Music, music, music!!

Dec 27, 2006

This past four-day weekend, I spent time at Pandora, Last.fm, Radioblogclub...many many places. None of them had any tracks by Niyaz, Azam Ali, or Vas. The closest I could come was finding one track by DJ Cheb i Sabbah, on Radioblogclub. (It's not what I was looking for, but it's interesting anyway. Go ahead. Have a listen. It's Indian traditional/club mashup, so while it isn't going to make your kids scream, it probably still shouldn't be played at work...particularly if you work for the US gub'mint. They'll think that, because you're listening to Middle Eastern/Asian music, you're going to do Something Eeeeeevil, and may hold back bonuses/raises/promotions. But they probably won't fire you. They'll keep you close, so they can see everything you do, you suspicious character you. [Cynical? Vois, moi?] )

It's a bit annoying that I'm unable to find a way to share some music I really enjoy with the folks who visit regularly. I think that some of you would really like this stuff. And there's some other things I think you'd enjoy, as well — some artists who are a tiny bit off the beaten path, but who nevertheless have created some wonderful music.

EDIT: all music has been removed from the invidual-link players, and is available through the members' jukebox. Want to listen? Sign up and log in, then look in the navigation bar under “Citizens”. Keep the jukebox open as you surf about!

Thursday Thirteen 73::9: For Your Listening Pleasure

1. Anuna An Irish acoustic/vocal group, Anuna's 16-plus members sing older Irish songs, medieval Irish liturgical music (Media Vita, Gaudete), contemporary folk songs and carols (The Wexford Carol, Jerusalem), and original compositions (Fionnghuala, The Raid). Their sound is by turns ethereal and fiercely moving. If you enjoy older Enya or Clannad, look for Anuna's CDs and give them a listen. (Sadly, I wasn't able to find anything on Last.fm or Radio Blog Club. Pandora has their holiday stuff, but only their holiday stuff.)
2. Dead Can Dance I first heard Dead Can Dance on a CD-Christmas card compilation tape. Each of their albums has its own "theme", so if you love Renaissance European music but don't care for Middle Eastern melodies at all, get Aion and avoid Toward the Within (or buy a used copy, so that if you don't like TtW at all you aren't out the full cost of a new CD.) I bought these when they were only available as import CDs, so each was $25 a pop when the average CD price was just over half that. I didn't care, though — to me, the music was eminently worth the extra cost. Just...if you do buy Aion, don't listen to Track 8. Brendan Perry sings, and he manages to go sharp and flat in the same measure. Gah...
3. Lisa Gerrard One of the two members of Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard's vocals caught my attention the first time I heard her sing. When she released a solo album in 1995, I was thrilled beyond words. Lisa has since collaborated with a number of other composers, including Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone; and recently released her third solo album.(DCD fans might recognize an early, slower variation of this song, track 8 of the DCD album Spiritchaser.)
4. Azam Ali I read many comments that compared this singer to Lisa Gerrard, in terms of vocal power and purity; and decided to try a CD by her group Vas (whose albums were released under the Narada label, and I usually will not touch anything from Narada due to some extremely disappointing experiments in the early 90s...but, hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day; so maybe this album was the pony where everything else had been...well...you get the idea.) Azam Ali's stuff is definitely Middle-Eastern in flavor and primary influence, and her vocal power is amazing. She is currently collaborating with Niyaz and Rosehill, and has contributed to soundtracks including Children of Dune and The Nativity Story.
5. DJ Cheb i Sabbah I heard La Kahena whilst shopping in a local Rasputin's Music. I purchased the CD — La Kahena — and played it on infinite repeat for about three weeks. (Rasputin's has a really cool policy: if you buy a CD and find that you don't like it, you can bring it back and be refunded 75% of the purchase price, either in cash or 100% in store credit. With the cost of CDs, it's risky even buying a CD from an established artist: if you don't like it, or only like the two or three songs you heard on the radio, you're out the whole cost of the CD. If you learn of local music stores who do something like this, buy from them. It encourages their behavior.)
6. Deep Forest I loved their first two albums. The third one...started to sound formulaic. The first two, though...amazing. Deep Forest created a video for their song Sweet Lullaby, which was aired on Bravo (and Canada's equivalent cable station). If you have the chance, listen to Savana Dance in a room with at least eight speakers...placed in a circle. You actually get the sensation of sitting in the center of a group of singers.
7. Violanne Corrini / Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil's soundtracks have been written by a few different composers. Rene Dupere, who did a number of their soundtracks (and was a founding member of the troupe), tends toward a Western-European-themed sound. It's lovely — I can't think of any Cirque soundtracks I actively dislike — but I find that I prefer Varekai, helmed by Violanne Corrini. She drew her influences from Eastern European cultures, most notably the Romani. The resulting music is a mix of Western techno-trance with Eastern European themes and lyrics. (If you're a dedicated Cirque fan, love their music, and want to hear some alternate variety, check out Solarium/Delerium. It's a club-mix tribute to the Cirque, with remixes done by several DJs. Solarium is the slower, cool-jazz mixes, while Delerium is the high-energy dance version. It was released as a Cirque 20th-anniversary celebration, and it's a fantastic way to hear new takes on old favorites...or discover that you love a remix of an original that was, perhaps, a bit meh.)
8. Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares Also known as the Bulgarian State Radio Choir. Their music is definitely eastern European and Mediterranean, using diaphonic chants and a strong reliance on head-voice which may disorient you initially...but it's lovely stuff, and well worth the listen.
9. Delerium These two artists' sound has changed through industrio-goth, to techno-trance, to club mix, to etheral instrumental; and some fans of their older works won't like their newer stuff. I find that I only really like Chimera, Karma, and Semantic Spaces...but I love those albums.
10. Bear McCreary and...well...the entire soundtrack for the series Battlestar Galactica. A. Ma. Zing. I can't find an online recording of the second-season theme; but the lyrics are Hindi, a passage from the Bhavagad Gita. I wish I could find a track online of the whole second season theme. (And I was just a wee tiny bit disappointed that there wasn't a new theme for the third season. I am so grabby...)
11. They Might Be Giants Yeah, okay, they're a bit more mainstream now (the theme song to Malcolm in the Middle is written and performed by them). But I remember listening to them in the 80s, when they first hit the pop-radio waves and were viewed as a little weird because their lyrics “didn't make sense”. Bah. Making sense is highly overrated.
12. Vangelis His soundtrack work on Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner, and Conquest of Paradise is only a small slice of this electronic composer's work. While his songs sound incredibly dated by today's standards, he pushed the envelope of electronic music. I first heard music from his album Albedo 0.39 in 1984, and about drove the workers at the local record store insane with my constant demands for Albedo 0.39 on CD. (It was finally released...but I'll bet those store clerks still flinch whenever anyone mentions this composer's name.)

Links to other T13 posts

1. Tinkerbell with some New Year's resolutions
2. The Meme Section
3. The Screaming Pages with a list of highlights from her Christmas haul
4. Baggage that goes with mine who is not having a good day
5. Blue Star Chronicles with a look back at lessons she learned this past year
6. Caught Between Worlds with books and movies to try out (between the two of us, we've got your media-lists for the new year!!)
7. Writing Aspirations with a good list of tools for blogosphere junkies
8. Life on the Other Side of the Desk talks about her music collections, tastes, and habits
9. West of Mars

Keywords: | Thursday | streaming music | music | memes |
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