Who's into world music out there?

burnley_oldgitSat 20/09/08 06:19

There seems to be no forum on this topic at present - they all seem to have died a while back.

However, I've noticed one or two mention it in their profile.

I tend to like a wide variety of music, but I have a big soft spot for most music from other cultures. I'm mainly talking about the real McCoy - not pop music with some exotic colour. And I hate it when some perfectly good authentic music is ruined by inappropriate additions. Though I'm not against all fusion e.g. Huong Thanh (Vietnamese jazz) or Rachid Taha's version of Rocking the Casbah. But most definitely not Yat Kha's throat singing covers of the likes of "When the levee breaks", "Black magic woman" - I thought it would be fun. I was WRONG!!

I particularly like most far eastern music (chinese, japanese, Okinawa, Vietnam....). I also have a soft spot for throat singing of all types, Indian, qawwahli, north african, nordic - joik etc.

I'm partly starting this thread in the hope that there's enough interest to bother organising a few events before I leave London in April

Please tell me I'm not on my own in liking this stuff - at work I sometimes think if I expressed the most deviant fantasy my warped mind could come up with - it would be still more acceptable than "Has anyone heard the latest Bassekou Kouyate record?"

Anyway enough rambling
David

bassetSat 20/09/08 06:43

No you're not on your own. There are a couple of others, and this is the middle-eastern / Balkan / Azeri / Turkish classical & squealy transvestite department.

PS I love Rashid Taha's "Gana el hawa" if you know it.

burnley_oldgitSat 20/09/08 07:09

Hi Bob,
Don't thinks so. I only have a couple of his disks - which album is it on?

I have just transferred all my CDs to PC and it makes me realise I might have a bit of a habit. In prep for moving I've had to get rid of most of the crystal cases and put them in those soulless zip up albums.

If you're into Balkan - can you remind me of the village band which is very proud of being the loudest out there?

Do you get to many concerts in London area? I fancy getting to hear a bit more live.
David

cantorSat 20/09/08 07:16

I have quite a large collection of traditional music from around the world (Georgia, The Balkans, India, the Far East &c., many anonymous performances) which I bought from the excellent CD tent at the Sidmouth Festival. Sidmouth was juxtaposing traditional music from the British Isles with invited singers and dancers from around the world long before WOMAD was thought of. That was before the "world music" category of popular music had encouraged hybridisation of western and non-western music, so I was exposed to the "real thing". After WOMAD got going, Sidmouth started to cash in on the availability of world music acts, so hybrids started to appear. Since 2004, however, the festival's budget has been slashed, so it's concentrating much more on British traditions.