PATHAK, PANDIT ASHOK Ancient Court Raga Traditions: The Pathak Gharana Dhrupad Ragas On Sitar (World Arbiter) cd 16.98

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Lullabies To Paralyze (Interscope) cd 16.98
Ok, c'mon. Do we really need to tell you about Queens Of The Stone Age? Seems to us that pretty much everyone we knows loves 'em. Whether you're an MTV teenybopper, a stoner rock dude clinging to some sort of misplaced Kyuss loyalty, a metalhead who likes the occasional melodic rock record, or a total music nerd who finds QOTSA a perfect guilty pleasure. But what's there to be guilty about? This stuff totally rocks and absolutely rules! Warm fuzzy guitars wrapped around perfect pop hooks and Josh Homme's velvety croon. There seems to be a lot less all out rocking this time around, and a lot more almost-ballady crooning which is fine, those songs are still killer, but it's when Homme's semi-secret stoner desert rock past peaks through that things get good. Rollicking and riff heavy, head banging and fist pumping. Crashing drums and that umistakable fuzz guitar. How can you feel guilty about that?
MPEG Stream: "Medication"
MPEG Stream: "Tangled Up In Plaid"
MPEG Stream: "In My Head"

RAGAB, SALAH AND THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND ...Present Egyptian Jazz (Art Yard) cd 23.00
REPRESSED, BACK IN STOCK!
Wow! What an artifact. Here's some Egyptian jazz from the late '60s-early '70s courtesy of of the man who founded the first jazz big band in Egypt and later accompanied Sun Ra on tour in Egypt, Greece, France and Spain. We're pretty sure you must be damn curious by now, so we should tell you that beyond those enticing facts this is some seriously fine jazz played by a band made up of some of the best musicians in Egypt during that era. Five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion all coming together to form a super rich and tasty sound. Incorporating Middle Eastern melodies and mystique into its sound, this is the kind of jazz that's pretty impossible not to fall for. Like the best instrumental Ethiopiques tracks, Sun Ra's big-band era and Randy Weston's multicultural approach to hard bop. Incredibly pleasing!
MPEG Stream: "Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Oriental Mood"

SELDA s/t (Finders Keepers) lp 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON (expensive, import) VINYL!
Oh Selda! We are soooooooo in love with your voice! We first heard you on the amazing Love Peace and Poetry compilation of Turkish psychedelic music and ever since then, we just wanted more more more! Last year we got our Selda fix with a collection of vinyl transfers released by World Psychedelia, and now finally we get another full serving of Selda that we've so desperately been craving! No surprise that the fine folks with impeccable taste at B-Music/Finders Keepers are responsible for this amazing collection of Selda at her best! With a singular voice that demands and grabs your attention with such utter flare, seduction and style, Selda is truly a musical treasure who we're sure will win the ears and hearts of just about anyone who listens. Every song has a rich musical backdrop, perfectly cradling her lovely vocals, with a sound that has no easy genre lines to point to, but that so few have touched on with such perfection. It's psych-rock and glorious pop, it's folk and funk, it's fun and dramatic, its whatever it wants to be, and it's a collection of songs with absolutely no misses! There is a playfulness in the performances that totally imbue the songs with a rich full color fever that just can't be denied. While some reissues exist more for history's sake or for just a couple cool tracks, this is one of those records that requires repeated listening, and lord knows we have listened to this over and over and over. In some ways we even think of Selda like a Turkish version of Asha Bhosle, with that sort of amazing voice that turns everything it touches into musical magic.
Way beyond recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ince Ince"
MPEG Stream: "Yaylalar"
MPEG Stream: "Karaoglan"

SELDA s/t (Finders Keepers) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL... AND AT A NICER PRICE TOO!
Oh Selda! We are soooooooo in love with your voice! We first heard you on the amazing Love Peace and Poetry compilation of Turkish psychedelic music and ever since then, we just wanted more more more! Last year we got our Selda fix with a collection of vinyl transfers released by World Psychedelia, and now finally we get another full serving of Selda that we've so desperately been craving! No surprise that the fine folks with impeccable taste at B-Music/Finders Keepers are responsible for this amazing collection of Selda at her best! With a singular voice that demands and grabs your attention with such utter flare, seduction and style, Selda is truly a musical treasure who we're sure will win the ears and hearts of just about anyone who listens. Every song has a rich musical backdrop, perfectly cradling her lovely vocals, with a sound that has no easy genre lines to point to, but that so few have touched on with such perfection. It's psych-rock and glorious pop, it's folk and funk, it's fun and dramatic, its whatever it wants to be, and it's a collection of songs with absolutely no misses! There is a playfulness in the performances that totally imbue the songs with a rich full color fever that just can't be denied. While some reissues exist more for history's sake or for just a couple cool tracks, this is one of those records that requires repeated listening, and lord knows we have listened to this over and over and over. In some ways we even think of Selda like a Turkish version of Asha Bhosle, with that sort of amazing voice that turns everything it touches into musical magic.
Way beyond recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ince Ince"
MPEG Stream: "Yaylalar"
MPEG Stream: "Karaoglan"

SELDA Vurulduk Ey Halkim Unutma Bizi (World Psychedelia) cd 17.98
Surface crackle, yes! And the record from which this cd was transferred sounds maybe a little warped. But no matter, we like all that!! Makes it all the more psychedelic, eh? This is a reissue of some potent Turkish protest pop from the '70s, featuring folky strumming, irresistible Anatolian grooves, and Selda Bagcan's beautiful, often urgent-sounding voice. Sounds like something that should immediately be of interest to any AQ customers into radical East meets West psych-folk from Turkey (of which we know there are plenty, nowadays!) particularily those who've already heard Selda via the inclusion of her songs "Bundan Sonra" and "Ince Ince Bir Kar Yagar" on the recent and quite recommended Turkish installment of the Love Peace and Poetry series ("Bundan Sonra" shows up here, too).
As alluded to above, this certainly isn't digitally remastered from the pristine master tapes, but at least folks that put out this cd deserve kudos not only for digging it up for us but also providing lyrics and liner notes in the cd booklet -- although the lyrics are given only in the original Turkish, with no English translations, which would have gone a long way to making Selda's message more understandable to us today, outside of Turkey. Ah well. At least the liner notes, which are in English, provide some context. It's a little unclear, but it seems that Selda was considered a subversive figure by the repressive Turkish government at the time. This record may in fact have been banned -- at the very least we're told that original copies were (and are) hard to find due to government disapproval. And Selda was banned from foreign travel at least until 1987.
The first 12 tracks on this cd are from a 1976 album entitled Selda Vol. 2 (aka Vurulduk Ey Halkim Unutma Bizi, it seems), and then there's also eight additional, bonus tracks taken from Selda singles released in 1971 and '73, songs that are slightly less-rock, more-folk than the Vol. 2 material (which are already pretty folky). However, electric guitar, whining and fuzzed, figures into a few of this disc's tracks, while a lot of the rest is much more in a traditional (if electric) folk vein, with lush arrangements and a great emphasis on Selda's powerful, emotional voice.
To be filed with your reissues of 3 Hur-el and Mogollar (members of which are apparently are in Selda's backup band for some of this)...
MPEG Stream: "Utan, Utan"
MPEG Stream: "Askerin Turkusu"
MPEG Stream: "Bundan Sonra"

SOULEYMAN, OMAR Dabke 2020 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Sublime Frequencies record number two from the mind blowing Omar Souleyman! In reviewing the last Souleyman disc we compared the sound to something resembling a Middle Eastern Aavikko, which if you're anything like us, sounds AMAZING. Totally over the top chaotic world music rife with soaring strings, cheesy eighties drum machines, wild synths, and amazing buzzing saz melodies, and if anything this new disc is even more over the top.
More than ever, Souleyman's music sounds very Bollywood, festive, wild, sweaty, energized, intense and relentless, rooted around rhythm, the various melodies and vocals slither and swirl, unfurling woozy Eastern melodies over the non stop beat. It's definitely dance music, and party music, just not the sort of dance / party music we're used to.
The recording is fantastic too, very lo-fi, the texture and timbre of the sound shifting constantly, from murky and muddy, to bright and brilliant, could be that these cuts were culled from various tapes recorded and released over the past decade, but that only adds to the fun, and if it's anything, this music is fun. Funky, groovy, and fun fun fun. Sometimes the melodies are so rapid fire it begins to sound like some sort of alien video game music, then moments later it will slip into something darker and folkier, before exploding again into a wild burst of psychedelic dance chaos! Dabke apparently is a style of music, THIS music, a kind of party music rarely heard outside of Syria, as it's considered not important enough to export, but as far as we're concerned this is some of the most amazing music we've ever heard. For more background info on Souleyman, check the review of the older record on the aQ site, plenty of background on his life and his music, but it's hardly necessary, the sounds here definitely speak for themselves, and what they're saying, is buy this record now! It's so so so so so essential. And heck, while you're at it, you might as well pick up the other one as well (which is now available on vinyl!) if you haven't already, they both completely rule!
MPEG Stream: "Atabat"
MPEG Stream: "Lansob Sherek (I Will Make A Trap)"
MPEG Stream: "Shift Al Mani (I Saw Her)"

SOULEYMAN, OMAR Highway To Hassake: Folk & Pop Sounds Of Syria (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
The ever-reliable Sublime Frequencies label opens our ears to new frontiers of amazing sounds, AGAIN. "World music" isn't just what Putumayo puts out, y'know. Any adventurous music-fan should by now know to pick up each and every Sublime Frequencies release as they appear, you won't be disappointed. This latest cd presents some "Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria" in the form of a "best-of" collection of tunes by one Omar Souleyman, selected (and explicated in the liner notes) by AQ pal Mark Gergis (of Porest, Neung Phak, Mono Pause). Mark was the compiler of previous Sublime Freq faves like Choubi Choubi, Molam: Thai Country Groove, and Cambodian Cassette Archives. Already we hope you're eager to hear this disc, which features a variety of traditional folk forms from Souleyman's homeland and nearby countries supercharged with synth, the rapid fire results sounding something like a Middle Eastern version of Aavikko, almost. It'll make you sweat just listening to it. This stuff simply shreds. And when it's more mellowed-out, Souleyman's music is gorgeous too.
Now, we don't usually like to quote label press-releases whole-hog, but Sublime Frequencies has provided a lot of factual info on Souleyman and his music that any potential purchaser will find of interest, and so rather than paraphrase, here's what they said about this, it should certainly pique your curiosity all the more (though we'll tell you right now without further ado, GET THIS):
"Omar Souleyman is a Syrian musical legend. Since 1994, he and his musicians have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout Syria, but until now they have remained little known outside of the country. To date, they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live-recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. Born in rural northeastern Syria, he began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that remain with him today. The myriad musical traditions of the region are evident in their music. Here, classical Arabic mawal-style vocalization gives way to high-octane Syrian dabke (the regional folkloric dance and party music), Iraqi choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles, among others. This amalgamation is truly the sound of Syria. The music often has an overdriven sound consisting of phase-shifted Arabic keyboard solos and frantic rhythms. At breakneck speeds, these shrill Syrian electronics play out like forbidden Morse-code, but the moods swing from coarse and urgent to dirgy and contemplative in the rugged anthems that comprise Souleyman's repertoire. Oud, reeds, baglama saz, accompanying vocals and percussion fill out the sound from track to track. Mahmoud Harbi is a long-time collaborator and the man responsible for much of the poetry sung by Souleyman. Together, they commonly perform the "Ataba," a traditional form of folk poetry used in Dabke. On stage, Harbi chain smokes cigarettes while standing shoulder to shoulder with Souleyman, periodically leaning over to whisper the material into his ear. Acting as a conduit, Souleyman struts into the audience with urgency, vocalizing the prose in song before returning for the next verse. Souleyman's first hit in Syria was "Jani" (1996) which gained cassette-kiosk infamy and brought him recognition throughout the country. Sublime Frequencies is honored to present the Western debut of Omar Souleyman with this retrospective disc of studio and live recordings spanning 12 years of his career, culled from cassettes recorded between 1994 and 2006. This collection offers a rare glimpse into Syrian street-level folk-pop and Dabke - a phenomena seldom heard in the West, not previously deemed serious enough for export by the Syrians and rarely, if ever, included on the import agenda of worldwide academic musical committees."
Got it? Get it. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Leh Jani"
MPEG Stream: "Atabat"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Wear Black, Green Suits You Better"

SOULEYMAN, OMAR Highway To Hassake: Folk & Pop Sounds Of Syria (Sublime Frequencies) 2lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL, and super limited, bound to sell out and go out of print before you know it...
The ever-reliable Sublime Frequencies label opens our ears to new frontiers of amazing sounds, AGAIN. "World music" isn't just what Putumayo puts out, y'know. Any adventurous music-fan should by now know to pick up each and every Sublime Frequencies release as they appear, you won't be disappointed. This latest release presents some "Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria" in the form of a "best-of" collection of tunes by one Omar Souleyman, selected (and explicated in the liner notes) by AQ pal Mark Gergis (of Porest, Neung Phak, Mono Pause). Mark was the compiler of previous Sublime Freq faves like Choubi Choubi, Molam: Thai Country Groove, and Cambodian Cassette Archives. Already we hope you're eager to hear this disc, which features a variety of traditional folk forms from Souleyman's homeland and nearby countries supercharged with synth, the rapid fire results sounding something like a Middle Eastern version of Aavikko, almost. It'll make you sweat just listening to it. This stuff simply shreds. And when it's more mellowed-out, Souleyman's music is gorgeous too.
Now, we don't usually like to quote label press-releases whole-hog, but Sublime Frequencies has provided a lot of factual info on Souleyman and his music that any potential purchaser will find of interest, and so rather than paraphrase, here's what they said about this, it should certainly pique your curiosity all the more (though we'll tell you right now without further ado, GET THIS):
"Omar Souleyman is a Syrian musical legend. Since 1994, he and his musicians have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout Syria, but until now they have remained little known outside of the country. To date, they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live-recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. Born in rural northeastern Syria, he began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that remain with him today. The myriad musical traditions of the region are evident in their music. Here, classical Arabic mawal-style vocalization gives way to high-octane Syrian dabke (the regional folkloric dance and party music), Iraqi choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles, among others. This amalgamation is truly the sound of Syria. The music often has an overdriven sound consisting of phase-shifted Arabic keyboard solos and frantic rhythms. At breakneck speeds, these shrill Syrian electronics play out like forbidden Morse-code, but the moods swing from coarse and urgent to dirgy and contemplative in the rugged anthems that comprise Souleyman's repertoire. Oud, reeds, baglama saz, accompanying vocals and percussion fill out the sound from track to track. Mahmoud Harbi is a long-time collaborator and the man responsible for much of the poetry sung by Souleyman. Together, they commonly perform the "Ataba," a traditional form of folk poetry used in Dabke. On stage, Harbi chain smokes cigarettes while standing shoulder to shoulder with Souleyman, periodically leaning over to whisper the material into his ear. Acting as a conduit, Souleyman struts into the audience with urgency, vocalizing the prose in song before returning for the next verse. Souleyman's first hit in Syria was "Jani" (1996) which gained cassette-kiosk infamy and brought him recognition throughout the country. Sublime Frequencies is honored to present the Western debut of Omar Souleyman with this retrospective disc of studio and live recordings spanning 12 years of his career, culled from cassettes recorded between 1994 and 2006. This collection offers a rare glimpse into Syrian street-level folk-pop and Dabke - a phenomena seldom heard in the West, not previously deemed serious enough for export by the Syrians and rarely, if ever, included on the import agenda of worldwide academic musical committees."
Got it? Get it. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Leh Jani"
MPEG Stream: "Atabat"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Wear Black, Green Suits You Better"

TINARIWEN Aman Iman: Water Is Life (World Village) cd 21.00
Wow! The latest from this large ensemble from Mali once again demonstrate that they are one of the best bands anywhere on this planet. Their mix of electric guitars with more traditional acoustic percussion comes just flows so naturally with an effortless grace and style that just seeps into your soul. After their great debut from a few years back and a tour of the states (their show here in SF at the Great American Music Hall is still burned into the memories of those of us who were there that night!) there was of course the natural concern that like much great music from the other side of the globe that finally reaches these parts, that some glossy western producer would try to get their hands on Tinariwen and water them down for mass consumption. Tinariwen actually don't need any of that to reach a broad audience as their songs are so well crafted as they are, and so filled with warmth and emotion that they're pretty impossible not to love. Recorded in just two weeks, there is an urgency and undeniable spirit to these recordings, capturing their sound maybe better then any past recording of them has. Their music continues to exude the essence of the desert and what it means to be a nomadic people. The way they are able to find the perfect groove and lock into it is what sweeps us off our feet every time we listen to this. We would love to see them play shows with Brightblack Morning Light, as Tinariwen's warmth and deep grooves would be the perfect match for Brightblack's infectious take on nomad blissed out blues. This is quickly becoming one of our favorite records of the year, one of those discs that we can just say 'get it' with the utmost confidence. And it won't take you long to understand why!
MPEG Stream: "Cler Achel"
MPEG Stream: "Imidiwan Winakalin"
MPEG Stream: "Mano Dayak"

V/A Anatolia Rocks: A Musical Trip Through Turkey 1968-83 (World Wide Productions) lp 25.00
We haven't had a good Turkish psych compilation in some time and while this covers some pretty familiar ground, there's plenty of stuff new to us to recommend it. Don't let the time range of the music create any doubts, the bulk of this is from 1968-1976 with one song from 1977 (Edip Akbayram & Dostlar) and one from 1983 (Fikret Kizilok, doing a smoky ballad that sounds older than most material on here). Three of the tracks are reissued here for the first time. While there are key hits from Selda, Erkin Koray, Mustafa Ozkent and 3 Hur-el that have been on numerous other releases, the tracks by Baris Manco, Esin Afsar, Umit Tokcan, Nurcan Opel, Galatasaray Lisesi, and Cem Karaca Ve Apslar are all unfamiliar to us, mostly taken from rare 45's and soundtrack records. Lots of heavy rock groove, surfy lounge beat, and smoky soulfulness to make this a highly worthwhile collection for DJs and unusual psych connoisseurs. Just ignore the subpar cover art! On Red Vinyl!
(This was also released as an outrageously expensive cd-r, we passed on those, but figured it was worth it on vinyl.)

V/A Beyond Istanbul: Underground Grooves Of Turkey (Trikont) cd 19.98
While only one of us here has actually been to Turkey (that would be Allan, the lucky bastard), we'll all pretty obsessed with Turkish psych/prog/folk music for quite a while now, as is evidenced by the fact that we review pretty much everything we can get our hands on. Edip Akbayram, Erkin Koray, 3 Hur-El, Mogollar, Bulent, Selda as well as comps galore, Love Peace And Poetry, Turkish Delights, Hava Narghile, we just can't get enough. The one aspect of Turkish music we haven't really explored is 'club' music. Could be that we generally don't even like American club music, as none of us are or ever were really what you might consider clubkids. Or it could be that there was never any really comprehensive collection of Turkish club music. Probably a little of both.
But leave it to Germany's mighty Trikont label to set us straight. With such a big Turkish population in Germany, the Istanbul music scene has a following there too, and Trikont asked popular DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu to put this collection together. Underground Grooves Of Turkey covers a wide expanse of Turkish sounds, from straight up dance floor pop, to weird guitar heavy grooves, to dub and hip hop, and pretty much every stop in between. While the sound veers dramatically all over the sonic map, there are definitely aspects that seem to be present in most, if not all of these tracks. We hear LOTS of Bollywood music stylings. The more playful upbeat tracks, the ones with big beats, wild rhythms and strings all over the place, it's hard not to imagine huge big budget dance scenes, dancers twirling, epic and massive and WILD. The more low key, laid back tracks alternately remind us of Muslimgauze, Dead Can Dance, and Jaz Coleman and Anne Dudley's Middle Eastern themed Songs From The Victorious City released several years back. As well as obviously all of the vintage Turkish music we have been digging.
Every single one of these songs is totally unique in its own way, and distinctly Turkish, incorporating all manner of other sounds while managing to sound fresh and original. The first track on the comp, The Night Session's "La Mirage" had us at hello. Imagine 50 Cent's "In Da Club" with its loping laid back swagger, mashed up with haunting minor key, Eastern tinged strings, fluttering flutes and soaring Arabesque vocals. Pretty kick ass. Could definitely be a club hit here. Surprised this track hasn't already been snapped up by that whole Sounds Of The Asian underground scene. With a comp this varied, probably the best way to approach it is track by track. Worth it for the opening song alone, but the rest of the disc is dense and dizzyingly wonderful as well:
-- A soundscape of dense swirls of playful, festive Bollywood exuberance, with amazing vocals from Sivan Perwer, one of the most famous Kurdish vocalists, now living in Germany.
-- Cay Taylan from Vienna, doing a more modern take, a downtempo triphopped version of a traditional Turkish dance, with lots of strings, Eastern percussion, lots of spacey FX and some groovy dubbed out rhythms.
-- A super pop gem from Nil Karaibrahimgil. A mix of drum and bass and hip hop, a childlike rhyme about the weaknesses of men, a sort of Eastern version of the Spice Girls or M.I.A., kind of sassy, and playful, fun, and funky,
-- Baba Zula mixes traditional jazz with Eastern psychedelia, a heady swirl of dreamlike vocals, traditional percussion and melodies, and plenty of late night jazzy shuffle. Some of his past recordings were produced by Mad Professor!
-- Orient Expressions are from Istanbul and carry on the musical tradition of Alevites, a religious minority of Turkish Islam, with a track based on a Kurdish folk song, taking traditional religious music and giving it a dubby electronic makeover, with washed out atmospheres, lilting vocals and super laid back beats, almost like a much more Eastern Enigma or Dead Can Dance
-- Ayhan Sicimoglu is the first Latin musician in the Turkish music scene and offers up a bad ass dancehall jam, a stuttery funky beat over a buzzing kazoo-like melody played on a Zurna, a traditional Turkish folk instrument with just a hint of the dreaded Reggaeton sound (which sounds KILLER here)!
-- dZihan & Kamien are a Swiss / Bosnian duo from Vienna, who craft epic trip hop dubscapes of shuffling slithering rhythms, minor key strings, strange vocal snippets, all wrapped into super catchy laid back grooves.
-- Ceza is one of the biggest names in the still developing Turkish rap scene. He gets compared to Eminem all the time, cuz of his rapid fire flow and whiney voice, and that's not far off the mark. If you can imagine Eminem rapping IN TURKISH over a killer bed of swooping Bollywood strings, fuzzy bass, and skittery almost dancehall rhythms... Wow!
-- The music of Burhan Ocal is really hard to describe, VERY Bollywood sounding, epic and dense, lots of funky rhythms, strings soaring and stirring, elements of Turkish traditional folk music, and some really strange female vocals from Emal Sayin, "the dame of Turkish art-music". She has a strangely strangled sounding mewl that goes from guttural growl to throaty croon, all over super dense and complex string parts and skittery electronic drums. Cool!
-- Baba Cay unfurls a groovy laid back ambient chillout groove, a sort of blissed out R+B, a little hint of new age swoosh, and plenty of Turkish filigree BUT it's not sung in Turkish, instead he sings in a made up language a la Magma or the Ruins.
-- The band with the very un-Turkish sounding name of Brooklyn Funk Essentials are all about super festive party music, equal parts USA and Turkey, with elements of Klezmer, ska, acid jazz, funk and hip hop, a wild block party groove, with loads of horns, that go from ska bounce to dizzying Klezmer swirl in the blink of an eye. Almost like a Turkish / Klezmer version of Jurassic 5!
-- Burhan Ocal is a famous Turkish percussionist, who weaves an intricate percussive backdrop over which traditional instruments like saz and oud buzz and swirl, a droning gorgeous rhythmic ritual, simultaneously ancient and modern, near the end a drum kit kicks in and then it sounds like some modernized Zakir Hussein jam. So good. Very reminiscent of Muslimgauze.
-- Goksel is a modern Turkish pop singer, with a breathy passionate voice, very melodramatic, performing here some sort of displaced modern American pop ballad, filtered through a distinctly Eastern vibe, reverbed guitars and traditional percussion mixed into soft focus Turkish moody pop, with a slight Western (as in country and western) twang. Her voice actually sounds remarkably like Nina Persson from the Cardigans!
-- Replikas are a guitar heavy underground rock band, who have been written up in the Wire and have even worked with Sonic Youth (and downtown NY) producer Wharton Tiers. Big distorted guitars, pounding drums, driving rhythms, sprinkled with distinctly Turkish bits here and there, soaring vocal melodies, moody strings, all makes for a gorgeous and strangely affecting track...
Not sure how this fits in with the rest of these "underground grooves" but pretty cool nonetheless.
-- Finally, the last track comes from Taner Demiralp, a young conductor / composer who delivers an almost liturgical sounding piece based on a traditional poem, praising the sultans, composed in the style of court music from the Ottoman Empire, including the lyrics and vocals, which are sung and composed in a traditional style no longer in use. Gorgeous crooned melodies over mournful minor key strings, all over a shuffling stuttering electronic beat. creepy and quite beautiful.
Absolutely essential for fans of Turkish music, and anyone who loved any of the Turkish psych compilations we've listed in the past. And all you folks who dig stuff like Kruder And Dorfmeister, Tosca, Peace Orchestra, Kid Loco and the like and just might be open to something a little more exotic, might really dig this stuff.
Like all Trikont releases, Beyond Istanbul is packaged in a full color digipak, and includes a massive set of liner notes, with a history of modern Turkish music, notes on each song and artist, as well as lots of photos!
MPEG Stream: THE NIGHT SESSION "La Mirage"
MPEG Stream: NIL KARAIBRAHIMGIL "Butun Kizlar Toplandik"
MPEG Stream: BURHAN OCAL & TRAKYA ALL STARS "Tekirdag Karsilasmasi"
MPEG Stream: REPLIKAS "Omur Sayaci"

V/A Bosporus Bridges: A Wide Selection of Turkish Jazz and Funk 1968-1978 (The World Is My Oyster Records) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Choubi Choubi! Folk & Pop Sounds From Iraq (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
RE-pressed and BACK in STOCK! Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many CDs of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime ( tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his -- well deserved -- reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts -- such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge -- and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) -- not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when I (Byram) first listened to this record I could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that I remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
MPEG Stream: UNKNOWN "Ahl Al Aqil"
MPEG Stream: BAWIN "Ya Binaya Goumi"
MPEG Stream: SADUN JABIR "Ashhad Biannak Hilou"

V/A Dances And Trances: Sufi Rites And Berber Music From Taraoudannt Morocco (World Arbiter) cd 16.98

V/A Drinking Horns & Gramophones 1902-1914 (Traditional Crossroads) cd 17.98
Subtitled: "The First Recordings in the Georgian Republic." The Traditional Crossroads label is at its best when digging up and restoring historical recordings from the Middle East and elsewhere, such as those found here, 25 tracks recovered (and digitially remastered -- as wonderfully dusty and crackly as these are, I wonder what they sounded like beforehand!) from the archives of the Gramophone Company in Moscow and London. It's a treasure trove of complex, polyphonic choral folk music, a unique Georgian tradition dating back to the 4th century (predating the use of polyphony in Western music). These songs were recorded prior to the Russian Revolution and have been "lost" for many years... Work, wedding, and religious songs, and even improvisations based on nonsense words, all quite beautiful and mesmerizing. Packaged with 23 pages of detailed notes and photos.
RealAudio clip: CHOIR OF TBILISI "Ghmerto Mets Gadmomkhede"
RealAudio clip: CHOIR OF GURIA PROVINCE "Tsamokruli"

V/A Give Me Love: Songs Of The Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929 (Honest Jons) cd 17.98
The Honest Jons label has lately been giving Dust to Digital a real run for its money, in terms of releasing those far flung old world global sounds that we have not been able to get enough of. After devouring the Victrola Favorites and Black Mirror comps on D2D, the gorgeous I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore LP on Mississippi records and Honest Jon's last foray into dislocation, Living is Hard, we couldn't help but get excited over Honest Jon's latest release of early twentieth century recordings from Baghdad. Pulled from the same EMI archives as the Living is Hard compilation, Give Me Love: The Brokenhearted of Baghdad gives a keenly focused view of the ethnically diverse musical output of Iraq when it was still a British mandated territory. Arab folk singers backed by Jewish dance bands, solo Kurdish violin excursions, nightclub bands with female singers who doubled as prostitutes, circular zorna improvisations on par with the most out-jazz out there. So unearthly, beautiful and emotionally urgent. For obvious reasons, this release couldn't be more timely, as continued forced occupancy in the region has created such intense division and strife that it's a wonder we'll see such beauty again. Heartbreaking!
MPEG Stream: SAYED ABBOOD "Min Fergetak Lilyom"
MPEG Stream: SIDDIQA EL MULLAYA "Wehak El Kab Walkossein"
MPEG Stream: BADRIA ANWAR "Lega Taresh Habibi"

V/A Give Me Love: Songs Of The Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929 (Honest Jons) 2lp 22.00
The Honest Jons label has lately been giving Dust to Digital a real run for its money, in terms of releasing those far flung old world global sounds that we have not been able to get enough of. After devouring the Victrola Favorites and Black Mirror comps on D2D, the gorgeous I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore LP on Mississippi records and Honest Jon's last foray into dislocation, Living is Hard, we couldn't help but get excited over Honest Jon's latest release of early twentieth century recordings from Baghdad. Pulled from the same EMI archives as the Living is Hard compilation, Give Me Love: The Brokenhearted of Baghdad gives a keenly focused view of the ethnically diverse musical output of Iraq when it was still a British mandated territory. Arab folk singers backed by Jewish dance bands, solo Kurdish violin excursions, nightclub bands with female singers who doubled as prostitutes, circular zorna improvisations on par with the most out-jazz out there. So unearthly, beautiful and emotionally urgent. For obvious reasons, this release couldn't be more timely, as continued forced occupancy in the region has created such intense division and strife that it's a wonder we'll see such beauty again. Heartbreaking!
MPEG Stream: SAYED ABBOOD "Min Fergetak Lilyom"
MPEG Stream: SIDDIQA EL MULLAYA "Wehak El Kab Walkossein"
MPEG Stream: BADRIA ANWAR "Lega Taresh Habibi"

V/A Hava Narghile (Dionysus / Bacchus Archives) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK!! Been waiting to see more of this old fave for a long time, here they are again at last. If you don't have it, get it!! It's such a good disc, compiled by Gokhan Aya and AQ customer Jay Dobis (who kindly showed Allan around to every record shop on Istiklal street when Allan visited Istanbul last year, thanks Jay!). Here's what we said about it originally:
Similar to the [now out of print] Turkish Delights compilation is this great collection of vintage psychedelic rock music from Turkey. With 22 tracks, spanning the years 1966-1975, this collection is a great introduction to the fanatastic, long-lost Middle Eastern acid rock scene. These bands raved it up in Istanbul nighclubs, blending the Western garage-psych rock of the era with Turkish folk influences (electic fuzz saz!), bellydancing beats, and all manner of "exotic" flourishes. Of the 17 artists on here, only a few names were already known to us, mainly from that aforementioned Turkish Delights lp or as the Turkish entries on the fab Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelic Music compilation. Those would be the amazing Mogollar (two tracks), guitar hero Erkin Koray, Mavi Isiklar, and Baris Manco. And none of their tracks are duplicated between this comp and those other two [and there's no overlap with anything on the more recent Turkish Love, Peace & Poetry volume either]. Of the many cuts on here, everyone will have their own favorites, certainly there's many killer ones. Dionysus' Bacchus Archives imprint has done a colorful job with the packaging, illustrated with promo photos and 7" sleeves. And every track gets a good paragraph of information, so by listening and reading you'll become hip to the history of the whole Turkish psych happenin'. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: ERSEN "Sor Kendine"
MPEG Stream: MELIK FARUK SERDAR SAYGUN "Gurbet Acisci"
MPEG Stream: BARIS MANCO & KAYGISIZLAR "Trip (Fairground)"

V/A I Remember Syria (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
That it's the first double disc in the Sublime Frequencies series says something about I Remember Syria. Recorded by Mark Gergis (Monopause / Neung Phak, Porest) in 1998 and 2000, I Remember Syria is an impressive collection of sounds, interviews and music from a country that's essentially unknown to the western world. Vilified by Bush, Rumsfeld et al. There's really no access to the wonderful culture of Syria. Gergis successfully attempts to alleviate that with the two plus hours presented here. Recorded using a stereo mic. and minidisc recorder, and subsidized with excerpts from television and radio. Disc one focuses on the city of Damascus, while disc two features recordings from throughout Syria. Along with recordings of street musicians, wedding processions, prayers, mosque interiors and open air markets are brief interviews with Syrian citizens reflecting on the US Govt. and the west in general. I Remember Syria is an impressive and unique audio documentary of a country that deserves more positive exposure.
MPEG Stream: I REMEMBER SYRIA "Multi-Interior"
MPEG Stream: I REMEMBER SYRIA "Debis"
MPEG Stream: I REMEMBER SYRIA "Homo Aleppo"
MPEG Stream: I REMEMBER SYRIA "Youth Radio of the Syrian Arab Republic"

V/A Inde: Kobiyals, Fakirs & Bauls (Buda Musique) cd 16.98
This is a recording of an annual festival held in Bengal and the performances on this recording are mostly of solo voice and male choruses. What's odd is that, though made in May of 1999, the recording sounds as though someone stuck a microphone in a tin can, smothered that in a pillow and buried it underground (actually, that might have turned out better than this.) Makes me think that maybe whoever did this, didn't exactly have express permission of the participants. Disappointing.

V/A Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music (Shadoks) cd 15.98
We were so excited when we heard that the newest installment in the always-cool Love Peace And Poetry series was going to focus on Turkish Psychedelic music! For a few years now, we've been loving all the '60s and '70s Turkish psych we could lay our hands on (which unfortunately is not as much as we'd like). We've had reissues of such bands as Mogollar, 3 Hur-el, Erkin Koray, Edip Akbayram, and Bulent. So, when we heard about this comp, we were excited -- but also wary of getting TOO excited, faced with the possibilty that this would simply consist of tracks by artists we already know and love, from records we already own, with nothing new and unknown to sate our appetite for more Middle Eastern psych treats. Well, holy halva! We couldn't have been more blown away when we finally got this in. Of the sixteen tracks, only five were by the above mentioned artists, while the rest were by artists totally unknown to us. And on top of that, EVERY track is amazing! From the Eastern-tinged, faux sitar, raga-like sixties garage rock of Selda, to the sunny proggy keyboard heavy folk of Ozdemir Erdogan, to the crooning soulful psych of Alpay, to the almost disco-y wild guitar groove of Hardal, to the strange Ethiopiques meets ska horns of Erkut Tackin. Wow! A lot of killer cuts on this one. We just can't stop playing it. Definitely lives up to the standards set by the two compilations that pretty much first introduced us to the Turkish psych scene, Hava Narghile on Bacchus Archives and (the now out of print) Turkish Delights on Grey Past.
And why do we like Turkish psych so much? Well, Turkey has a long tradition of musical talent to begin with, and being a part of Europe as well as Asia, the whole phenomenon of East-meets-West hybridization (in this case, traditional Anatolian folk and '60s pop beat) makes for some amazing music that couldn't come from anyplace else. Plus, psychedelia as a musical genre has always held a fascination with the East, the exotic... so psych music FROM such lands has a built-in advantage. Just check this out and you'll see.
MPEG Stream: OZDEMIR ERDOGAN VE ORKESTRASI "Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim"
MPEG Stream: SELDA "Bundan Sonra"
MPEG Stream: ALPAY "Kirpiklerin Ok Ok Eyle"
MPEG Stream: MAZHAR VE FUAT "Sur Efem Atini"

V/A Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music (Shadoks) lp 17.98
We were so excited when we heard that the newest installment in the always-cool Love Peace And Poetry series was going to focus on Turkish Psychedelic music! For a few years now, we've been loving all the '60s and '70s Turkish psych we could lay our hands on (which unfortunately is not as much as we'd like). We've had reissues of such bands as Mogollar, 3 Hur-el, Erkin Koray, Edip Akbayram, and Bulent. So, when we heard about this comp, we were excited -- but also wary of getting TOO excited, faced with the possibilty that this would simply consist of tracks by artists we already know and love, from records we already own, with nothing new and unknown to sate our appetite for more Middle Eastern psych treats. Well, holy halva! We couldn't have been more blown away when we finally got this in. Of the sixteen tracks, only five were by the above mentioned artists, while the rest were by artists totally unknown to us. And on top of that, EVERY track is amazing! From the Eastern-tinged, faux sitar, raga-like sixties garage rock of Selda, to the sunny proggy keyboard heavy folk of Ozdemir Erdogan, to the crooning soulful psych of Alpay, to the almost disco-y wild guitar groove of Hardal, to the strange Ethiopiques meets ska horns of Erkut Tackin. Wow! A lot of killer cuts on this one. We just can't stop playing it. Definitely lives up to the standards set by the two compilations that pretty much first introduced us to the Turkish psych scene, Hava Narghile on Bacchus Archives and (the now out of print) Turkish Delights on Grey Past.
And why do we like Turkish psych so much? Well, Turkey has a long tradition of musical talent to begin with, and being a part of Europe as well as Asia, the whole phenomenon of East-meets-West hybridization (in this case, traditional Anatolian folk and '60s pop beat) makes for some amazing music that couldn't come from anyplace else. Plus, psychedelia as a musical genre has always held a fascination with the East, the exotic... so psych music FROM such lands has a built-in advantage. Just check this out and you'll see.
MPEG Stream: OZDEMIR ERDOGAN VE ORKESTRASI "Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim"
MPEG Stream: SELDA "Bundan Sonra"
MPEG Stream: ALPAY "Kirpiklerin Ok Ok Eyle"
MPEG Stream: MAZHAR VE FUAT "Sur Efem Atini"

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 Open Strings (Honest Jon's) 2cd 22.00
Another amazing archival release from the seemingly infallible Honest Jon's, the fourth in their series of compilations collecting early 78s held in the EMI archives.
Open Strings, is as the title suggests, a collection of songs by virtuoso stringed instrument players, hailing from Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey, all recorded in the 1920s, an incredible selection of tracks, almost entirely unheard since they were first released. And wow. Every single track here is fantastic. Folks who have been obsessing over the Sublime Frequencies series best start paying attention to Honest Jon's as well, absolutely riveting, emotional, idiosyncratic, passionate, from wild musical flights of fancy, flurries of notes, tangled melodies, to warm whirring droning ragas, to playful folky lullabies, to wild, almost psychedelic workouts, to frenzied freakouts, to dark contemplative ballads, all warm and crackly and gorgeously aged, but at the same time absolutely timeless, this is some seriously magical music, lost treasures for sure.
And although it's really unnecessary, considering how sublime the first disc is on its own, the bonus material, featuring contemporary raga / drone string players responding to the originals (without which there music would not exist, or if it did, it would be in an extremely different form) is also pretty fantastic. And no doubt, folks with very little interest in Middle Eastern string music from the 20s will probably pick this up anyway for the folks doing modern versions of said music, just check out the lineup: SIR RICHARD BISHOP, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, STEFFEN BASHO-JUGHANS, MICHAEL FLOWER, CHARLIE PARR, BRUCE LICHER, PAUL METZGER, RICK TOMLINSON, MV & EE AND MICAH BLUE SMALLDONE. Not bad. And their interpretations/versions are quite varied and all quite cool, from dark hushed whispers, to effects laden psychedelic blowouts to longform raga buzz to delicate folky flutter. Hopefully folks who pick this up for the modern stuff, will dig deeper and discover a whole new world of sound.
The cd comes in a gorgeous printed gatefold jacket, with thick printed inner sleeves, and the vinyl, WOW. Super extravagant printed box, 4 lps in printed inner sleeves, heavy and deluxe and thus, a bit expensive, but for vinyl obsessives, probably well worth it.
MPEG Stream: MOUSTAPHA BEY RIDA "Taxim Hugaz Kar Wahda"
MPEG Stream: NECHAT BEY "Rast Taxim"
MPEG Stream: SIR RICHARD BISHOP "Olive Oasis"
MPEG Stream: CHARLIE PARR "Paul Bunyan's Fall"

V/A Open Strings (Honest Jon's) 4lp 55.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another amazing archival release from the seemingly infallible Honest Jon's, the fourth in their series of compilations collecting early 78s held in the EMI archives.
Open Strings, is as the title suggests, a collection of songs by virtuoso stringed instrument players, hailing from Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey, all recorded in the 1920s, an incredible selection of tracks, almost entirely unheard since they were first released. And wow. Every single track here is fantastic. Folks who have been obsessing over the Sublime Frequencies series best start paying attention to Honest Jon's as well, absolutely riveting, emotional, idiosyncratic, passionate, from wild musical flights of fancy, flurries of notes, tangled melodies, to warm whirring droning ragas, to playful folky lullabies, to wild, almost psychedelic workouts, to frenzied freakouts, to dark contemplative ballads, all warm and crackly and gorgeously aged, but at the same time absolutely timeless, this is some seriously magical music, lost treasures for sure.
And although it's really unnecessary, considering how sublime the first disc is on its own, the bonus material, featuring contemporary raga / drone string players responding to the originals (without which there music would not exist, or if it did, it would be in an extremely different form) is also pretty fantastic. And no doubt, folks with very little interest in Middle Eastern string music from the 20s will probably pick this up anyway for the folks doing modern versions of said music, just check out the lineup: SIR RICHARD BISHOP, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, STEFFEN BASHO-JUGHANS, MICHAEL FLOWER, CHARLIE PARR, BRUCE LICHER, PAUL METZGER, RICK TOMLINSON, MV & EE AND MICAH BLUE SMALLDONE. Not bad. And their interpretations/versions are quite varied and all quite cool, from dark hushed whispers, to effects laden psychedelic blowouts to longform raga buzz to delicate folky flutter. Hopefully folks who pick this up for the modern stuff, will dig deeper and discover a whole new world of sound.
The cd comes in a gorgeous printed gatefold jacket, with thick printed inner sleeves, and the vinyl, WOW. Super extravagant printed box, 4 lps in printed inner sleeves, heavy and deluxe and thus, a bit expensive, but for vinyl obsessives, probably well worth it.
MPEG Stream: MOUSTAPHA BEY RIDA "Taxim Hugaz Kar Wahda"
MPEG Stream: NECHAT BEY "Rast Taxim"
MPEG Stream: SIR RICHARD BISHOP "Olive Oasis"
MPEG Stream: CHARLIE PARR "Paul Bunyan's Fall"

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

V/A Radio Palestine: Sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
Another collection of music, commercials, news reports and noise culled from radio broadcasts recorded by Alan Bishop. The tracks here were captured by Mr. Bishop in 1985 in Egypt and Jerusalem. Of the three radio discs released to date by Sublime Frequencies, this one is the most ADD afflicted. The bulk of the sound samples collected here are less than 30 seconds in length, some of them mere seconds, with most of the edits even seemingly to have been done using the radio dial at the time of their being recorded. That said, there's an abundance of odd music and sounds crammed into the 66 minutes of this disc: BBC news, a Soviet-esque female chorus with piano, romantic instrumentals, hammered dulcimer and drone, chipper singers with orchestral accompaniment, psychedelic electric oud solos, commercials, religious broadcasts, radio noise and more. Sit back and let Alan take control of the remote for an hour.
MPEG Stream: RADIO PALESTINE "Bedoin Sparklers"
MPEG Stream: RADIO PALESTINE "Voice of Peace?"

V/A Raks Raks Raks: 17 Golden Garage Psych Nuggets From The Iranian 60's Scene (Raks Discos) cd 26.00
At this point, sixties psych reissues are a dime a dozen. We have a whole section in the store, packed with good ones, and those are only a tiny fraction of what gets released. We've groused about it before, but just cuz it's old and rare, doesn't make it worth reissuing. Though sometimes, wow, is it ever!
The one thing we had never seen though, was a collection of sixties garage and psych from Iran. Then again, we had probably never wondered about the garage psych scene in Iran at all, but Raks Raks Raks has set us straight, and has us wishing we had.
As one might imagine, playing in a psychedelic rock band in the Middle East in the sixties was no cake walk, although according to the liner notes, it was maybe not as bad as we in the West might imagine, but amidst the various restrictions, political and personal, folks were of course still expressing themselves, and making music, and the results speak for themselves. Odds are, like us, you won't recognize a single band here, but it hardly matters, every track here is a winner, from Asian sounding grooves, to Ventures like surfy twang, to distinctly Middle Eastern sounding melodies, to fuzzy fifties-ish vocal doo wop, to twisted Monkees-like catchy pop, to Ethiopiques-ish jazzy funky grooves, to jangly psych folk, to fuzzy organ driven Joe Meek like grooviness, all infused with a distinctly Middle Eastern vibe, not just the language, the sound itself. Lo-fi, but so bursting with life and color and energy, classic sounds but imbued with elements and twists that make the tracks on Raks Raks Raks stand WAY out from the ordinary sixties psych reissue crowd BIG TIME! Expensive maybe, but so so worth it!
Massive booklet with extensive liner notes, as much about the history of the era and the politics of the region as the music and the artists.
MPEG Stream: LITTLES "Fatemah Sultan"
MPEG Stream: MOHA JAMIN "Sheesh Va Hesht Moha Jamin"
MPEG Stream: FLOWERS "Meekshi Manoo"
MPEG Stream: GROUP TAKHALA HA "Dkhtar E Darya"
MPEG Stream: ZIA "Man Kiam?"
MPEG Stream: OJOOBE HA "Sartegar Nakesh Chen"

V/A Raks Raks Raks: 17 Golden Garage Psych Nuggets From The Iranian 60's Scene (Raks Discos) lp 33.00
At this point, sixties psych reissues are a dime a dozen. We have a whole section in the store, packed with good ones, and those are only a tiny fraction of what gets released. We've groused about it before, but just cuz it's old and rare, doesn't make it worth reissuing. Though sometimes, wow, is it ever!
The one thing we had never seen though, was a collection of sixties garage and psych from Iran. Then again, we had probably never wondered about the garage psych scene in Iran at all, but Raks Raks Raks has set us straight, and has us wishing we had.
As one might imagine, playing in a psychedelic rock band in the Middle East in the sixties was no cake walk, although according to the liner notes, it was maybe not as bad as we in the West might imagine, but amidst the various restrictions, political and personal, folks were of course still expressing themselves, and making music, and the results speak for themselves. Odds are, like us, you won't recognize a single band here, but it hardly matters, every track here is a winner, from Asian sounding grooves, to Ventures like surfy twang, to distinctly Middle Eastern sounding melodies, to fuzzy fifties-ish vocal doo wop, to twisted Monkees-like catchy pop, to Ethiopiques-ish jazzy funky grooves, to jangly psych folk, to fuzzy organ driven Joe Meek like grooviness, all infused with a distinctly Middle Eastern vibe, not just the language, the sound itself. Lo-fi, but so bursting with life and color and energy, classic sounds but imbued with elements and twists that make the tracks on Raks Raks Raks stand WAY out from the ordinary sixties psych reissue crowd BIG TIME! Expensive maybe, but so so worth it!
Massive booklet with extensive liner notes, as much about the history of the era and the politics of the region as the music and the artists.
MPEG Stream: LITTLES "Fatemah Sultan"
MPEG Stream: MOHA JAMIN "Sheesh Va Hesht Moha Jamin"
MPEG Stream: FLOWERS "Meekshi Manoo"
MPEG Stream: GROUP TAKHALA HA "Dkhtar E Darya"
MPEG Stream: ZIA "Man Kiam?"
MPEG Stream: OJOOBE HA "Sartegar Nakesh Chen"

V/A Rough Guide To Bollywood (Rough Guides) cd 13.98
It seems there's a "Rough Guide" for practically every kind of music from every inch of the world. Sort of like those "Idiot's Guide To..." or "... For Dummies" books which I have to admit are pretty darn helpful and informative, if somewhat insultingly titled. Luckily this compilation series isn't as unfortunately named, but is however less in depth and fulfilling. Certainly it's doesn't proclaim to be more than just an introductory tutorial, but although key figures are included like Asha Bhosle, Udit Narayan and Mohammed Rafi, it really barely skims the surface of this amazing genre. So if you're just looking for a basic sampler history lesson in Indian film music, this might do ya fine, but for those looking to delve a little deeper, don't wait another moment to check out the following titles: Doob Doob O'Rama Volumes 1 and 2, Vijaya Anand's Dance Raja Dance, Bollywood Funk, and The Best Of Asha Bhosle. Although these titles focus a lot more on the "golden age" of Bollywood than the more recent decades, they're much more thorough collections.
RealAudio clip: ASHA BHOSLE AND MOHAMMED RAFI "Chura Liya Hai Tum Ne"
RealAudio clip: UDIT NARAYAN "Jaadu Teri Koi"
RealAudio clip: CHITRA "Kehna Hi Kya"

V/A Shbahoth: Iraqi-Jewish Song From The 1920's (Renair) cd 22.00

V/A Soul Messages From Dimona (Numero Group) cd 17.98
Bet you don't have any Black Hebrew soul in your record collection. We sure didn't! But leave it to the folks at the Numero Group to extract this amazing document of the diaspora of black folks from Chicago and Detroit who converted to Judaism and made the pilgrimage to Israel, and more precisely to a city located just west of the Dead Sea called Dimona. When in Israel it was the music and spiritual soul that many of these people brought with them from Chicago and Detroit that would become the soundtracks to their new lives. Musically this is very much in line with the best of spiritual soul and gospel of that era (early '70s) and you can hear the influence of many of their Chicago brethren (Pieces of Peace, The Dells, Earth Wind & Fire). But of course what makes this so cool is the totally unique context that these songs came out of. On a few tracks they even sing some lines in Hebrew and the amazing pictures and in depth liner notes of this very obscure movement and moment in time makes not only for a great record but an even more amazing historical document.
MPEG Stream: TONISTICS "Holding On"
MPEG Stream: SOUL MESSENGERS "Our Lord And Savior"
MPEG Stream: SONS OF THE KINGDOM "Modernazation"

V/A South India: Periya Melam, Chidambaram Temple (Ocora) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a nice little recording of temple music from South India. Basically your level of enjoyment of this recording depends on your threshold level for double reed instruments. Like the accordion, banjo and flute, double-reeds -- at least those in the higher octaves -- tend to put people in war camps. And while some may liken their sound to a kazoo or a bee caught in one's sinuses, their sound is truly unlike anything else. In fact, they're about as close as you can get to sounding like a fuzzed out electric guitar without plugging in. Which is why this music rocks so hard I suppose. When two of those nagasvaram get going at once, with their buzzing virtuosic melodic lines weaving together it's easy to see how this could induce ecstatic states in people. That and the fact that the guitarist's ego is replaced with a fear of god for incentive to perform. Periya Melam is the name of the particular ensemble that performs during various religious rituals, rites and festivals. The ensemble -- the instruments of which are considered "equals to the gods" -- used to be much more common throughout temples south of the river Krishna, but has declined in recent years. The instrumentation usually consists of two double reed oboes (nagasvaram and), two double headed drums (tavil) in which one head is played using the fingers and the other with a stick, metal castanets (talam) and a drone instrument (used to be another oboe, but is now commonly a harmonium or even an electronic instrument).
MPEG Stream: "Sabhapatikku"
MPEG Stream: "Va Va Velava"

V/A Turkish Delights (Grey Past) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We are all quite excited about the cd release of Turkish Delights comp (though Byram's a bit irked 'cause he bought the original vinyl and now is faced with a cd version that adds 11 extra tracks!). In total, there's 26 tracks here, dating from 1965 to 1971, of some of the best garage psych that we've ever heard -- from Turkey or anywhere else for that matter. The Turkish rock scene appears to have begun in earnest in 1956 when the English instrumental group The Shadows made their impression on Turkish teens. Given that many people in Turkey didn't even speak English, it's pretty impressive how well they assimilated a completely foreign music and excelled in it better than most of their American and British counterparts. Some of the tracks like Mavi Isiklar's "Great Airplane Strike of 1967" (a Paul Revere & the Raiders cover) are spitting images of garage-psych from the occident, but others like Cem Karaca & Apaslar's "Suya Giden Alli Gelin" are unmistakably Eastern. It's these tracks, that combine the rock n' roll structure and instrumentation augmented with Turkish instruments, scales and singing that really kick ass. Those of you that have already picked up the excellent "Hava Narghile" compilation know what we mean, but what was great about that collection is exponentially better on this one! Get it.
Along with the new cd version, we now have more copies of the "Turkish Delights" LP (which was so hard to get when it first came out that we only ever had a handful and were never able to list it). 15 tracks on this baby instead of the 26 on the cd, but what you lose in bonus cuts you gain in, uh, vinyl. And the art looks better, we think.
RealAudio clip: CEM KARACA & APASLAR "Suya Giden Alli Gelin"
RealAudio clip: SELCUK ALAGOZ "Saklan Saklanabilirsen"
RealAudio clip: CAHIT OBEN "Halimem"

V/A Turkish Delights (Grey Past) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We are all quite excited about the cd release of Turkish Delights comp (though Byram's a bit irked 'cause he bought the original vinyl and now is faced with a cd version that adds 11 extra tracks!). In total, there's 26 tracks here, dating from 1965 to 1971, of some of the best garage psych that we've ever heard -- from Turkey or anywhere else for that matter. The Turkish rock scene appears to have begun in earnest in 1956 when the English instrumental group The Shadows made their impression on Turkish teens. Given that many people in Turkey didn't even speak English, it's pretty impressive how well they assimilated a completely foreign music and excelled in it better than most of their American and British counterparts. Some of the tracks like Mavi Isiklar's "Great Airplane Strike of 1967" (a Paul Revere & the Raiders cover) are spitting images of garage-psych from the occident, but others like Cem Karaca & Apaslar's "Suya Giden Alli Gelin" are unmistakably Eastern. It's these tracks, that combine the rock n' roll structure and instrumentation augmented with Turkish instruments, scales and singing that really kick ass. Those of you that have already picked up the excellent "Hava Narghile" compilation know what we mean, but what was great about that collection is exponentially better on this one! Get it.
Along with the new cd version, we now have more copies of the "Turkish Delights" LP (which was so hard to get when it first came out that we only ever had a handful and were never able to list it). 15 tracks on this baby instead of the 26 on the cd, but what you lose in bonus cuts you gain in, uh, vinyl. And the art looks better, we think.

V/A Waking Up Scheherazade: Arabian Psych Nuggets (Grey Past) lp 28.00

ZANGENEH, PARI The Series Of Music For Young Adults: Iranian Folk Songs (Tehran / KS) cd 25.00
Folk-psych masterpiece out of Teheran, Iran circa 1976. With incredibly rich instrumentation and orchestration as a backdrop, Pari Zangeneh's voice soars with such soft strength. We're reminded a lot of some of the amazing psych gems from Turkey that we've dug so much like Mogollar and Selda but with less funk in the mix and much more lush folk running through the sound. In fact, Zangeneh sounds quite a bit like a Persian version of Vashti Bunyan at times, albeit with a bit more bravado and color in her delivery. She is still performing all these years later, and while this record is now over three decades old it still sounds so timeless and compelling. We imagine modern day psych-folksters like White Magic, Espers, and Dungen would find tons of inspiration in these mystical and delightful sounds, we sure do!
MPEG Stream: "Aye Laili"
MPEG Stream: "Mastom, Mastom"
MPEG Stream: "Asmar Asmar DJan"

ZECHARIA, ZADIK Kurdish Melodies On Zorna (Bo'Weavil) cd 17.98
This was originally released as a super limited cd-r, and people dug it so much we could barely keep it in stock. Now the fine folks at Bo'Weavil have reissued it as a proper cd, packaged in a gorgeous fold out thick paper sleeves with extensive liner notes and an insert printed with a brief history of Zecharia's life, the whole thing housed in a thick plastic sleeve. Still limited, to 500 copies this time, so not sure how long these will be around. Also included on the reissue are two bonus remix tracks!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the Middle East, on a hot sweltering day, with the dust, the scorching sun, and all of that history surrounding you on all sides, letting that intensity overwhelm you and opening your ears to a wondrous world of beautiful and mysterious sounds? Well here it is! Recorded in Jerusalem in 1980 and previously only available as a homemade cassette and later as a cd-r until now, this is a whole disc of Zadik Zecharia furiously rocking the zorna, an instrument most of us had never even heard of until now!! Born in a small village in Kurdistan before moving to Israel in 1950, Zecharia has dedicated his life to playing the zorna (a traditional Kurdish instrument somewhat similar to a longer more narrow trumpet or Scottish bagpipe). This record doesn't let up for a single second. The moment it starts Zecharia is taken over by the power of his instrument and the fugue state he must descend into to elicit such amazing passionate sounds. You get the feeling that there is no time to pause, no time to think, no time to even take a breath.
When I (Irwin) had the amazing opportunity to be in the Middle East in 2000, I remember walking through street markets, standing on the border of Syria and Israel, feeling years of charged history, pain, and passion, right there beneath my feet, and all around me. Taking off my headphones I was immediately overtaken by the myriad of sounds baking in the desert heat. Those moments were magic, and it all seemed to come together perfectly, and for just a moment it felt possible to forget about hate, war, religion and politics. This record takes me back to that place more then anything I've ever heard. Like the best snake charmer records, the kind of music that grabs you by the ankles and sweeps you off your feet, this has the same hard hitting intensity, with an underlying energy that feels boundless and endless. If you've been to the store recently you've probably noticed the nonstop construction going on outside. So for hours at a time we've been hearing drilling and pounding and the sounds of asphalt being torn apart. When the Zecharia has been playing in the store, the combination of all that commotion and the wailing zorna has made for one of the most amazing high voltage drone drenched pounding creations we've ever heard. But even on its own, this record has the ability to take your body hostage, every listen literally forcing various parts of your body to break out in uncontrollable movement. The dola drum which accompanies the zorna helps create a simple backbeat that balances Zecharia's fiery melodic frenzies. A musical fire that you never want to see extinguished. Recommended with more exclamation points than we have room to print!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! etc...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

ZECHARIA, ZADIK Kurdish Melodies On Zorna - REMIXES (Something On The Road) cd-r 11.98
About a year ago we were completely floored by the cd release of a cassette recording made in Jerusalem circa 1980 of the intense and trance inducing zorna playing of Zadik Zecharia. His Kurdish Melodies On Zorna had the kind of fire and intensity that appealed not only to Middle Eastern music aficionados, but also noise freaks, drone lovers and experimental music-heads of all stripes. So when we heard that the Israeli label Something On The Road had compiled a remix cd of Zacharia's masterful record we were both intrigued and a little skeptical. We'll be the first to admit that most remix records tend to miss the mark, adding generic beats and kind of killing the original spirit of a work that we love. And the first couple tracks on this collection while ok weren't totally doing it for us but then...oh my god!!! after a few tracks things started to heat up FAST! While most records, especially compilations and remix albums, tend to be top heavy, this is in many ways quite the opposite. Things start off with a nice smoky Planet Mu almost dubstep kind of vibe and then as the record goes on the beats start to diminish in favor of drone and noise and buzz. We love how Something On The Road have such a good sense of continuity, mood and pacing, something most remix records completely ignore. We weren't familiar with most of the Israeli bands and DJ's involved in this record but now we will for sure try to seek out more music by the likes of Nemoi, Gal Tushia and David Ovadia. The one artist we were familiar with was Poochlatz an amazingly bleak and primitive noise project out of Israel who always whip up beautiful and chaotic doom & gloom! We love the tidal wave that erupts as this remix record unfolds. Like the best moments of Muslimgauze, this is Middle Eastern experimental electronica that resonates so strongly and does it's source material proud!
MPEG Stream: NEMOI "Zecharia Remix By Nemoi"
MPEG Stream: GAL TUSHIA "Zecharia Remix by Gal Tushia"
MPEG Stream: POOCHLATZ "Zecharia Remix by Poochlatz"

ZECHARIA, ZADIK Kurdish Melodies Played On Zorna (Something On The Road) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This cd-r fast became an all time AQ favorite, and we've been blowing through them like crazy. Finally got a handful more back in stock!
Ever thought of what it would be like to be in the middle east on a hot sweltering day with the dust, scorching sun, and history all around you while the intensity of the surroundings blasted in your ears? Well here it is! Recorded in Jerusalem in 1980 and only released as an independent cassette until now, the sounds of the zorna are rocked so furiously by Zadik Zecharia on this cd filled to overflowing with the relentless sounds of the zorna. Born in a small village in Kurdistan before moving to Israel in 1950, Zecharia has dedicated his life to playing the zorna (a traditional Kurdish instrument somewhat similar to a longer more narrow trumpet or Scottish bagpipe). This record doesn't let up for a single second. The moment it starts Zecharia is taken over by the power of the zorna and the demands that it puts on the player. You get the feeling that there is no time to pause, no time to think, no time to even take a breath. When I (Irwin) had the amazing opportunity to be in the Middle East at the turn of the millennium I remember walking through street markets, standing on the border of Syria and Israel, feeling my feet walk on so much high charged history, pain, and passion. Taking off my headphones to get overtaken by the myriad of sounds baking in the desert heat. Those moments where it all would come together and for just a moment you could be in that place and forget about hate, war, religion and politics. This record takes me back to the place more then anything I've ever heard. Like the best of snake charmer records that have grabbed you by the ankles and swept you off your feet this has that same hard hitting intensity with an undying energy that sounds as if it will never ever let up. If you have been to the store recently you have noticed that right outside there has been some nonstop construction going on in the streets and on the sidewalks. So for hours at a time we are hearing drilling and pounding and the sounds of asphalt being torn apart. When this has been playing in the store the combination of all that commotion has made for one of the most amazing high voltage drone pounding creations we have ever heard. And even on its own, this record has the ability to take you body hostage, as there is no way to listen without various parts of your body breaking out in uncontrollable movement. The dola drum which accompanies the zorna helps give a backbeat which keeps the frenzy of a fire that you never want to be extinguished. Recommended with thousands of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!etc.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

ZECHARIA, ZADIK Kurdish Melodies Played On Zorna - Live At Mondial Hall - 14.12.1987 (Something On The Road) dvd-r 10.98
For anyone who bought the Zadik Zecharia cd (and that's a WHOLE lot of you), an amazing disc of wild and energetic performances on a small traditional Kurdish horn called a zorna, a disc that is STILL played constantly in the store, this dvd-r is absolutely essential. The sound of the zorna is a buzzing high end hypnotic buzz, very much like snake charmer music, and is completely and relentlessly mesmerizing. A sound that is wild and festive and joyous, and that definitely has a primal power, a timeless intensity that transcends mere music, it's a sound that does in fact force your body to bounce and shimmy, dance and shake along. As is evidenced by this dvd-r, a home video recording of a wedding in 1987 that is just a nonstop dance party / zorna jam. It's a little strange to see, it's a little like watching some stranger's home videos, which it basically is. But wow!! If only weddings were this wild and festive in the US. Then again, if only weddings featured a kick ass zorna jam courtesy of Zadik Zecharia (maybe Andee and Heather would have actually gotten married by now). From the moment the bride and groom enter the building, Zecharia is playing a continuous stream of flowing buzzing melody, never stopping, accompanied by a huge thumped drum, and of course the clapping and shouting of the crowd. And that's basically it, a huge crowd of friends and family, dancing wildly, together, separately, in big groups, holding hands, forming huge chains, hands raised in the air, while Zecharia and the drummer, wander from the stage, strolling amongst the crowd and back to the stage again never letting up. In fact there are even some parts where Zecharia plays with one hand so he can use his other to communicate with some of the guests. A few folks whisper in his ear, to which he responds with a nod or a smile, still never letting the music stop. It's 1987 so there are some amazing fashions, wild pantsuits and big hair, which are fun to see, but it's all about Zecharia and his inspiring performance.
Shot on a camcorder 20 years ago, which means the picture quality is not the best, but the sound is fantastic (minus a few drop outs) and if you're anything like us you can't get enough of Zadik Zecharia and his zorna!! So recommended!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"