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Another music discovery thread - in the spirit of the great ‘Lost bands and albums’ one from a few months ago.
This time I’d like to find out about music from the non-English speaking world. But not really indigenous traditional stuff, more like music that’s been cross fertilised with influences from elsewhere.
Is there an Indian metal scene, Chinese blues? Russian techno or Italian indie?
I’ve hardly any suggestions but Jambinai are what provoked this thread; South Korean prog rock using some traditional instruments.
youtube.com/watch?v=PB1k7CDVWVk&
Obscure Krautrock and Japanese noise especially welcome......
1
In reply to pasbury:
There is genuinely an Indian metal scene. Goddess gagged are one band, and some of those members are also in Skyharbor who are excellent and feature Dan Tompkins from the better known Tesseract.
There also an obscure band called Jurojin who are London based but feature a traditionally trained Tabla player which is cool.
Post edited at 14:58
In reply to pasbury:
Fela Kuti and associated?
Also there's a whole load of African fusion music you can stream on Awesome Tapes From Africa's site https://www.awesometapes.com/
I particularly like Ata Kak https://www.awesometapes.com/ata-kak-obaa-sima-march-3-2015/
Post edited at 15:09
In reply to james.slater:
Excellent, I knew there would be! I will investigate.
In reply to pasbury:
Goran Bregovic.
”Yugoslavian” musician/composer blending more traditional Balkan folky sounds with a strong influence, from his youth, by punk rock.
Gogol Bordello sort of do this the other way around and I don’t know if it’s “inauthentic”
2
In reply to pasbury:
Souad Massi, an Algerian singer-songwriter singing in French and Arabic. Quite a “West Europe” influence on her sound which is probably why I’ve heard of her and find her to be quite nice “easy listening”
In reply to pasbury:
Esther Ofarim. Israeli singer of the 60s and 70s, often singing covers and often in German. Leonard Cohen seems to be a favourite. All with a 60s Israeli pop / trad sensibility
In reply to pasbury:
Have a listen to Meta Meta. Saw them at WOMAD a few years ago; I liked them, my wife really didn't so of course I bought their CD . . .
They're Brazilian and have a style The Guardian described as 'extraordinary fusion'.
youtube.com/watch?v=ETXImwXm7MA&
T.
Post edited at 19:22
In reply to pasbury:
There is some great fusion coming out of central and east Africa right now, combining traditional sounds with electronic, blues, rock etc. A few to explore include;
Afriquoi
Ibibio Sound System
Songhoy Blues
Check out some radio shows by Gilles Peterson, and Auntie Flo - both are top cratediggers and champions of various fusion styles.
I've made a playlist of some of my faves here: https://open.spotify.com/user/climb3k/playlist/2KjQEAVkPeeM1PZcnQ1Pqj?si=KJ...
In reply to pasbury:
Don't have to go far for some non-english music that will be off the radar for the vast majority in England.
Some two tone/ska
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dfs35A_6OOo&list=PLf39b1XYQsKHDmdunibLBb8...
Some hip hop
youtube.com/watch?v=ngPQzI5rEqE&
Some punk
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6T7wHuvUJ5M&index=3&list=RDrf57wUoP_0...
Some dub
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf3HPpRX31k&list=PLya1lvcdVjm3xxy9tygG5gn...
And whatever the hell these guys do
youtube.com/watch?v=FpuhnFfzSNc&
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In reply to Blue Straggler and OP:
Also Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra. Can't decide if they or Alex Harvey are the best live act I've seen (though 30+ years separates them).
youtube.com/watch?v=ECTLhUDv3I0&
Tinariwen
youtube.com/watch?v=ovXX8K8WXVg&
Have a search around Spotify, which is great for this sort of thing. Lots of great Turkish, French, Greek, Persian and Scandinavian music out there to name but a few.
1
In reply to pasbury:
Have some Magma - crazed French prog band that have been going since the 70s:
youtube.com/watch?v=bYrHNLXwGe0&
And some Japanese kids doing instrumental metal:
youtube.com/watch?v=cEOz6GR5U4k&
In reply to pasbury:
At the risk of the obvious, Talking Timbuktu (Ry Cooder) and the album by Group Doueh are great.
In reply to pasbury:
Also keep an eye out for The Karaj Collective, 3 London based Iranians who mix western prog/blues rhythms with Persian, Azeri, Turkish and Kurdish music. They play live a fair bit and are well worth seeing.
1
In reply to pasbury:
> Obscure Krautrock and Japanese noise especially welcome......
All sorts of interesting stuff comes out of Japan. I'm partial to a bit of Acid Mothers Temple, who are sort of like Hawkwind on, erm, _more_ drugs:
youtube.com/watch?v=sNbEZlkbxgA&
Older, the Brazillian Tropicalia scene of the late 60s produced some fairly excellent stuff, heavily influenced by contemporary British psychedelia but with obvious local flavour as well. There's a good compilation on Soul Jazz Records. It was fairly short-lived as a scene owing to the key players mostly getting imprisoned and/or deported by the ruling junta of the time.
Examples:
youtube.com/watch?v=7uSXJMqG6_o&
youtube.com/watch?v=tihuetXMG8U&
youtube.com/watch?v=5PpYv9WIIDg&
In reply to pasbury:
Jambinai are interesting, yes, although a lot is lost in the mix and/or isn't coming out of my laptop's tinny speakers (the guitars?). But thanks for the link.
If you go to Womad you occasionally get some interesting stuff of the sort you're looking for. One of the best I saw recently, some years ago, was a band that mixed Irish folk with bazouki (can't remember the name).
In reply to nickh1964:
> At the risk of the obvious, Talking Timbuktu (Ry Cooder)
Hmm my Talking Timbuktu is credited to Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure....
In reply to pasbury:
Noise from Japan
Merzbow
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR_8gpJCT4I
read the comments below, quite amusing.
1
In reply to pasbury:
If you like jazz, Gilad Atzmon's 'Exiles' album was a great blend of jazz and Middle Eastern music, especially the stunning opening track.
1
In reply to Blue Straggler:
yes, thats the one, could not remember who else was on it. Fine listen.
In reply to Removed UserStuart en Écosse:
> Also Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra. Can't decide if they or Alex Harvey are the best live act I've seen (though 30+ years separates them).
Man, I stuck this on last night whilst doing something, at first as back ground music - blown away by their performance - bonkers brilliant concert, rally enjoyed it!
1
In reply to subtle:
Kusturica is a remarkable man; double Palme d'Or winning film director, band leader of a crackers band and all round lunatic genius. He also publicly challenged Vojislav Seselj to a duel in Belgrade.
I met him once in France without realising who he was, I thought he was just some slightly crazed Russian who was trying to make me drink some rocket fuel hooch that he'd made himself.
You'd probably enjoy Super8 Stories, a film of a tour, similarly bonkers and the band are all just little bit too crazy. His films are mostly similarly exhausting.
Trailer for my favourite ever film, Underground: youtube.com/watch?v=rYTvmLvLchs&
Post edited at 18:09
In reply to Removed UserStuart en Écosse:
I mentioned Bregovic earlier, who is or was Kusturica’s composer of choice.
I did not realise Kusturica also made music
In reply to pasbury:
One of my favourite albums is a Decca album from 1968, The Official State Band Of Israel doing a concert in Paris.
The music is very much cross-cultural. Israeli folk sounds mixed with standard Western time signatures and a feel of sixties pop, mostly sung in French. My album is “Troupe Officielle de l’Etat d’Israel, Paris Olympia”
In reply to pasbury:
Here's a few that sprung to mind.
Yamasuki (French/Japanese)
youtube.com/watch?v=xE0hmDwzXyw&
Ruins (Japanese)
youtube.com/watch?v=1_-XDDPCu28&
Boredoms (Japanese)
youtube.com/watch?v=zdPCt5ZEf40&
Modulo 1000 (Brazilian)
youtube.com/watch?v=qWCWUepJZFw&
Il Balletto Di Bronzo (Italian)
youtube.com/watch?v=V_PGiLF8gzE&
Kikagaku Moyo (Japanese)
youtube.com/watch?v=k7x1iWSSMkc&
Goat (Swedish)
1
In reply to nickh1964:
> yes, thats the one, could not remember who else was on it. Fine listen.
Remembered the white guy though ehh
just joshing
1
In reply to pasbury:
Blonde Redhead probably count as Italian indie. With a Japanese singer.
but it feels very New York hip indie
In reply to pasbury:
Dengue Fever, a Cambodian alternative rock band, are good
In reply to pasbury:
A slightly different angle on a good live performance -
youtube.com/watch?v=K8rEjGso68I&
Dave
In reply to Blue Straggler:
Some good suggestions, lots to investigate.
MC Solaar is a French rapper. There must be more? French seems like a natural language for rapping.
In reply to pasbury:
Apologies for diverting this thread but is this one one the best grouping of late 20th/early 21st century blues artists?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMEzFgCLv8c&list=RDFMEzFgCLv8c&inde...
Dave
In reply to pasbury:
Ill try to send some links to that Israeli thing, I digitised and uploaded some a while back
In reply to pasbury:
Bo Ningen.
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