between 1982 and 1994 by Bali's top musicians. Culled from over 300 hours of recordings, they represent some of the best and liveliest performances of kebyar caught on tape.
RealAudio clip: I NYOMAN MARIA "Kebyar Duduk (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: I NYOMAN MARIA "Kebyar Duduk (excerpt 2)"
RealAudio clip: PAN WANDRES & I GEDE MANIK "Teruna Jaya (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: PAN WANDRES & I GEDE MANIK "Teruna Jaya (excerpt 2)"

V/A Music of the Gamelan Gong Kebyar Volume 2 (Vital Records) cd 14.98
Early on in the 20th century a new genre of gamelan emerged in Bali and became known as Gong Kebyar (meaning "to burst" or "bloom"). Kebyar is a populist form born, ironically enough, out of the Dutch supplanting of the Balinese court. Accounts as to the actual creation of kebyar are sketchy, but the most oft repeated is the story of two gamelan groups engaging in a competition to the pleasure and amazement of thousand of gathered villagers. Said to have occurred in 1914, the two groups presented a program of wild and fast paced gamelan unlike what anyone had heard before. Arguments to the story's validity aside, the genre spread like wild fire throughout Bali and has exceeded the popularity of all the island's various gamelan forms (many groups even melted down their sets at the beginning of the century to have kebyar ones built.) Many early compositions were reworked repertoires from other genres, often borrowing from the sacred, but with its growing popularity it soon worked its way into religious ceremonies. Rhythmic precision within the kebyar ensemble is of utmost importance as many of the music's parts are composites that are dependent not only on their counterpart for the realization of their role within the gamelan, but the ensemble as a whole must respond as one to tempo changes, starts and stops -- often quite abrupt -- seamlessly as even the slightest deviations can be noticeable and disastrous. Imagine playing a difficult piece on piano, but first dividing up the notes so that you only play every other note while a partner plays the others, a sort of musical three-legged race of Olympic proportions. Kebyar has continued to increase in popularity in the brief 90 years since its inception and with regular public competitions the genre has spurred groups into increasingly faster tempos and stylistic flourishes as well as challenging young composers to be constantly vigilant and innovative in creating new works.
Whereas volume one featured a variety of works written throughout the genre's existence by various composers past and present, volume two focuses on one of Bali's up and coming stars, an inspired and prolific composer and performer named I Nyoman Windha. So popular are his works that it's not unheard of at kebyar competitions that two competing groups will both be performing compositions by Windha. The tracks on this disc were recorded in 1991 and 1994. All the tracks, like on volume one, were recorded live and most of the performances were connected in some way with a kebyar festival competition, either during a rehearsal or the competition itself (you can hear the audience's response to the gamelan's performance clearly on the first track.)
RealAudio clip: "Jagra Parwata (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Jagra Parwata (excerpt 2)"
RealAudio clip: "Cendra Wasih (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Cendra Wasih (excerpt 2)"

V/A Music! The Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv 1900-2000 (Wergo) 4cd 96.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Founded in 1900 by Carl Stumpf, The Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv is a repository devoted to archiving the musics of the world before their eventual destruction by encroaching modernization brought about by global capitalism. Case in point is presented on page two of the accompanying booklet: "'Within the foreseeable future there will no longer be any day-long journeys by rowing boat, where twenty men in a canoe stand one behind the other and sing, because otherwise they would not be able to keep in time with the rhythm of the rowing..." (Albert Schweitzer, 1914) "...Because the songs of the members of the boat's crew who tow the boats along the Yangtse will have become silent forever, before these faint magical lines have worn away on the wax cylinder. Only the shrill whistle of the steamboat will be heard, and black smoke will lick away at the gruesome cliffs." So wrote Hedwig Weiss, wife of Friedrich Weiss who worked as a translator in the Sichuan province of China at the beginning of the 20th century. The two of them together took to recording the rowing song of boat crews working on the Yangtse river to preserve their songs. This is just one of the stories on this incredibly impressive four disc collection celebrating the 100th year anniversary of the Archive -- which now has a collection of over 150,000 recordings. Fans of the "Secret Museum" series should take heed, this is the shit! Some of the best recordings by pioneering ethnomusicologists are included here along with very detailed information not only about the music they recorded -- along with transcriptions in many cases -- but the stories behind the people who took to the field to make these recordings. The 100 tracks on this set are divided into four sections: disc one covers the wax cylinder recordings (1893 - 1954), disc two covers monophonic tape recordings (1951 - 1974), disc three covers stereophonic recordings (1967 - 2000) and disc four covers stereophonic, concert -- ie: not field -- recordings (1973 - 1999) and each disc is sequenced in sections by region: Asia, Oceania, Africa, The Americas and Europe. A hefty price tage yes, but well worth it.
RealAudio clip: (ANONYMOUS) NEW GUINEA 1912 "Interlocking Flutes"
RealAudio clip: (ANONYMOUS) CAIRO, EGYPT 1955 "Nubian Song"
RealAudio clip: JEGOG JAYUS "Jayan Tangis"
RealAudio clip: HAI, TRAN QUANG "Flowing Water, Equal Bars, Golden Chains"

V/A Night Recordings From Bali (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
Let's just start by reiterating what we said in the last list: 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 fucking great music and audio you've never heard has been culled together. Balls to fidelity, none of the artists here would be allowed within 10 miles of a Putamayo AR executive, this is the punk rock of field recordings!

By now we've listed numerous recordings from Bali already, and with good reason: the people of Bali live and breathe music and art. It's no wonder that they've been the source of fascination from artists dating back to Walter Spies and are currently inundated with the clumsey feet of foreign tourists who flock to the island every year. Much like the beloved Indonesian Soundscapes, Night Recordings From Bali is a collection of field recordings -- made by Alan Bishop and Manford Cain in 1989 -- of the sort not likely to be captured by traditional "ethnomusicologists" or found on the likes of an Explorer or even Smithsonian Folkways disc. For instance: "Rubber Television", a recording of a television drama or soap opera accompanied by gamelan, dripping water sound effects that warbles pathetically like they were being recorded with a dying cassette deck (courtesy of Bali's notorious humidity maybe?) While many of the other recordings are of Bali's numerous, well exposed gamelan and sundry other music ensembles like anklung, kebyar and kecak, the man-on-the-spot style recording fuses the sounds of the frogs and insects to the performances where another recordist might have isolated the ensemble. Additionally, there are recordings here of wild life segueing between musical performances and even a recording of a cremation ceremony where the surviving loved ones battle in a traditional tug of war between those wishing to bring the body to the pyre and those resisting the inevitable final journey.
MPEG Stream: "Legian Minstrels"
MPEG Stream: "Rubber Television"
MPEG Stream: "Night Village Barong #2"

V/A Philippines : Musique De Luth En Pays T'Boli (Buda Records) cd 14.98
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: FINGGUAY FLANG "Nadal"
MPEG Stream: LUMING TUAN "Hekowing Tuko Dol"

V/A Pomegranates (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 15.98
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: GOOGOOSH "Talagh"
MPEG Stream: ZIA "Kofraim"
MPEG Stream: RAMESH "Sharm-e Boos-e"
MPEG Stream: NOOSH AFARIN "Gol-e Aftab Gardoon"

V/A Princess Nicotine: Folk & Pop Music of Myanmar (Burma) Vol. 1 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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: MAR MAR AYE "Beautiful Town"
MPEG Stream: YANGON SEIN KYI MOE "The Tune of the Second Entertainment"
MPEG Stream: NI NI WIN SHWE "My Darling's Love Arrow"

V/A Psych Funk 101: A Global Psychedelic Funk Curriculum (World Psychedelic Funk Classics) cd 16.98
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: PETALOUDA "What You Can Do In Your Life"
MPEG Stream: OMAR KHORSHID "Rakset El Fadaa"
MPEG Stream: ESKATON "Dagon"

V/A Psych Funk 101: A Global Psychedelic Funk Curriculum (World Psychedelic Funk Classics) 2lp 22.00
Now available on vinyl! Yay!
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: PETALOUDA "What You Can Do In Your Life"
MPEG Stream: OMAR KHORSHID "Rakset El Fadaa"
MPEG Stream: ESKATON "Dagon"

V/A Puerto Rico In Polynesia (Original Music) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. 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.

V/A Radio Algeria (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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"

V/A Radio India: The Eternal Dream of Sound (Sublime Frequencies) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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"

V/A Radio Java (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
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 JAVA "Radio Jakarta #1"
MPEG Stream: RADIO JAVA "Radio Republik Indonesia"
MPEG Stream: RADIO JAVA "Radio Solo/Bandung"

V/A Radio Myanmar (Burma) (Sublime Frequenices) cd 16.98
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"

V/A Radio Phnom Penh (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
Another all time aQ fave, and essential world music document from Sublime Frequencies, back in print, back in stock and available again!
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"

V/A Radio Pyongyang: Commie Funk And Agit Pop From The Hermit Kingdom (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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"

V/A Radio Sumatra: The Indonesian FM Experience (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
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"

V/A Radio Thailand: Transmissions From The Tropical Kingdom (Sublime Frequencies) 2cd 16.98
One of our favorite of the Sublime Frequencies compilations finally back in print and available again!!
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"

V/A River Songs Of Bangladesh (Arc) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Field recordings by ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya, freshly recorded in February 2001. Traditional Bangladeshi music can be divided into two forms, the more traditional Indian-influenced Raga-Tala system, and the more simple form known as Deshi ('of the land'). Deshi is what we hear on this cd: gorgeously simple, stark folk songs played on just a few instruments including multi-stringed lutes made out of jack-fruit wood, single-steel-stringed drone intoners, bamboo flutes, and wooden clappers. Male and female voices are melancholy and sing of hard river life, such as "The river banks are crumbling down and falling into the water / My heart too is dissolving in pieces like the river itself."
RealAudio clip: ANURUPA RAY WITH NARAYAN CHANDRA RAY "Dhalla Nodi"

V/A Roots of Gamelan, the (World Arbiter) cd 16.98
Possibly a bit of a misnomer in the title, as the "roots" of gamelan predate any recording equipment by nearly a thousand years. 1928 however, when these earliest recordings of Balinese gamelan were recorded, could well be considered the roots of Balinese gamelan as it exists today, as the now ubiquitous Gong Kebyar of Bali was born, by most accounts, a mere fourteen years prior to these recordings (see "Music of the Gamelan Gong Kebyar Volume 1" from list 128.) In a sense, these seminal recordings exist thanks to all the wrong reasons. Apparently two record labels, Odeon and Beka, had the idea that they could record and market Balinese music to Bali on records. They put together 98 sides on 78 rpm discs, but the Balinese were completely uninterested in shelling out the dough for those recordings for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which was that by the time the recordings hit the shelves they were pretty much old news. The discs sold in small amounts on the international market, but for the most part the concept was a flop. Today, however, we are left with a wonderful time capsule of Balinese gamelan as it stood at the beginning of the century. Along with the early kebyar examples here, there are also several tracks of gamelan pelegongan, gender wayang (the quartet that accompanies puppet theater in Bali), jangger (a comical form featuring a chorus of young boys and girls, with the boys singing in a vocal style which we today are more familiar with as kecak) and anklung. Due to the limitations the 78 rpm disc and its 3 minute capacity, much of the works contained here are broken up semi-artificially into movements. Also included at the end of this disc are six tracks of gamelan transcriptions performed by Canadian composer and Balinese music scholar Colin McPhee (of whom the records which make up this collection belonged) and Benjamin Britten on piano and Georges Barrere on flute. These performances are quite interesting in and of themselves, especially for anyone who's familiar with McPhee's later classical compositions (or even fans of Lou Harrison) which were based entirely around Balinese music. Includes a healthy 27 pages of well scribed liner notes on the recordings and Balinese music in general.
RealAudio clip: GONG OF BELALUAN "Kebyar Ding III: Oncang-Oncangan"
RealAudio clip: JANGER GROUP OF ABIAN TIMBUL "Putih Putih Saput Anduk"
RealAudio clip: MCPHEE, COLIN & BENJAMIN BRITTON "Gambangan"

V/A Rough Guide To The Music Of Indonesia (Rough Guides) cd 13.98
The Rough Guide's primer here on the music of Indonesia should not be mistaken as a definitive sampler of the music from this archipelago -- even Philip Yampolsky's thorough 20 disc "Music Of Indonesia" series on Smithsonian Folkways could hardly claim that distinction -- but focuses more on those genres arising out of Indonesia's urban centers, music that has a distinct western influence. Which isn't to say that the music is limited to a western bias when it comes to the elements which inform it. There's CBMW, from Western Java which blends together local degung style gamelan with a bamboo idiom from Jakarta along with Balinese elements and even Brazilian samba rhythms. The example presented here is, while bordering on the NPR-segue-music side of things, is unlike anything else you're likely to hear. There's the wacky, Indian film music influenced Dangdut with its genre bending, frenetic energy. Then there's the beautiful kacapi and suling (plucked zither and bamboo flute) duets in which the zither accompanies while the flute, in place of singing, plays improvised melodies. Can't leave out the mudic of Ibu Maimunah Mochtar & Group which combines Malay, Portuguese and Middle Eastern musical elements on accordion, frame drum and vocals. 15 tracks, representing as many styles are included here, though a few out and out pop tracks made the cut as well and I can't say they were crucial additions. 12 pages of liner notes on the artists, source listings for the tracks and a brief introduction to the islands round out the package.
RealAudio clip: CBMW "Sambasunda"
RealAudio clip: L.S. GELIK "Jeruk Manis"
RealAudio clip: NASIDA RIA "Boleh Bersuka Ria"

V/A Secret Museum Of Mankind - Music Of Central Asia - Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48 (Yazoo) cd 16.98

V/A Shadow Music Of Thailand (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
It's almost impossible to pick a favorite Sublime Frequencies release. Every one is amazing, mysterious, wondrous, fantastical, funky, fun, far out, in fact, we could just have a standing Record Of The Week reserved for all the Sublime Frequencies records. However, no matter how hard it is, we do in fact have favorites, and this is most definitely one. Not sure how SF decides which records to release as vinyl only, or cd only, it's definitely frustrating for the format specific fan, the vinyl is expensive, limited, and often ends up on eBay for crazy amounts of money, the cd is simple and cheaper, and most of the releases are in fact cd, most likely never to make it to vinyl. Thankfully, at least for the digitally inclined, all of the lp only releases seems to eventually make it to cd, they may make us wait, make us sweat a little, but it always happens, and it's always worth the wait. We wanted to make this Record Of The Week when it first came out on vinyl, but it seemed sad to leave out the still sizeable group of turntableless music lovers, but now it's on cd (and sadly out of print on vinyl), so here we go, another fantastic Sublime Frequencies release, and latest Aquarius Record Of The Week, Shadow Music Of Thailand!
So what is Shadow Music Of Thailand? Well, it's Thai pop heavily influenced by UK instrumental rockers The Shadows of course. More specifically it's a strain of sixties Thai guitar pop heavily influenced by Western music, rock, garage and especially surf. The guitar being the most obvious influence.
So here we have a collection of some of the most notable purveyors of "Shadow Music": The Son Of P.M., P.M. Pocket Music, P.M 7 / Jupiter and Johnny Guitar. You may have noticed the recurring P.M., well that stands for Payong Mukda, one of the most prolific composers and performers of the time and the music genius behind all of those P.M. groups.
On first listen, the Shadow Music here doesn't sound all that different than much of the Thai Pop we've heard before on other collections, and no doubt there is some overlap. But keep listening, and all sorts of strange and unique little sonic flourishes reveal themselves. Really, where else can you hear gamelan percussion with super fuzzed out ? And The Mysterions style organ and wailing surf guitar? From groovy garage rock to shimmery surf, lots of organ, and plenty of gamelan, vibraphone, xylophone, gorgeous vocals, strange harmonies, mysterious melodies, but it's those guitars, it buzzes and howls, chugs and twangs, woven into all of the songs here, creating this strange hybrid, Thai Pop, Bollywood, surf rock, blues rock, Latin, soul, all woven into a wild groovy psychedelic fuzzy funky garage folkpop that will totally hit the spot for fans of exotic grooves and wild and wonderful sounds.
Full color booklet with tons of original Thai artwork and brief liner notes.
MPEG Stream: THE SON OF P.M. "Luk Tung Klong Yao"
MPEG Stream: P.M. POCKET MUSIC "Kack Toi Mor"
MPEG Stream: JOHNNY GUITAR "Mon Du Dow"
MPEG Stream: P.M. 7 / JUPITER "Susie Wong"

V/A Shadow Music Of Thailand (Sublime Frequencies) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another super limited lp installment in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding collection of fantastic and mysterious world musics. It's unclear, why a few releases have been vinyl only, and if the shelf-life of the last Sublime Frequencies lp was any indication, these won't last long at all.
So what is Shadow Music Of Thailand? Well, it's Thai pop heavily influenced by UK instrumental rockers The Shadows of course. More specifically it's a strain of sixties Thai guitar pop heavily influenced by Western music, rock, garage and especially surf. The guitar being the most obvious influence.
So here we have a collection of some of the most notable purveyors of "Shadow Music": The Son Of P.M., P.M. Pocket Music, P.M 7 / Jupiter and Johnny Guitar. You may have noticed the recurring P.M., well that stands for Payong Mukda, one of the most prolific composers and performers of the time and the music genius behind all of those P.M. groups.
On first listen, the Shadow Music here doesn't sound all that different than much of the Thai Pop we've heard before on other collections, and no doubt there is some overlap. But keep listening, and all sorts of strange and unique little sonic flourishes reveal themselves. Really, where else can you hear gamelan percussion with super fuzzed out ? And The Mysterions style organ and wailing surf guitar? From groovy garage rock to shimmery surf, lots of organ, and plenty of gamelan, vibraphone, xylophone, gorgeous vocals, strange harmonies, mysterious melodies, but it's those guitars, it buzzes and howls, chugs and twangs, woven into all of the songs here, creating this strange hybrid, Thai Pop, Bollywood, surf rock, blues rock, Latin, soul, all woven into a wild groovy psychedelic fuzzy funky garage folkpop that will totally hit the spot for fans of exotic grooves and wild and wonderful sounds.
LIMITED ONE TIME PRESSING OF ONLY 1500 COPIES. 180 gram vinyl, super thick, gatefold sleeve, full color with tons of original Thai artwork and brief liner notes.
MPEG Stream: THE SON OF P.M. "Luk Tung Klong Yao"
MPEG Stream: P.M. POCKET MUSIC "Kack Toi Mor"
MPEG Stream: JOHNNY GUITAR "Mon Du Dow"
MPEG Stream: P.M. 7 / JUPITER "Susie Wong"

V/A Shir Hodu: Jewish Song From The Bombay Of The 30's (Renair) cd 17.98
Fascinating collection of Hebrew paraliturgical songs by Eastern Jewish singers from the Bene Israel and Baghdadian Jewish communities residing in Bombay, India during the thirties. Originally released on 78's from the King, Hebrew, and Jay Bharat Record labels, these recordings from various Hazzanim (cantors and prayer leaders), music school directors, an entrepreneurial meat-shop owner, Shofar (ram's horn) blowers, and instrumental stars of the Indian cinema are the long lost sonic artifacts from a nearly forgotten world of Indian Jewish musical traditions. We never realized before how intertwined these two musical traditions were, but of course it makes sense with the cross-pollination of Eastern European, North African and Middle Eastern populations through the bustling trade city of Bombay, that the cultural traditions would intermingle and possibly influence each other. Thus this is also recommended for fans of early Indian music, as well as for those intrigued by rare Jewish music recordings. The cd comes with a richly illustrated 24-page booklet with memories and photos of the descendants, relatives and friends of the singers and instrumentalists, gathered from across the globe.
MPEG Stream: SIMEON JACOB KHARILKER "Adon Olam"
MPEG Stream: ABID DAVID "Deror Yikra"
MPEG Stream: ZAKY SOLOMAN ISAAC "Yodukha Raayonai"
MPEG Stream: NATHAN SOLOMON SATIMKAR "Deror Iqra"

V/A Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular Vol.2 1960's-1980's (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of another Sublime Frequencies release, the Shadow Music Of Thailand, where we discuss how hard it is to pick a favorite release, cuz they're all so goddamn good.
And such is the case with this one too, a sequel of sorts to 2007's Thai Pop Spectacular 1960s-1980s, this one titled Siamese Soul, but the first one was pretty soulful as well, so we'll presume that it was just chosen as a catchy title, because this does play out like a continuation of the first part which is in no way a bad thing, in fact, we'd been hankering for more ever since that first volume.
As the loner notes discuss, Cambodian pop has gotten so much attention lately, that it seems almost criminal that Thai pop wasn't getting the same attention, which becomes even more apparent listening to Siamese Soul (as well as the first volume). In the review of the first volume we described Thai Pop as "an awesomely confusional mix of Molam, Bollywood, Ethiopian groove, funk, soul, American pop and surf rock, all tangled up into amazing shapes, and peppered with killer hooks, amazing vocalists, bizarre production techniques, but most of all amazing amazing songs." Which of course still absolutely applies. Heavy Western funk to Ethiopian sounding grooves, tripped out organ drenched fuzz rock, with creepy sexy female vox to Shadows / Ventures style surf rock, a bunch of the songs like many of the tracks on the two Molam: Thai Country Groove Sublime Frequencies comps, totally remind us of whatever Thai song the Butthole Surfers appropriated for their song "Kuntz", that distinctly Thai vocal melody is so unmistakable and unforgettable. The whole record is just so wild and fun and varied and out there, slipping easily from classic sounding pop, to mysterious folk music, to stomping funk, to twangy soundtrack sounds to smokey bar ballads, to slithery soul, to far out almost Bollywood sounding exotica, all with a distinctly Thai flavor. Funky, groovy, soulful, so so good. Check out the sound samples. Sometimes we feel words can't quite do sounds like these justice. And the more we listen to this, the more THIS one is becoming one of our favorites, and heck, we could very well have made this another Record Of The Week too!
MPEG Stream: DAW BANDON "Bong Ja Bong (Bong, Oh Bong)"
MPEG Stream: KWAN JAI & KWAN JIT SRIPRAJAN "E-Saew Tam Punha Huajai (Advice Column For Love Troubles (Part 1)"
MPEG Stream: KWAN JIT SRIPRAJAN "Panatibat (Sin No. 1: Do Not Kill)"
MPEG Stream: ROONG PETCH LAEM SING "Kob Kanong Fon (Frogs Dancing In The Rain)  "

V/A Singapore A-Go-Go (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Sublime Frequencies seemingly can do no wrong. A keen ear and a deft curatorial skill means that every release is not just interesting sociologically, but is musically kick ass as well. Singapore A-Go-Go is a collection of singles recorded and released during a brief period in the sixties and seventies, when various Southeast Asian countries were bucking the stringent requirements of the Chinese state, embracing both Western pop and traditional Chinese music, which were essentially banned. Thanks to American G.I.s and Radio Free Asia, young people grew up listening to both Chinese music, and all manner of Western pop, the fact that the economy was booming, also meant that kids could afford records and record players, and musicians could afford instruments and studio time, which of course meant tons of records reflecting this classical Chinese / Western pop hybrid. The liner notes this time around are dense and fascinating, all about the time and the culture and the climate, the musicians and the proliferation of small labels, which is all just icing, on this amazing compilation of gorgeous garage-y girl group pop, the mix of cultures and sounds is definitely heady. Morricone-ish twang, soulful grooves, and sing songy traditional Chinese music will coexist peacefully and perfectly within the same song, pounding drums, whirring organs, Joe Meek style instrumental surf rock will wrap around jazzy vibraphones, and funky basslines, some songs sound like American TV show themes, others sound almost Bollywood, while still others sound like Perrey & Kingsley. Soft easy listening Lawrence Welkisms flow right into more rocking psychedelic rock, the Mission Impossible theme is reappropriated, with vocals added for a cool brooding surfy rock jam, Eastern style melodies are infused into classic sixties girl group sounds, and the vocals mostly female, are exuberant and girlish and wide eyed and playful, and make this whole collection so much fun. Like everything on Sublime Frequencies, way way way recommended!
MPEG Stream: GRACE LEE AND THE STYLERS "Each And Every Flower"
MPEG Stream: LINDA YONG AND THE SILVERTONES "Good Luck In The New Year"
MPEG Stream: CHARLIE ELECTRIC GUITAR BAND'S SOUND OF JAPAN "Carnation"
MPEG Stream: LIM LING AND THE SILVERTONES "(Funny, Funny) Why Do I Fall In Love With You?"
MPEG Stream: LIM LING AND THE SILVERTONES "Si Li Li Li Li Our Hearts Beat As One"

V/A Sitar Beat! Indian Style Heavy Funk Vol. II (Guerrilla Reissues) cd 14.98
We all know that very often sequels pale in comparison to the originals. But leave it to the irresistible Sitar Beat series to throw that convention out the window. The first volume of Sitar Beat brought together their previously vinyl only releases on one cd and it became one of our most played and favorite cds of last year! Volume two keeps the fire going with 16 more totally perfect, sitar fueled, groovy 'n heavy Indian funk delights. Pulled mostly from obscure soundtracks, most of these tracks we had never heard before but we've already lost count of how many times we've listened to this since it arrived in the store a week ago and now most of them have become all time AQ faves just like that! All the obvious names are represented: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Kalyanji Anandji, etc. While the tracks with vocals are all great (how could they not be with folks like Bhosle and Mangeshkar singing) but Sitar Beat is truly about the smokin' funk jam instrumentals. It just doesn't get more funky and fun than this! But it's not just kitschy fun, these are some seriously rocking jams, totally mind blowing music that reminds us once again that music can be strange and inventive yet immediate and exciting at the same time. AQ pal John Dwyer said it best when he came in while this was playing "Damn, this is hot!"
MPEG Stream: KALYANJI ANANDFI W/ LATA MANGESHKAR, ASHA BHOSLE & MAHENDRA KAPOOR "Pyar Zindagi Hai"
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN "Freakout Music"
MPEG Stream: USHA KHANNA "Tera Jasia Pyara Koi Nahin"

V/A Sitar Beat! Indian Style Heavy Funk Vol. II (Guerrilla Reissues) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We all know that very often sequels pale in comparison to the originals. But leave it to the irresistible Sitar Beat series to throw that convention out the window. The first volume of Sitar Beat brought together their previously vinyl only releases on one cd and it became one of our most played and favorite cds of last year! Volume two keeps the fire going with 16 more totally perfect, sitar fueled, groovy 'n heavy Indian funk delights. Pulled mostly from obscure soundtracks, most of these tracks we had never heard before but we've already lost count of how many times we've listened to this since it arrived in the store a week ago and now most of them have become all time AQ faves just like that! All the obvious names are represented: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Kalyanji Anandji, etc. While the tracks with vocals are all great (how could they not be with folks like Bhosle and Mangeshkar singing) but Sitar Beat is truly about the smokin' funk jam instrumentals. It just doesn't get more funky and fun than this! But it's not just kitschy fun, these are some seriously rocking jams, totally mind blowing music that reminds us once again that music can be strange and inventive yet immediate and exciting at the same time. AQ pal John Dwyer said it best when he came in while this was playing "Damn, this is hot!"
MPEG Stream: KALYANJI ANANDFI W/ LATA MANGESHKAR, ASHA BHOSLE & MAHENDRA KAPOOR "Pyar Zindagi Hai"
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN "Freakout Music"
MPEG Stream: USHA KHANNA "Tera Jasia Pyara Koi Nahin"

V/A Sitar Beat! Indian Style Heavy Funk Vol.1 (Guerrilla Reissues) cd 14.98
We were in absolute buzzing raga drone, funk soul heaven when we learned that those amazing and totally fun vinyl-only releases in the Sitar Beat series had now been compiled onto a cd. Most of us were never lucky enough to get the lps but now we can get our sitar funk on all the same! Chances are if you've been in the store in the last couple weeks you've heard us playing this, as this is one of those rare records that every single one of us can't help but be in love with. '60s, '70s and early '80s Bollywood jams and Indian-influenced psych-grooves HEAVY on the sitar. R.D. Burman, Ananada Shankar, Asha Bhosle, Serge Gainsbourg, Klaus Doldinger just to name a few of the responsible parties East and West who will henceforth be making your parties way more fun!!! But be prepared for tons of questions when all your friends start asking you what it is you're playing. We've been fielding those questions for weeks, but we're more then happy to answer with a simple reply: "It's Sitar Beat!..." and before we can even finish our sentence said questioner is on his or her way out the door with a copy. We rest much easier at night knowing that we're doing out small part to spread these amazing soul stirring buzzy freak funk grooves far and wide, filling ears and shaking souls!
MPEG Stream: SERGE GAINSBOURG W/MICHEL COLOMBIER "Pyschastenie"
MPEG Stream: KALYANJI ANANDII "Somebody To Love"
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN W/ASHA BOSHLE & KISHORE KUMORE "Aa Dekhen Jara"

V/A South Pacific: Island Music (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
An explicit warning on the back cover admonishes us not to expect to hear any "Hawaiian guitars, ukuleles and the Hula" on this disc. Which is all fine and dandy, because in its stead we're treated to some exceptionally rare recordings that span the wide pacific ocean. In 1978 David Fanshawe flew from island to island, seeking out the music of the people who lived there and -- if the local governments allowed it -- recorded them. Fanshawe travelled to the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, Western Samoa and Tahiti. From his travels he culled together twenty eight varied tracks, from the frenetic high speed drumming of the Cook Islands to the soft melodies of the Fangufangu Nose Flute. But most cherished on this collection are the beautiful choruses, both religious and secular, which sound like eerie inverted versions of an American Baptist gospel choir. In one love song, sung by a group of men gathered at a drinking club, the chorus is accompanied by the sounds of a woman pouring kava. Originally released in 1987 as "Island Music of the South Pacific".
RealAudio clip: COOK ISLANDS "Drum Chant"
RealAudio clip: SOLOMON ISLANDS "Pan Pipes And Night Roar"
RealAudio clip: TAHITI "Imene Tarava"

V/A South Sulawesi Strings (Music Of Indonesia 15) (Smithsonian Folkways) cd 15.98
From the liner notes: "South Sulawesi is remarkably rich in string music. Among the instruments are the kacapi (a two stringed, plucked lute), gambus (a plucked lute probably originating in Arabia), mandaliong (a keyed zither), and the violin. This album presents professional narravtive and lyric singing with kacapi from the Bugis, Makasar, and Mandar peoples, along with informal, private singing with kacapi from the Toraja and driving Bugis and Kajang instrumental tunes. Also from the Kajang comes the quite different music of the gambus. And as contrast to the plucked lutes, the album offers, from the Bugis, mysterious violin duets, a violin trio with singers, and a lively ensemble of violins, mandaliong, flute, kacapi, and singers."

V/A Spirit of India (Wagram) 2cd 19.98
French import double cd of Indian music new and old. Disc one ("Traditional") features fifteen tracks from a bunch of doubtless well-known trad Indian artists. Of course Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -- hey he's not Indian -- and Ravi Shankar are the only ones WE recognize. The selections are pretty cool with lots of wild vocal, tabla and sitar action. There's even some street sounds (honking cars and such) in the mix on one track. Then disc two ("New Vibes") hands things over to the dancefloor DJ crowd, doing the sort of East-meets-Electronica thing that Talvin Singh, Cheb I Sabbah, etc. popularized. They're not on here, but likeminded artists such as Badmarsh, Black Star Liner, Asian Dub Foundation, Up Bustle & Out, Fun-Da-Mental, and of course Bill Laswell make appearances. ...Actually, Talvin Singh IS on here, remixing a track by Ryuichi Sakamoto! Fans of the whole Outcaste label/aesthetic will want to check this out for sure. Of the two discs, the trad wins out with us but I guess we're just old school. A nice comp either way.

V/A Spirit of India 2 (Wagram) 2cd 19.98
As you've already figured out, this is the sequel to the Spirit of India 2cd comp reviewed above. Again we're presented with a disc of traditional material, and a second disc of "New Vibes" -- electronica takes on the sounds of India. Disc one's got Shankar and Khan again, and Trilok Gurtu and Shelia Chandra as well, plus also a bunch of other unknown-to-us artists, and is again pretty cool. Disc two also has some of the same folks from the first "Spirit of India" volume, plus Bally Sagoo, Thievery Corporation, Loop Guru, Transglobal Underground w/ Natacha Atlas, and more. If you dig Talvin Singh style stuff, you'll probably like this disc too.