Friday, December 30, 2016

Tulsa - Estúpida



Spain is a musical monster, so trying to pick out something to symbolize it would be like doing the same in the US, if for no other reason than Spanish is a language that far extends between the boundaries of any one country, including Spain. And they rock. Ever wonder what happened to Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira et al? They all went back to their native language where they could be stars again, not runner-ups, and where they gather hits and likes that surpass Beyoncé and equal Taylor. And then there are the indies, playing away for love or money or--whatever...

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Cuba Music, Chill Out Coffee Shop, relaxing Cuban music, Chillout,



Cuban music, almost ALL Cuban music, is such a pleasure to listen to that any attempt to limit access to any one genre does a disservice to the rest, whether it's mambo, salsa, Afro-Cuban folk or whatever. But for a country somewhat lost in the past, it's refreshing to see it right in step with the best of modern trends. This ain't Ricky Ricardo...

Friday, December 23, 2016

Kedinada Kuudu Hadannata Enne - Sewwandi Ranathunga (@ Maa Program)



I'll have to admit that I had a hard time finding music I like from Sri Lanka, where some of the most creative work comes from street buskers. I guess it's too close to Bollywood. It seems there's a new creative edge emerging, though, so good...

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Video Killed the Radio Star--NOT!!!

You Tube is not the only place to find cool music around the globe. Good old-fashioned radio is still there and better than ever, IF you know where to look. This is a good place to start:

http://radio.garden/live/

Then if you find something you like, stay there a while, and pretend you're a local. That's the best part of travel. If it's community radio, then that will be easy. Here's a good one I found in Wellington, NZ:

http://www.worldfm.co.nz/

Happy surfing! Cheers, mate!

Monday, December 19, 2016

PAVEL "Čuvaj me" (Official Video)


Who says Croatia has no good indie music? Right, the more important question is: who knows where Croatia is on the map. Anyway, check this out...

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

المبدعة مكارم اغنية نسيت ايام ما كنا



Sudan doesn't get much press for its music, but maybe it should, connections with Ethiopian and Somali culture obvious and authentic...

Friday, October 28, 2016

Dobet Gnahore - Samahani



Cote D'Ivoire has all the typical crap rap and booty twerk endemic to the continent and the world these days. Fortunately it's also got better things to see and hear...

Thursday, October 27, 2016

KAREYCE FOTSO LOMDIEU



Like many places Cameroon's best music tends to be the old stuff, akin to the highlife of neighboring countries in West Africa, modern pop mostly booty twerking and crotch shots with predictable and labored vocal themes from hand-picked heartthrobs, BUT--this lady's different, creating her own genre with every song...

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Faluma - Ai Sa Si (Suriname/Sranan Original)



Suriname is one of those collage countries defined by its ingredients: Native American, Dutch, East Indian, Javanese, and some Africans more African than Africa itself. Most of the best music is the local Afro-Carib hybrid genre 'kaseko', but there is some semi-tribal stuff that reaches even deeper than that for inspiration...

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Boas Festas



Cape Verde is too easy, finding good music there, that is. So I could just pick something by Cesaria or Lura, or a single clip with many of CV's best all together. Enjoy...

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Imiyalo



Swaziland is a tiny tucked away in a corner between South Africa and Swaziland. Who knew that they even an independent country, much less have some good music (and no shortage of gospel)?

Sunday, October 09, 2016

club giramayoro : ngoma ya ruhinda



Burundi has been said to be the unhappiest country in the world--but all is not lost. At least there's music, and the culture clubs. One day maybe Hutus and Tutsis will bury their hatchets...

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

jj - "Let Go" Secretly Canadian Records



Sweden has been so successful with English-language songs that no one sings in Swedish anymore. So I could easily post a song by First Aid Kit or Tallest Man on Earth or Lykke Li, BUT... I like this video...

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Solo Dja Kabaco - Fatimata



Burkina Faso has some of the best music in the world, most of it unknown to me until now, diverse and immense. It even sounds good in minor keys...

Sunday, October 02, 2016

KALTEHAND / NATASHA WATERS - PAGES



Switzerland is one of those strange European conglomerate countries, with four official languages, so no surprise that many, if not most, musicians there do their lyrics in English, with most of the rest in German. The decline of music on America has done wonders for music in Europe...

Saturday, October 01, 2016

Stefka Sabotinova - Prituri se planinata (HD)



Bulgaria is an interesting country, originally settled by steppes nomads, now considered one of the most traditional of Slavic countries. It's nice to hear a traditional song that seems so refreshingly modern and 'indie'...(as featured in the movie 'Jesus of Montreal')...

Sunday, September 18, 2016

The Seeds - Kebenaranku (Official Music Video)



Brunei is one of the world's great anomalies: an oil-rich Muslim kingdom on the edge of Borneo's jungle, which it shares with Malaysia and Indonesia. It's more interesting than you might think... (and no, I did not write this song; that's a different Hardee)...

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Omar Souleyman "Salamat Galbi Bidek" - 2013 Nobel Peace Prize Concert



This is too easy, picking something interesting from Syria, but Omar's irresistible, and Syria's so screwed up. Enjoy...

Monday, September 12, 2016

Banda do Mar - Mais Ninguém



Foreigners who go to Brazil expecting samba and bossa nova might be surprised to find that the country has an indie rock scene as good as any. Not that there's anything wrong with Bebel Gilberto, but maybe something not so girl-from-Ipanemish would be nice. The lightness, the airiness, the breeziness, and the beachiness is still there...

Monday, August 29, 2016

丁丁與西西 - Beautiful



Taiwan is largely lost in the shuffle of China's latter-day dominance, but they're still there, and not going anywhere soon, I'd bet. As if it's not impressive enough that they and the mainland both even have a genre of indie music, it's even more interesting to note how different the two genres are, the mainland's harsh and punkish, Taiwan's softer and reflective. Music is the window to a nation's soul...

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

spoon guitar



Botswana never ceases to amaze. First there were Culture Spears, then Guitar Ronnie, and now the Spoonman (no, not Artis of Seattle fame). Is this where slide guitar originated? Who knows? Enjoy...

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Нозияи Кароматулло - Чурачон | Noziya Karomatullo - Jurajon



Tajikistan may seem like some insignificant tiny country out in the remote Central Asian region, with their most famous historical cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan, but here are the origins of Persian culture, so don't judge all by the modern politics of expediency and survival. This is one of the most interesting cultures and histories in the world...

Monday, August 01, 2016

Kad procvatu behari- Ilahija-Bosnian soul music



Bosnia is Europe's mixed bag: Serbo-Croatian language and Muslim religion. Of course, the countryside is still ravaged from the predations of the Bosnians Serbs, who effectively split the country in two. Bosnians persevere. I don't know about 'soul music', but this is a sweet song, no translation necessary.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

TANZANIA MUSIC - BUSHOKE -DUNIA NJIA




Tanzania has some pretty good music, once you get past the gratuitous twerking and fuzz vocals that seem to plague Africa's music scene all over. Persevere...

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Rantés - Cara de Pasa




Bolivia is not known for its Indie rock, at least not outside the region, better known for those aguayo-draped ch'ullo-capped sun-parched faces honking down on the bizniz end of a siku or quena, or strumming a charango or cuatro, all while hopping and dancing around the stage, seems rather quaint now, and hard to believe that this was once at the forefront of 'world music'. But alas and alack, they never changed nor advanced, nor forged new directions at the risk of failing. Even the Andean street musicians in Europe add electronics or mimic Carlos Nakai now, not Sukay or Inti Illimani. You gotta keep it fresh, and the best of Rock Boliviano does that, asi lo hacen...   

Thursday, July 07, 2016

พิณร็อคเขย่าโลกลายลำแคนเหยียบแมงซอน YouTube



Okay--disclaimer time. Thailand is my second home, so I could go on and on about the music there--here--all night, and you might care, or not. SO: I'm going to tie into a current trend in the US and Europe in which Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band is one of the hottest things going in world and indie circles. BUT: they're not the first 'phin' band, nor the only, nor necessarily the best. This music is from Isaan, a world away from Bangkok, Samui or Chiang Mai. This is what they do. These guys call themselves 'PinRock', and that's pronounced 'pin', not 'fin'. You heard it here first.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Osayomore Joseph - Awanuro



Benin is that other tiny West African nation, which, along with Togo, Ghana and Nigeria, defines the old 'Slave Coast'...and some of Africa's best music. This artist is an old school icon, usually just known as 'the ambassador'... enjoy...

Friday, June 24, 2016

KING MENSAH - Xonam



Wow! Togo's history as a country may be a bit sketchy, but this guy King Mensah's songs are not. Whether you like the Christian imagery or not, this man is surely a prophet, in one of the world's smallest and poorest countries, equally as Islamic as Christian and at least twice that traditional animistic. I'm sold, and my interest in West Africa has surged greatly, after several aborted trips, and much disappointment. I hope you enjoy this music as much as I do.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Andy Palacio, Belize - Gi mi Punta Rock - Caye records



Belize is the anomaly of the Caribbean: a British Commonwealth country on the Central American mainland, with equal parts Black 'creoles' and Latino 'mestizos' and sizable numbers of full-blood Mayas and super-mixed Arawak-speaking 'Black Carib' Garifuna people, one of the darling genres of 'world music' over the last decade or two, many thanks to Andy Palacio. But before they adapted it to international tastes, it was just good ol' booty-twitching 'punta rock' and that's what gave Andy his start. BTW the plural of 'Garifuna' is 'Garinagu' (or Kalinago, maybe?). The plural of 'Gi Mi Punta Rock' is apparently 'Gi We Punta rock'. Enjoy. This is a big improvement over the Belizean juke-joints I toured in 1977.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Si'i Tokomea - Kalapu Melino mo e 'Ofa



Tonga is one of the more hospitable of the Polynesian countries, a place where the locals just might be a little smoother than some of the others. And if the music sounds a bit Hawaiian, well, it should, since they're first cousins, even if separated by thousands of miles. They once sailed that route--in canoes. Kava is the drink of choice, and Polynesian is the language, of course. This is music to chill by...the beach...enjoy...

Monday, June 13, 2016

Hooverphonic - Gentle Storm [HQ - full screen]



Belgium is the anomaly of Europe, the country that resulted from the push and pull of colonial powers flexing their muscles, comparing the lengths to which they would go, and usually coming up short. So Belgium is a mixture of Dutch and French (and a bit of Germany), Romantic and Germanic, and Capital of Europe, with the largest Muslim 'hood north of Tangier next to the largest red-light district south of Amsterdam. So English is often the language of choice in Europe's multicultural Trinidad, their Fiji, their Swahili coast on the North Atlantic, where mixed messages make interesting cultures. and so it is with the music, more often than not in the international lingua franca, more often than not in mixed genres, more often than not pretty darn good...

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Kobo Town - Mr. Monday



Trinidad is something of an anomaly. Equal parts English, Spanish, African and Indian, this is something like the Fiji of the Caribbean, a (not-so-pure) Commonwealth creation. But the resulting mix can be as disappointing as it is inspiring. Frankly, for the birthplace of calypso and soca, I'd expect a better mix of music, but what's there is not bad, including these guys, who might actually best be considered as Canadian. Welcome to world music...

Friday, June 03, 2016

Ляпис Трубецкой. Капитал

Belarus is part of that so-called 'axis of evil' of vestigial Communist countries that stretch from North Korea hop-skipping over remnants of the old USSR and fellow travelers. So maybe a satirical song about Karl Marx called 'Das Kapital' doesn't seem so strange, after all--or maybe not. It's all up in the air, countdown to springtime...

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Emel Mathlouthi Oum ezzin el jamaliya آمال مثلوثي ـ أم الزين الجمالية




Tunisia is famous for the mezoued, that bagpipe-like mouth organ that takes you away somewhere somehow, whether you like it or not, but there's much more than that to the eastern style of Maghrebbi music. Like neighbors Algeria and Morocco, Tunisia is more European than most Arab states, so that means many diverse influences and manifestations. Arab Spring started here, remember. Check out this guy's violin playing. And hang around for a few songs, and Emel will sing Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' for you, sublime... 

Friday, May 27, 2016

Barbados Crop Over: Kadooment Day Highlights 2015.



If Barbados is the place, then Soca is the music, and Crop Over (Harvest Home) is the main event. This is Rihanna country, of course, so she's the star to catch in compromising twerking positions, but they're all pretty sexy, if you like that kind of thing. I remember it well, Barbados that is, so when my taxi driver said I'd be back, he just might be right...

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