Dengue Fever – Cambodian Psychedelic Rock

The brothers Zac and Ethan Holzman were fans of vintage Cambodian music. Singers like Sinn Sisamouth, whose music was banned during the regime of Pol Pot in 1975, were among their favorites. When they met Chhom Nimol, a karaoke star from Cambodia who had moved to L.A., the band they had dreamed of for years was created: Dengue Fever. The Oriental voice of Nimol along with the psychedelic sound of guitars and keyboards, is the characteristic seal of their music. They were successful in Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge, a communist political party, killed some of the musicians because of the mix of pop and cambodian music they played.

Seeing hands

"Sleepway through the Mekong" is the name of a documentary that shows the trip to Cambodia that the members of Dengue Fever had to do in order to perform at the Water music festival. The name of the band was inspired by a trip to Cambodia that Zac did. He was in a car with a friend, who was sick with dengue, and the music of Sinn Sisamouth was on.

Sleepwalking trough the Mekong

Cem Adrian - A voice from another world

Cem Adrian has the extraordinary ability to sing from bass to soprano. His vocal chords are three times the length of an average person’s. Born in Turkey in 1980, Adrian has been interested in theater, radio publishing and photography besides music.

His love for songwriting led him to record more than 250 songs before having the opportunity to start a career in music. Some of these songs were later included on his first album, Ben Bu Şarkıyı Sana Yazdım, released in 2005. From this album comes the following song, a very nice display of his higher notes.

Ben bu şarkıyı sana yazdım (2005)

After the success of the first release, which sold about 16000 copies, Adrian has recorded three more albums, two of them in 2008, year in which he also produced the music for the movie Sıcak.

Bir Melek Ölürken (2008)

Susana Baca – The black side of Peru

The afroperuvian music had been for many years an unknown heritage that was hidden behind the traditional andean music. But in 1995, when David Byrne discovered Susana Baca’s talent, the sounds of instruments like the peruvian cajón were shown to the world, in the disc ‘El alma del Perú Negro’, edited by Luaka Bop, the record label of Byrne.

Born in Chorrillos, the black neighborhood of Lima, Susana Baca grew up in an atmosphere with a high musical richness. Her father was a guitarist, and her aunts sang with the style of Aretha Franklin. Now Susana, a descendant of black and indigenous people, is considered the most important singer of Peru, and the heiress of Chabuca Granda, a legend of the afroperuvian song.

Toro mata

Married with the sociologist Ricardo Pereira, Susana Baca has dedicated her life to the research of the afroperuvian music with him. They published the book ‘El fuego y el agua’, where they included testimonies and documents of this ethnic group and its musical legacy.

De los amores

Arian Band – The Real Face of Iran

Some bands have so many good songs that it gets difficult to select the two that will accompany a post. Arian Band, an Iranian pop band born in 2000, is one of these. The formation of this band is something not very often seen in the West, let alone in the Middle East. With nine members, three of them females, Arian Band has broken through the gender barrier to become the first band of its kind in their country.

Ghasedak (2008)

The political climate in Iran has been changing during the last years, making possible for them to tour outside of their country, thus letting the world know about them and their music. They have taken advantage of this opportunity to show a different face of Iran to the world. As Ali Pahlavan, the leader of the band, said in an interview with the BBC:

If you go to Iranian movies all you see is misery - nothing else. People think Iran is like this - everything is a desert, all the people are crying... We wanted to show the real Iran.

Nagoo (2008)

X Plastaz – Masaai MC’s

Based in Arusha, a small town of Tanzania, X plastaz has become one of the most successful hip hop groups of East Africa. Its mix consists of a fast rapping in swahili (that sounds very rhythmic, by the way) combined with the traditional chants of the Masaai tribe. In fact, one of its members is among the best known masaai singers in this country. This first video shows us how is the life in a masaai village in the middle of the desert. A part of this song says: "We would make fire under a tree, consuming meat and milk in the traditional way... Please don't laugh, even if it's funny."

Aha! (2004)

The singer who appears in the first part of the previous video, Faza Nelly, was killed by a violent neighbour three years ago. Since then, X Plastaz has not recorded any album but has toured and played in different places of Africa. However, this year the members of X plastaz will come back to a recording studio.

Msimu kwa Msimu (2004)

Umalali - The Garifuna Women's Project

During 10 years, a Belizean musician and producer, Ivan Duran, worked on a project that started as a search of unknown but exceptional female voices throughout the Garifuna villages in Belize, where a Central American ethnic group known as Garifuna people, live.

The recordings of these voices were initially in daily places, like kitchens, living rooms or in the streets, but, as the project matured, Duran set up a studio, where he started recording what later became the album titled Umalali: The Garifuna women’s project, available on Amazon.

Mérua (2008)

Many of the songs were composed by the women who sang them, which is something common among the Garifuna people. As Duran explains,

With women, music is more part of their daily lives. They are the bearers of most of the traditions, they are the ones who teach the Garifuna language to the children.

However, Duran made many arrangements, mixing the traditional singing with elements of blues, rock, Latin music and African music, thus creating a warm atmosphere that is able to appeal to a wide audience.

Nibari (2008)

Visit their myspace page to listen to this song in a complete version  as well as more awesome songs.

Buika – Black Flamenco

Born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in 1972, Concha Buika is the daughter of two inmigrants from Equatorial Guinea. Her mother taught her to listen to jazz voices, and the ‘cante jondo’ style that sang gipsy people around her neighborhood. Her stunning and heartbreaking voice, between black music and spanish ‘quejío’, is the particular seal that has seduced musicians like Chucho Valdés or Rachelle Ferrell. Her music, that mixes rythms like R&B, electronic, pop, hip hop, and, of course, Copla Flamenca, makes reference with its lyrics to the abandonement and the lost love.

No habrá nadie en el mundo (2008)


Mi niña Lola (2006)

Julio Jaramillo - Hate him

“Hate me, but keep in mind that you only hate what you have loved” translates the song "Ódiame" (Hate me) of Julio Jaramillo, an Ecuadorian Pasillo singer acclaimed in all of South America, but specially in his country, where he is almost a national symbol. He was only 42 years old when he died, but in this short time he recorded nearly 3500 songs and still had time to procreate 42 children.

Ódiame

The following song, titled “Nuestro juramento” (Our promise) talks about a promise of love that lasts beyond death. The video is from a biographical movie about Jaramillo, where his role is played by his son Julio Jaramillo Sanchez.

Nuestro Juramento

Checkpoint 303 - Electronic wail from Palestine

Inspired by the life of people from occupied territories, Checkpoint 303, a group of musicians from Palestine and Tunisia, has based its sound in live recordings over the streets of the main Palestinian cities. "It is not so much the fact that the founding members are of arabic origin that defines the issues we talk about in our music. It is rather a strong conviction that injustice anywhere in the world should be reported, fought and exposed to the world" said its founders, SC Yosh and Sc Mocha, in an interview.

They capture the daily sounds of local people and mix it with samples and melodies played in Oud. Their name was based on 'Checkpoint 300', a zone between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem that is guarded by soldiers, restricting the passage of Palestinian people to Israel.

Streets O' Ramallah (2007)

One of the most unique features of Checkpoint 303 is the fact that they are clearly not interested in selling. Their listeners can only get their music by downloading it on their website. Furthermore, their lyrics are very critical about the situation of people in Palestina, who, according to them, need to resist the military abuse and the human rights violation. They don't want to be restricted to say what they think, so they prefer to produce their music by themselves.

Abraj

Rasmus Lyberth Band - Extremely cold music

Around 1970, Rasmus Lyberth liberated the music of Greenland from its merely functional role in society, by making it an entertainment for itself. Although Greenlandic language is spoken by less than 55000 people in the world, Rasmus always sings in it "because it is so full of passion and power". His lyrics describe the unique landscapes of Greenland and the life of its people, who on a daily basis struggle with a never-ending winter.

Ajajajaa


Elven

Fela Kuti – The afrobeat ‘president’

‘AIDS is the illness of white man’ said Fela Kuti, a Nigerian singer, keyboard, sax and trumpet player, before his death, caused by the Acquired Inmunodeficiency Syndrome. Kuti, the creator of the Afrobeat rythm, never accepted that this disease was a result of his sexual promiscuity.

Sorrow Tears and blood

Fela Kuti was a human rights defender and a candidate for president of Nigeria two times, representing the Movement of the People (MOP). He was always a rebel during the dictatorship of Nigeria. Without fear, he mocked the servile attitude of the Nigerian army in his 1997 album called ‘Zombie’. After that, the soldiers destroyed his neighborhood, hit and raped women there. Fela´s mom died in this attack.

Teacher Don't teach Me No Nonsense

Ace Of Base - The wheel of fortune

I’m sure you have listened to at least one hit of Ace of Base, a techno pop band that has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Singles like The Sign, All that she wants, Don’t turn around or Lucky love were played everywhere in the 90’s.

With four members, two of them female singers, the band was born in 1987. Initially, it was difficult for them to gain recognition cause in Sweden the preferred genre was heavy metal at the time, but they finally did it with their first single, the excellent song Wheel of fortune.

Ace of Base has been one of my all time favorite bands. Since this blog is primarily about new music, I will put two songs that weren't singles, but that for me are among their very best productions.

My Déjà Vu (1995)


Edge of Heaven (2005)

Agustín Barrios - How to write a poem with a guitar

Agustín Barrios Mangoré, born in Paraguay in 1885, is one of the most important classical guitar composers of the 20th century. At the young age of 15, he started his music studies at the Asuncion National University. Just 8 years later, in 1909, he made the first commercial classical guitar recording in history.

His broad knowledge of music, allowed him to make compositions that ranged from baroque to folk music arrangements. The following work, interpreted by the Colombian guitarist Fernando Ramirez, is one of the finest arpeggio studies for guitar.

Las Abejas

Many world-class guitarists were fans of Barrios, with Andrés Segovia, David Russell and John Williams among them. John Williams, who plays the piece Choro da saudade in the following video, said of Barrios:

As a guitarist/composer, Barrios is the best of the lot, regardless of era. His music is better formed, it's more poetic, it's more everything! And it's more of all those things in a timeless way.

Choro da saudade (Recorded in 1979)

Yoshida Brothers – Rock in Kimono

Shamisen, an old string instrument from Japan, has been played since the 16th century. Nowadays, the sound of Shamisen has become popular because the theme song of the Nintendo Wii game console is entirely played with this instrument by the brothers Ryoichiro Yoshida and Ken'ichi Yoshida, who formed Yoshida Brothers.

The way they always dress like Samurais, with Hakama pants and a kimono, along with their Shamisen, may look very traditional. But the music of Yoshida Brothers is a fusion of rock and the sound of their ancestors, which they play with amazing agility.

Rising


Nikata (2004)

Nameless - Good energy for everyone

“There are two kinds of people in the world, those who have got names and those who are nameless”. Thus starts the hip hop song Megarider, that in 1999 led David Mathenge, better known as Nameless, to fame.

Although he didn’t have formal training as a musician, after winning a music contest on a Kenyan radio station, he started a unstoppably successful career that has not only reached many African countries, but also USA and the UK.

The following song won the Channel O Music Video Awards for Best Male Video, the Kilimanjaro Music Awards for Best East African Song and the Kisima Music Awards in 2006 for Best Video.

Sinzia (2006)

The following song also won the Kilimanjaro Music Awards for Best East African Song in 2009. Nameless' formula for success is to create songs that are energetic and positive. “I like to describe happy and enjoyable situations that take place within the society. I want to make people forget their problems and look at life in a positive way.” And he does this very well.

Salari (2008)

Saban Bajramovic - King of gipsy music

Balkan music has become famous in recent years because it's been featured in movies from directors like Emir Kusturica, or because musicians, like Goran Bregovic, have used it in their albums. But Saban Bajramovic, who had sung this music since he was a child, ironically died poor and sick, even though he had influenced a generation of musicians. Born in 1936 and died in 2008 in the Serbian city of Nis, Bajramovic, like other gipsy musicians, learned romani style singing with older people in the streets . Known for his powerful and heartbreaking voice, Bajramovic is considered the king of gipsy music.

The following song was procclaimed the international gipsy anthem during the First International Gipsy Congress. Its title means "I walked, walked" and it's related to the nomadic nature of gipsy people.

Djelem Djelem

This song is the first version of the famous song "Mesecina", by Goran Bregovic, which was included in the soundtrack of the movie "Underground".

Djeli Mara

Classic songs from commercials around the world (Part 1)

If you don’t remember at least one song from a commercial, where have you been all these years? It’s no secret that television advertisement has been playing with our minds from the very beginning. One of their favorite methods has been to create catchy tunes for us to sing. In fact, we loved some of these songs as a child, we knew them by heart, and surely we still know them by heart.

To be fair, old commercials were very nice with our innocent minds, compared to the ones we see today. Carrie McLaren explains:

Early advertising music had different aims than it does now. Music then was used as a mnemonic device, using rhyme and repetition to help keep a brand name in mind. Music now is more often employed as 'borrowed interest,' capturing a feeling, setting a mood, recalling past experiences and playing them back on behalf of the sponsors.

Fortunately, the following ads are somewhat old, they were made around the 80’s or the 90’s, so you will still be half sane by the end of this post. An interesting thing to notice is how similar are they to one another, despite having been created in distant places. Most of these commercials caused me some nostalgia, even the ones I haven’t seen before!

1. Cafe Águila Roja - Colombia

Lets start with the one I sang as a child. This commercial was put on the air every Christmas since the late 80’s and was repeated until everybody had learned it. I believe it was put until recent years, for a grand total of three Colombian generations listening to it. The advertised product: coffee. The target audience: children. Why I have a cup of coffee over my desk right now is a no brainer.

2. Tootsie Rolls – United States

Tootsie Rolls are one of the best-selling candies in the world. The catchy tune of this commercial is easily remembered by thousands of Americans:

The world looks mighty good to me, 'cause Tootsie Rolls are all I see
Whatever it is I think I see, becomes a Tootsie Roll to me
Tootsie Roll how I want your chocolatey chew,
Tootsie Roll I think I'm in love with you
Whatever it is I think I see, becomes a Tootsie Roll to me.

According to Wikipedia, this is one of the more enduring jingles in American popular culture:

Recorded at Blank Tape Studios in 1976, it is still occasionally played today. The jingle was sung by a nine-year-old girl and a thirteen-year-old boy. The children were paid $50 each for their work.

There’s also a psychedelic version someone made for fun.

3. Cucurucu – Russia

Cucurucu, a Russian chocolate candy, was created soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, around 1992. The economic situation in the new Russian Federation was critical, so not many Russian children had the opportunity to prove Cucurucu. But, apparently, the ones who did, if you trust random comments on the internet, didn’t like it so much!

4. Aranciata Sanpellegrino – Italia

The next commercial is about an Italian orange juice called Sanpellegrino. I liked the jingle because of the cute voice of the children. I then read some of the comments the people made on the video. It caught my attention that a kind of mispronunciation called erre moscia, is hated by many Italians. If you, like me, haven’t heard the term before, listen to it for yourself:

I had to pay careful attention in order to catch the infamous erre moscia in the voice of the kid. But it didn’t bother me at all. Did it bother you?

5. Faber-Castell Aquarela

We conclude this post with a colorful commercial that features a remarkable song composed by two key figures of the Brazilian music. This is the kind of commercial that I would have remembered with pleasure had I been Brazilian.

The composers of the song, called “Aquarela”, were Toquinho, a Brazilian guitarist with a career that spans 40 years,  and Vinícius de Moraes, who was a seminal figure in the contemporary Brazilian music, nothing less than the man who shaped the bossa nova to its current form. The video was directed by Guto Carvalho, an artist that loves birds and studies their motion as well as the motion of the clouds. We can easily see the outcome of his passion in this Faber-Castell’s remarkable commercial.

To be continued…

The world of advertisement music is exciting. We will continue this series some time in the future. Meanwhile, keep enjoying the daily music flux from all over the world!

Los Kjarkas - Music from the high mountains of Bolivia

Inspired lyrics, beautiful folk melodies and more than 35 years of history make Los Kjarkas one of the most representative bands of Andean music. They have performed around the world, particularly in Japan, where their song “Florcita azul” got the 10th place on a folk music contest, among more than 1800 contestants. All in all, I liked the following song more :)

Tiempo al tiempo (1986)

Their most popular song is, however, “Llorando se fue”.  This song reached international fame when the French band Kaoma adapted it to caporal rhythm without authorization, peaking at the singles charts worldwide for several weeks. A successful lawsuit was filed by Los Kjarkas, for which Kaoma had to share some of their earnings with them.

Llorando se fue (1981)

Baobab Orchestra - Senegal

In the mid seventies, the Baobab Orchestra was considered one of the best bands in Africa. The fusion of many different cultural elements of afro cuban music (popular since the 40's in Dakar) and Senegalese music, characterized it. A proof of the orchestra's uniqueness is its mix of Senegalese rythms with latin rythms like son cubano, and its lyrics in different languages like wolof, diola or even spanish.

Dee Moo woor

This orchestra, founded in 1970 to make enjoyable the meetings of the ministers of the Senegalese government, became very succesful in Africa and Europe very quickly. It recorded fifteen albums until 1987, year in which Baobab was dissolved. In 2002, however, the orchestra was reunited with the help of the famous Senegalese singer Youssou N' Dour.

Bul Ma Miin

Yat-Kha - Ancestral Rock

Yat-Kha is certainly unique in the rock world. Its founder, Albert Kuvezin, is a musician from Tuva, a federal subject of Russia, but moved to Moscow, where Yat-Kha was born in 1991. Tuvinian music is known primarily for its particular singing style, known as throat singing. This vocal technique, developed for generations, is remarkable for its use of overtones, producing more than one note at the same time.

Come Along (2003)

Yat-Kha has won important awards, including the renowned BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards in 2002 in the Asian category. The path from their beginnings wasn’t easy, though. They had to fight against communist musical censorship in order to play their music and win the international recognition they now enjoy. Visit their official website for further information.

Ahoi (2005)

Carlinhos Brown - Brazil

When Antonio Carlos Freitas, best known as Carlinhos Brown, was 20 years old, he had already composed singles to people like Sergio Mendes or Caetano Veloso. But when he came back to his neighborhood, a brazilian favela of Salvador do Bahia called Candeal, and knew that five friends had died in a police riot, he thought that music had saved him.

Afterwards, Brown, currently one of the most prolific brazilian musicians, created the Pracatum Popular Musical School, a conservatory that has helped boys and girls from poor ghettos. Carlinhos is not a conventional music star. In fact, he never abandoned his original neighborhood, and although he is a successful singer and percussionist, he still lives there and has built a recording studio and an a concert hall.

Yarahá (2008)

Brown, who has performed with bands like Sepultura, or artists like Caetano Veloso, was in the 90's the director of Timbalada, a group of 100 singers and percussionists. Later, he sang as soloist and recorded this song, A namorada, one of his best known hits. This song reminds me the music that was put on the radio when I was 10 years old.

A namorada (1996)

Nuttea - 10 years looking for a song of him

About 10 years ago, my sister showed me a French song that I instantly loved. However, the song was on a custom compilation given out to her by a friend, and the title of the song was just a nasty “Artist - Track 10”. Being in french, I couldn’t understand at all the lyrics, so the artist and the song remained a mystery to me. About a week ago, I happily got to know that the infamous “Track 10” that I liked so much for many years, was “Unité”, by Nuttea.

Unité (2000)

A French ragga singer born in 1968, Nuttea’s real name is Olivier Lara.  His 2000 album Un signe du temps sold more than 700000 copies, positioning Nuttea as one of the most important exponents of the French reggae scene. The following song was the biggest hit of this album.

Elle te rend dingue (2000)

Namgyal Lhamo - Classical Tibetan music with modern instruments

Paradise Lost (2007)

Om Ah Hung (2007)

For information about Namgyal Lhamo, visit her website http://www.namgyallhamo.com or her Myspace http://www.myspace.com/namgyallhamo.

Cake - United States

When Gloria Gaynor listened to her legendary song 'I Will survive' in the version of a Californian alternative band she felt upset because she preferred her classic theme. This song, a famous disco hit in the 70's, was transformed by Cake in a catchy theme that includes very nice trumpet and guitar solos. The suffering of the abandonment is now sung by the melancholic voice of John McCrea, who has made his particular style through a combination of spoken and sung lyrics.

Even when Cake has been very successful with its really particular sound that mixes genres like ska, funk, country and hip hop and has recorded five albums, its lead singer has declared that he plans to quit touring and become a farmer.

I will survive (1996)


The distance (1996)

Gigi - International voice born in Ethiopia

It was a surprise to me to find out that the music I related with the desert in my childhood was actually the music of Ethiopia. You know, the music of the snake charmers, with those rapid notes on wind instruments. It was even more surprising to learn that for the most part Ethiopia isn’t a desert! Moreover, snake charmers are from India, even from Morocco, but definitely not from Ethiopia!

Fortunately, out of this confusion I learned something about Ethiopian music, including the fact that it is extremely diverse.  I thus expected to easily find a very good artist, and in fact I did. Ejigayehu Shibabaw, best known as Gigi, is a talented singer with a voice that may not charm snakes but totally charms my ears.

Gud Fella (2001)

10 years ago she moved from Kenya, where she had been living for some time, to San Francisco. There, she recorded her first album, titled Gigi. With an unusual setup of American jazz musicians accompanying her voice, the traditional music from Ethiopia acquired new colors with Gigi. Given the quality of this fusion, it was no surprise that the album was an international success, giving her widespread recognition and admiration. The following song is, like the previous one, from this album.

Guramayle (2001)

Gipsy Cz - Czech Republic

Hip hop has been since its origin a style of music that criticizes the social system and denounces problems like unequal economic conditions, the dangers of streets and corruption. Now, with Gipsy Cz, hip hop is used for showing how the ethnic minority of romani people has been mistreated for ages and how discrimination against this nomadic culture continues.

The sound of a violin, an accordion and a guitar together with the beatboxing and voice of a gipsy hopper are the parts of the mix that have represented Czech Republic in the last Eurovision Festival. This band has demonstrated that a song in romani language can be a hit that sounds everywhere in cities like Prague, even when gipsy people have not been totally accepted in Europe.

Jednou (2008)


Love Love (2009)

El Cuarteto de Nos - Uruguay

The members of El Cuarteto de Nos, one of the most popular uruguayan rock bands, are Rover, Riki, Santi and Alvin. They have been playing music together since 1984, releasing 11 albums so far, with a 12th coming this year. The band is acclaimed for their funny lyrics and their original live shows. In 2007, they were nominated for a Latin Grammy with the song “Yendo a la casa de Damián” (Going to Damian’s house).

Yendo a la casa de Damián (2006)


Ya no sé qué hacer conmigo (2006)

Calle 13 - Puerto Rico

El tango del pecado (2007)


Un beso de desayuno (2007)

Daby Touré - Just listen to his music

Born in a country where musicians are in the lowest caste and nobody supports music economically, Daby Touré’s father didn't want him to become a musician. “In Mauritania, the profession of musician doesn't really exist”, explains Daby. In spite of this, music was in his veins and he used to play different instruments with his friends wherever he went.

Later on, he moved to Paris, where he started to forge his own style by experimenting with different kinds of fusion of african and european music. In his own words, “All the music I picked up when I was young is still in me and that doesn't change. But in my music I am still searching, and mixing, and trying new things. I am African but I am also European.”

Setal (2008)

His first album, Diam, was the product of many years of work in his home studio, where he did all the composition, performance, arrangement and mixing of the songs. The outcome is a unique sound, where he sings in many languages, including English, French, Wolof, Pulaar and Hassaniya.

“My songs are about giving people an emotion, making them feel good... even if they don’t understand what I am talking about because I’m not speaking a language they understand”, says Touré, regarding Stereo Spirit, his second album.

We don't need (2008)

Recently he teamed up with Skip McDonald, an old school bluesman from Dayton, Ohio, to produce their new album, Call my name, released just a couple weeks ago.