Thursday, March 18, 2004
glisten globally: week one
Musical tastes shifted somewhat in the mid 1980's (there's an argument to be made that the spinout of jazz, the then-as-yet inaccessability of hip hop and the general vapidity of modern American rock contributed to this, but I'm not the one who's gonna make it). Owing somewhat to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rapid demise of Communism, the genre of "world" music hit mainstream US/Brit/French audiences in a big way. One of the more ubiquitous riders of this wave (and one of the few that didn't rely heavily on percussion) were the Bulgarian Women's Radio Choir; a group of traditional folk singers whose works, under the Nonesuch imprint, became big post-Cold War sellers. Popular among both music intelligentsia and New Age-y types, the Choir's eerie, resonating harmonies propelled them on a series of successful tours and produced three well-received major label albums. Their sound was alien enough to intrigue first time listeners and musical enough not to turn them away. Nonesuch took advantage of their incongruity and marketed them as Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares; roughly, the Mysterious Bulgarian Voices.
Their music certainly was different; evocative, soothing and dreamlike. I spent three years in high school falling asleep to a tape of the Bulgarian Women's Choir.
Scores of folk music recordings hit the shelves to capitalize on the band's success and the market was quickly flooded with Bulgarian music. Burnt consumers walked away with raw folksongs when what they wanted was the refined angelic sounds of the professional choirs. In a few years, Mystere's US mainstream popularity had crested and fallen.
The band splintered into several smaller touring factions (Angelite and Trio Bulgarka are two of these) but occasionally reforms for performances.
Here's four tracks of Bulgarian voices.
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This is as good a representation as any of the strange blend of discordance and beauty that is Mystere's stock in trade.
Laced with fairy tale premonitions of dread, danger and hope.
Purchase "3" from Amazon.
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Next time you're in Bulgaria, stop by to get private lessons from Mystere soloist Kremena Stancheva. Lonely Planet's guide to Bulgaria will get you there, learning shope is between you and Kremena.
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An interview with Bulgarian ethnomusicologist Timothy Rice.
With an instructive discography and .wav sound samples.
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An NPR piece on the choir in realmedia format.
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This is a bit of what the original folk music source material sounds like.
Passing by the Hut, me grandmamama commented, "Are you listening to people screaming in there?"
Yes.
Purchase the CD "Two Girls Started to Sing" direct from the publisher.
Please note that not all the tracks are quite as grating as the one sampled here. By and large the music is really quite pretty, but don't take my word for it; the Rounder site listed above offers sound samples for every track on the album.
(Rounder's site has been going up and down lately. Check back if it don't load.)
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An extensive collection of Bulgarian folklore and culture links
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Bulgaria.com is where all the cool kids hang out online, if by "cool" you mean "bulgarian".
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I got to see them live more than a decade ago. They sounded BETTER than this.
It was awesome.
Purchase "Ritual" from Amazon.
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Those who like what they've heard and want more are encouraged to go look into this reasonably priced three disc set.
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Mystere's official site (such as it is)
Plenty of sound samples.
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The last major project the choir worked on was a soundtrack piece for Brother Bear (ick!) in a duet with Phil Collins (ick! ick! ick!).
Dig THIS wrongheaded press release:
Most intriguing is the Bulgarian Women's Choir's "Transformation." Collins' lyrics were translated into the Inuit Eskimo language for the performance, which was arranged by score co-composers Collins and Mark Mancina and vocal arranger Eddie Jobson. "The idea of them singing in a language that is completely foreign to them gave the song a texture and sound that was unique," Mancina says. "The sound is cross-cultural."
Yeah, because a Bulgarian choir singing in an American cartoon about a Canadian bear just isn't "cross-cultural" enough in and of itself.
Maybe they could throw in a little Japanese rap and end it by chanting "Peace out, yo!"
Ick, Ick, Ick, Ick. I may need a shower.
Look, if you REALLY want a multicultistravaganza with a backbone you should check out:
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Huun Huur Tu is a Tuvan musical group that collaborated with Mystere offshoot Angelite in the mid 90's. The juxtaposition of Angelite's (you should forgive the pun) heavenly sound with Huun Huur Tu's guttural growling presents a wild contrast.
This has many of the same qualities as "Lam Tooro", the Baaba Maal track I posted a few days ago. Both are transcendental pieces that speak beyond language.
Purchase the stunning album "Fly, Fly My Sadness" from Amazon
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An explanation (in somewhat broken English) of how the project that yielded this track came to fruition.
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Review of a 1995 Tour by Angelite
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This bio-blurb on the Trio Bulgarka (one of several side projects for the Mystere members) makes this good point:
"(I)n many cases such groups, which regularly go under names such as the Philip Koutev National Folk Ensemble, do not specify personnel; thus some of the greatest Bulgarian singers are often detected only by their faces in cover photographs or if they take a solo."
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Hope that little taste of Tuva wet your whistle for more, cuz we're gonna explore the wild and wooly world of Tuvan Kargyraa singing tomorrow. Bring cough drops.
clicky
The MUSICBLOG REVOLUTION continues apace. Here's the latest perpetrators, soon to be immortalized in the ever-expanding sidebar:
Blackyellowblack is a site for a member of Communique, featuring copious audio from the band. He's also posting an "mp3 of the week" selection, currently Modest Mouse.
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Cocaine Blunts just got the coveted nod from Flux, so more traffic he don't need; but when you're spinnin' Kanye and Rammellzee and Aceyalone whattayouexpect? There's a surprising dearth of hip hop (underground or otherwise) musicblogs; glad to see our man on the scene.
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Intellectual Hip Hop Commentary makes it a point to occasionally post tracksl. Check out (possibly) rising Ruff Ryder star Jin's new track "I Got A Love".
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Lucas Gonze is the creator of the aforementioned Webjay and is one of the few so far to really exploit its potential.
The blogger in me is frustrated that I spend all this time writing just so that some webjay cat can swipe my music without having to look at my fancy words, but my interior musicgeek is happy with anything that furthers the ripples in the water. Ego loses: the more the merrier is our motto.
Webjay IS how I'm listening to Mystical Beast these days, so I can hardly complain.
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The Vamps are a "soul/jazz" band with a pile of their own music onsite for dl. What I've heard, I like. Go check it.
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As the last guy to make the party, I'm almost embarrassed to mention Epitonic. Next week, our man discovers Pitchfork. Shocking!
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Not to shine too bright a light into the shady corners of the internet, but the Get Your Bootleg On message board is a great place to find brand new remixes and mashups, hot off the harddrive. Check out the challenge section for downloadable material.
The first entry on the Prince competition (by Jsomethin) has been a favorite round here.
You'll find more of the same over at Never Heard It.
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I deserve a swift kick in the ass for not delivering well-deserved shoutouts to Boom Selection earlier. If Flux is the daddy, Boom is the granddaddy. Legal issues and bandwidth hassles make Boom an on-again/off-again proposition, but it's on now and how. Stop by for mixes, mashes, superchunks and the occasional hot UK track.
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Fetter Konig is German, I think. That is all.
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Disquiet is another "ear-on-the-track" site that hunts down free DLs for you; the emphasis here is electronic.
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I must say I really rather like Sleeve Notes. Great design, good poppy remix song selection and a healthy side order of ham. If you set your mind free baby, maybe you'd understand...
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Troubled Diva offers a whole new way to listen to music: he lists five one minute snippets by various artists and then asks you to rate them in order of preference. Competitive musicbloggin'. Interesting.
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Popshots offers a selection of music for download. Diggin' the TATU, but I'm ALWAYS diggin' the TATU. Any other TATU fans out there?
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Also, a few new additions to the regular linkage: punch it, chewie is a haiku blog, Things Magazine might be joining BIRIV, WAXY and PIXSURG as my one stop clicky-mart and Kami Land (found via PORNBLOGRAPHY) is the livejournal of "a little no body porn chick who enjoys everything she does!"
spiffy
I'm in the process of revamping all my image links so that I'm hosting them and so they're laid out in a more advantageous manner for me. Be patient if some of the pictures won't load.
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We get props! Latest batch of love comes courtesy of Global Pop Conspiracy, offering a pirate radio station and a crib list of the new freemusichotness in their left sidebar; The San Benito All Stars, who have reimagined Roland Kirk as a Zatoichi-style killing machine (sounds good to me); Simo Club (apparently, an Italian modeling agency?); Throbbing Skunk Ape (bonus points for use of the word "schwack") and Daniel's Journey, who's bandying about the rumour that I'm "cul". De sac, even?
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And just to give you some idea of the depths of my egomania, I love the fact that when you look up the most talked about people in March on BlogPulse, the listing for Blake Edwards has me calling Jim Carrey a shithead.
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I would LOVE to find a jpg/gif/etc file with the Matt Groening "Life in Hell" cartoon with "Akbar and Jeff's Tofu Hut". Anybody with a scanner and one of the books? Can somebody PLEASE help me out? I'll be your friend?
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Let's hear some comments, folks! I know you're downloading but I don't know what you're liking (or hating). Tell me!
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Somewhat related: this daily posting stuff is taking a lot out of me. Are any of you daily habitues of the Hut or am I just running myself ragged for no good reason?
