Around the World In 80 Posts
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Originally Posted by Conan (Post 776450) Looking forward to this! It's funny, I was thinking about making one like this but made another instead.

Slovakia
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Ján Boleslav Kladivo - Nahá (1995)
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This is a very difficult album to describe for a number of reasons. 1 - I don't speak Slovak (not sure if you sussed that one by now) and 2 - it's just one of those albums that's pretty hard to sum up without going into a really long review about it, which isn't really the idea I had for this thread. Oh, and 3 - there's nothing of this guy to be seen on youtube, which makes this slightly more difficult. Nevertheless, I'll do my best!

Kladivo here easily ranks with me as one of the most fascinating singer-songwriters in all of Europe because of the eerily unique sound that he has and the cold, wintry soundscapes they make. Part of this is down to his strange, off-kilter vocal, which is odd as it's kind of throaty and deadpan at the same time. Even if the lyrics are quite literally Slovak to me, it really is something to be admired. All that wouldn't really amount to much if it weren't for the great musical backings that he supplies him here. I guess alternative folk would be the most appropriate thing to call it, mainly for how you'd think you're listening to a simple, melodic little ditty with, say, a repetitive (lone) trumpet figure to punctuate it before an electric guitar riff, so out of place yet so effective, just kinda jumps out of the mix at you.

It's an album that starts to truly unravel its appeal as a unit after two or three listens, and a thoroughly rewarding one - something that needs to be heard to be believed somewhat. It varies from some truly memorable, melodic little folk rockers with the said alternative/avante-garde twists of synth, skewiff basslines and so forth to slightly more stripped-down, pensive and quieter moments. Highly recommended, though not exactly what I'd call the most accessible thing I've ever heard.
The best bits: Mariena, Klop Na Bránu, Budem Tu

Indonesia
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Sore - Centralismo (2005)
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This, on the other hand, is! Goes without saying that I don't mean that in a disparaging way at all. To say that Sore (pronounced as it looks, I think - means 'late afternoon' in Indonesian) are a Jakarta-based indie band would probably give the wrong impression about them as well. While, as I say, their sound is hardly the most difficult you'll ever come across, and they therefore won't challenge you in the way that the above effort from Mr. Kladivo does, it'd be unfair to just cop a glimpse of the word indie and draw up instant comparisons with a lot of the stuff we associate the word with this side of the year 2000. While it's true to say that they share a lot in common with the more bearable side of modern indie, there's slightly more to them than meets the eye, as the below video may or may not suggest.

At least that's what I get from them. I mean, don't take my word for gospel or anything because, at the end of the day, these are just the opionated ramblings of some over-enthusiastic English gent. They're definitely a very melodic outfit, and that whole part of the equation does play a massive role in their sound, but there's a lot more light jazz thrown into the proceedings than a lot of modern indie that I've heard. At least in areas anyway - there are patches on this album which do sound a lot more conventional, and even a couple of rockers sung (convincingly as well) in English. There are quiet moments, soulful ones, hard-hitters, alternating lead vocalists - all pretty cool stuff really.

Think of a cross between the Beatles, Aztec Camera and Steely Dan, the South Pacific and modern production techniques and you're half-way there. All in all, a very good and much more light-hearted affair than the above Kladivo album.
The best bits: Aku, Keangkuhanku, Lihat

Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger (Post 779937) If you want some Inuit hip hop from Greenland give me a shout :thumb:

Originally Posted by storymilo (Post 780434) ^From what I know Lebanon has a lot of techno. Is this true?

Originally Posted by NumberNineDream (Post 780431) Great idea indeed. No one can truly delve into music while sticking to the anglophone countries. Sometimes other countries' folk, can be considered as progressive or even experimental and avant-garde if compared to the music we usually listen to. If you need some albums from the central Mediterranean part of the world, just give us a shout =P.

Originally Posted by Burning Down (Post 780970) You shouldn't have trouble finding anything from Canada. I could give you a hand though :)

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 781135) I'll let you know if I run into any problems/lack of options with Canada. Probably won't get round to them for a while though - gonna take care of the stuff from the farther corners of the world first.

Mexico
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Caifanes - El Silencio (1992)
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Moving over to Latin America now, the Mexican outfit Caifanes were at the forefront of the Spanish rock scene in the late 80s and, more importantly, delivered one of the movement's finest albums in their later years. In the sense that the approach to work and output that Caifanes and many of the other bands from the same movement adopted clashed with the happy, chirpy pop music on the Mexican airwaves at the time, I suppose it wouldn't jumping to gun too much to say that this movement was something akin to a Latin American version of the punk rock scene. Not that they spent their time ripping off the British and North American movements of course (if anything there's a lot more of the Cure to their sound than that), but it's a neat, pretentious little analogy to draw.

Although there are a few punkier moments to be found, such as on the album's opener, all that stuff takes a warm place on the back burner as intricate musicianship, subtle melodies and lead singer Saul Hernandez's vocal performances makes up for the sharpest edge that this album has. As an album, El Silencio clearly takes a few cues from the more gothic side of British post-punk, although this is more than just another good post-punk album from an unconventional part of the world.

To put it simply, a lot of you have seen From Dusk 'til Dawn haven't you? You remember that band that's playing in that sleazy, soon-to-turn-nasty nightclub? Imagine them with a female lead singer and having spent a lot of their teenage years listening to PIL, the Cure and early Dead Can Dance, giving those sounds their own twist with a dash of bouncy, Latin American vibes here and there along with their own ideas about melodic structure, and that's basically what you're looking at with this album. In other words, very very good stuff.
The best bits: Nubes, Piedra, Debajo De Tu Piel



Kenya
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Matata - Feelin' Funky (1974)
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Moving on, as anyone who's ever gone on a little musical trek of their own through Africa before will know, Afro-funk is one of the first big genres you'll come across. There've been many truly great peddlers of Afro-funk down the years, Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango among the best and most influential of them.

You won't find many more instantly accessible than Kenya's Matata though, even more so because of the fact that they moved to London in the earlier 70s and made a name for themselves there. Another reason would of course be that they have a very similar sound to North American funk groups like Funkadelic and the Ohio Players. So, in that sense, they're hardly the most original-sounding band you'll ever come across, and they're a lot more about funky riffs and saxophone interludes rather than the epic psychedelic passages Funkadelic and Parliament would often take themselves through, or the soul ballads of the Ohio Players. If you just want a really fun, convincing and thoroughly energetic, funky little album, get hold of this when you can.
The best bits: I Wanna Do My Thing, Gettin' Together, Good Samaritan

Originally Posted by Conan (Post 781332) Awesome post man! I've actually been looking for some good contemporary Latin American music!

Lebanon
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Marcel Khalife - Best Of Songs (compilation)
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Many many thanks to a certain NumberNineDream for sending this album my way a few days ago as, evidently, I quite enjoyed it!

To give you a little bit of context before I get down to the nitty gritty here, Marcel Khalife is a poet, writer and one of the most respected singer-songwriters in the Middle East, not to mention one of the most prolific. He's something of the Bob Dylan of the area then, seeing as to how outspoken he seems to be about his worldview and how he gets his message across in his music. Of course, it goes without saying that I don't, so this is all judging from what I've read about him.

This best of compilation is certainly, for me, a gateway to a whole new world of music that I previously new virtually nothing of. I remember seeing a 3-disc compilation of Arabic music in Borders once or twice, and this fella might very well have had a song on it, but that's as far as my experience with Arabic musical culture goes (barring the odd song or album buried somewhere in my EHD, which I guess we'll get to later). Khalife here represents as good a starting point as any, as there's a very consistent and profound quality to whole set of songs, all conjuring (as the best non-Anglospheric music does) very strong and powerful images. This is mainly down to Khalife's primary weapon of choice - the oud (an Arabic member of the lute family). It's also down to the fact that there's a very significant variation in sounds here, ranging from eastern variations of Dylan-esque folk, waltzes and classical-leaning sounds. Well, that's what I got from it anyway. Either way, an absolutely fascinating album when all's said and done.
The best bits: Bel Akhdar Kaffannah, Enni Ekhtartoka Ya Watani, Tosbihouna Ala Watan


Switzerland
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Guyer's Connection - Portrait (1983)
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Coming at you from rocky old Switzerland is part of the mainland European new wave/synth-pop scene and a long-playing effort from a band I know absolutely about (this album aside of course). It's something I came across at random on one of my many expeditions to mutantsounds, and an album that's obscure enough not to have a picture of its sleeve art any bigger than 150x150 on google images, which is what's up the dodgy picture I've found there.

Guyer's Connection are a part of a very rich musical movement of post-punk that might as well have just passed right under the mainstream press of the day's noses, which is a bit of a shame as there are some very neat little products of it, one of which is of course this album. This Swiss new wave duo, armed only with an arsenal of dodgy synthesizers and a microphone, make a fairly sparse use of vocals here, as this album's a lot more about the cyber punk-reminiscent sonic pictures that they can at least try to conjure with all the dated electronic wizardry they can. It's hardly the best album in the world by a long shot, and it's true that it sounds so cheap that it may as well have been recorded under the lead vocalist's bed, but that's all part of the charm. In the video below is a 12" they had out at the time, and is as such nowhere to be found on this album, but it gives you a good idea of the grim, bleak pictures that the LP itself conjures, with the odd dose of melody giving it all that much more spice. It's at least worth checking out, certainly if you're curious about this very obscure area of music.
The best bits: Pogo Of Techno, Ein Glas Voll Gurken, La Transformation

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 783278) [CENTER]Lebanon http://www.titanicons.com/files/Leba...itan_Icons.jpg Marcel Khalife - Best Of Songs (compilation) http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m7sATvQnaL...E/s400/mk1.png Many many thanks to a certain NumberNineDream for sending this album my way a few days ago as, evidently, I quite enjoyed it! The best bits: Bel Akhdar Kaffannah, Enni Ekhtartoka Ya Watani, Tosbihouna Ala Watan

Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger (Post 784485) If you're looking for something good from Peru I suggest Los Saicos who were a pretty awesome 60s garage band.

Argentina
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Soda Stereo - Sueño Stereo (1995)
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And back in sunny Buenos Aires, in 1982, the brainchild of the trio of Gustavo Cerati, Zeta Bosio and Charly Alberti was formed. Soda Stereo had a regular spot in a joint called Bar Zero before being noticed by CBS records and snapped up on a contract on the back of their post-punk-afflicted, guitar-heavy sound. After a reasonably long and prolific career, as the band neared the end of its life, the time came to record what would be their swansong album (or at least it'd turn out that way after a couple more years of touring) - this one!

You remember that Mexican outfit I mentioned a few posts back, Caifanes? These guys sound a lot like them. With regards to their sound, I wouldn't say that there's one, definite generic label I could pin on them. There are a few hints of jangly, post-punk reminiscent guitars, moments of more stripped-down, acoustic-led rock and, given the time of release, a more clear-cut and slightly heavier sound which you could say owes no small favour to the indie and alternate rock of the day, or at least what British and American sounds the airwaves of Argentina were broadcasting at the time. There's also the odd dash of strings and synth to be heard as well. Bugger it, let's just call it indie ;-)

Dancing around labels aside, what matters is that we have probably my favourite album to come out of Argentina although, as I think I've said before, there are a few more I can think of that are just as worthy of a mention here. Certainly for now, I won't be mentioning more than one album from the same country. Anyway, this album's great stuff. The kind of vibe you can expect from in the main it is nicely summed up by the song in the video below. It's certainly very 'western-sounding', seeing as it seems heavily influenced by British and American rock and that it lacks the added spice of Latin American vibes that their sound-a-likes Caifanes can boast. Still worth a shot though.
The best bits: Disco Eterno, Ojo De La Tormenta, Paseando Por Roma


Netherlands
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Junkie XL - Today (2006)
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I'm not sure how many of you were expecting me to cover European techno when I started this thread but nevertheless, in my eyes, it also counts as a type of world music, and is therefore more than worthy of a mention here.

Basically, one reason I'm so apprehensive about continuing my top 100 thread is because, seeing as I now have this thread and the one I'm doing with Zarko (which you can expect another review for soon) to contribute to, a lot of the albums that'd be part of the continuation have already been/are going to be covered. This album is no exception, as it's not only an absolute belter and a favourite of mine, it's also one of the best albums of this last decade. I've already reviewed quite a bit of electronica in mine and Zarko's thread though so, in the interest of diversity, I think I can get away with it here!

Although I'd happily call Junkie XL one of my favourite artists making music today, this is without a doubt his best effort, and as close to a masterpiece as he'd get. There are moments which have a smattering of guitar-laden big beat about them, but in the main this is an album where IDM is the big thing, as there are a few ambient and progressive house influences mixed seamlessly together, with the sonic focus taken away from the breakbeat that the guy's more known for.

As I say, definitely a contender for album of the decade this. The song in the video's a bit of a stylistic standout, as most of the tracks don't feature vocals, let alone those big beat-esque guitars, but it's a keeper anyway!
The best bits: Youthful, Mushroom, Such a Tease

Originally Posted by Burning Down (Post 786614) I really like the one from Argentina! Thanks for posting that.

Russia
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Yat-Kha - Dalai Beldiri (1999)
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In terms of ethnic musical traditions, throat-singing is something that a lot of people attribute to Mongolia and Mongolia alone. I was guilty of this for a while too. It's actually an ancient vocalising tradition that's been passed down by generations of native Tuvans - Tuva being a rather small corner of southern Siberia on the Mongolian border. So, while this album may not exactly sound like something you'd expect from snowy old Russia, take my word for it, it's Russian! For those of you who have no idea what I'm on about, chances are that'll probably still be the case after I finish this sentence, as it's quite hard to explain without actually (trying to) demonstrate an example for you. Throat-singing is a style of musical expression that's been practiced by the people of Tuva for centuries, and is a very unqiue way of singing multiple notes or pitches or whatever you call them at once using, of course, your throat, producing some very weird, mesmerising results. In other words, I can't really explain, so here's an exmple for ya.

There are different types of this of course, and kargyraa (a much deeper-sounding one than that of the video I just linked you to back there) is the one you'll hear lead singer Albert Kuvezin using. To say I think this is their best album would be a lie, as it's the only one of theirs I can call my own. But, this is definitely about as left-of-centre as musical experiences get if you've never heard this type of singing before. In terms of the actual instrumental backing, with its use of harps in tandem with acoustic guitars, there is still a very non-western feel to this album. The key to the album's appeal though is in the vocals, which not only show off this quite bizarre style of musical expression but, on top of that, the way it's harmonised with a 'normal' vocal track really does produce some pretty extraordinary results. Also, a lot of it, in particular the video below (wait 'til it really starts to kick in about half-way through), is very haunting and absolutely beautiful.

In other words, definitely worth your time.
The best bits: Dyngyldai, Charash Karaa, Sodom I Gomora


Tunisia
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Anouar Brahem - Barzakh (1991)
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Once again, I find myself making a post about a highly-respected-though-virtually-unknown-in-the-west oud player and composer, the one in question here being the Tunisian maestro Anouar Brahem. He's another fairly prolific fella, not to mention a man with his own slant on how music should be done given that he's a man who, upon all of a sudden being noticed in the late 80s, plays for jazz audiences as he mixes it up with authentically Arabic classical and folk music.

Unlike his fellow oud-wielding, already-mentioned contemporary Marcel Khalife though, there are no vocals on this album (given the guy's jazz influences and all). The best way to describe this album (and not the sort of general picture of his whole repertoire) would be as an Arabic slant on jazz. After all, the only musicians present on this recording are a trio of oud player, percussionist and violinist. All this makes for yet another incredibly fascinating and out of this world (for want of a better phrase) musical experience. After all, while it's basically an album's worth of jazzy improvisation, Brahem's oud really does give it a very unique flavour and a whole lot of colour, especially seeing as, like a lot of music you'll see me flag here, this isn't exactly something I listen to ad infinitum. Again, absolutely fascinating stuff.
The best bits: Barzakh, Kerkenah, La Nuit De Jeux

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 781282) Kenya http://www.nyumbani.org/spanish/images/kenya_flag.jpg Matata - Feelin' Funky (1974) http://nooganet.com/PIX/CD/012008/Ma...0-%20Front.jpg

Originally Posted by Flower Child (Post 792645) Top notch thread, Bulldog. But this...this....Thank you, thank you! Consider me in love. If I ever get my boom box fixed, I plan on carrying it around all day with this playing. :D p.s. a link would be very much appreciated

Originally Posted by Schizotypic (Post 792771) Great thread so far Bulldog, you'll be voted best 2009 member yet. By the way, could I get an up for Feelin' Funky by Matata? Also, any idea where the other UK-released album is, River Wild? Couldn't find the bloody thing.

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 792891) Great to hear that :D Every so often there's an artist you come across who'd been ridiculously far off of your radar 'til the moment you hear them and when you do, you kinda wonder where they've been all this time eh. Matata certainly had that kind of effect on me. I'm 90% sure I've still got the album online. If I can find it, I'll drop you a PM...