I have to post about my latest podcast, because it unites fantastic artists singing in some of my favourite languages. I deliberately avoided English, though there is one track on there, from a Norwegian band called The Cut… I had to do it. It’s a great track and it half-fit the theme. EllaGuru also have a track in English on there, but you can barely make out the lyrics which is a good sign.
It’s a bit of an experiment. I want to see how much “language barrier” can affect the attention span/degree of pleasure you get from music.
Source: BLU > 25 Disegni
Japanese is a versatile language for song – it can go horribly wrong or near-perfect. It must be all those open sounds. See Yura-Yura Teikoku, UA, Lullatone, Cappablack and my boy Shing02 for the details.
Norwegian I have just realised, is also a pleasing medium for music. It’s one of the few tonal European languages – the inflections do sound like Chinese sometimes. The artists I have here are all from a compilation a friend gave me (Takk for det, Nils!). Thus was I exposed to a pleasant peacock of diverse musical feathering. The songs, bar one, are by no means new, and if you try and google the artists you get close to nothing. Ranging from EllaGuru‘s perky anthem, perketiperk (that was just too too easy) to Alle Tiders Duster‘s haunting, chant-like Lillegutt, you’ll tell immediately this one largely under-represented people with a weird, spastic, poptastic, rock-tinged taste in things musical. But it works.
Brasil always makes some sort of appearance in my podcasts, and this time it’s a classic.
I hope whoever listens enjoys and gets inspired to rip up the English bubble. Knowing other cultures only puts yours in perspective. So yes, listen up, down and all around.
Circulations makes my head melt inside and sway back and forth on the outside.
Looking for AFTA-1‘s Aftathoughts Volume 1 a few months ago, you might have been surprised to find it’s physical release is only available in Japan, and it’s Circulations, a label from Japan, who are responsible. I’m digging the Japanese version of the cover.
Afta-1 - Aftathoughts
They are also host to the Muhsinah, Reggie B, couple others I’ve heard of, some others I haven’t yet but damn right I’m gonna initiate myself.
So apparently there is definitely a market for this surreal hip hop sound over there, and not only for the squeaky (literally, sometimes) music called J-Pop.
Hindered by my not understanding any of the gazillion dialects in Africa, I had to rely on my love of the beat.
This is a sample of the compilation Many Lessons released by Piranha. As much as we have come to dread religion for fear of not being in that puritan extreme, other cultures do manage to link the unlinkable. These are wild sounds of proclamation and prosternation – such is the West African way of hip hop.
eashfa 