Something Completely Different

...because these wide-ranging musical genres should have a home base on SCD, imo. Here's a place where anyone can put the Folk/World/Country songs they come across and enjoy. Here's a couple from me:


^ From Conil's album "Strange Part Of The Country", released in 2007, this track is folky, but as a whole the album is more a combination of Nick Drake meets blues while putting a toe into rock music.


Artist: Manbo Weena
Song: Oguo
Country: Haiti
I just put the basic info for this track as I couldn't find out much about them/her online. Great song, though, and an inspiration in its way - that such music can rise up out of a country that has been so badly treated throughout its history.

Only tangentially related but I just gotta vent: the radio here won't stop playing that country cover of Fast Car. That's one of my mom's favorite songs ever, and she played it all the time when I was growing up. So the fact that it's a huge hit 35 years later is so dang surreal to me. But they play it on top 40 radio so often that it's making me like the song less.

I didn't know that there was a country music cover of Fast Car, Mrs. Waffles, but by extraordinary coincidence, the article below ( discussing Fast Car) appeared on today's CNN webpage. Thanks to you I was able to say, "Aha, Right!" as if I knew all about it. The article explains that Fast Car is creating waves in the ocean that is country music. If you can't endure to read the article yourself, perhaps you should at least send it to your mom ;):-

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/29/entertainment/luke-combs-jason-aldean-country-crossroads-cec/index.html

Country music can get pretty irritating, to be sure, but then some songs "reach the part that other songs don't reach". Even my cold cynical soul has been moved by this one, for example:-

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Jul 29, 2023, 05:35 PMI didn't know that there was a country music cover of Fast Car, Mrs. Waffles, but by extraordinary coincidence, the article below ( discussing Fast Car) appeared on today's CNN webpage. Thanks to you I was able to say, "Aha, Right!" as if I knew all about it. The article explains that Fast Car is creating waves in the ocean that is country music. If you can't endure to read the article yourself, perhaps you should at least send it to your mom ;):-

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/29/entertainment/luke-combs-jason-aldean-country-crossroads-cec/index.html

Country music can get pretty irritating, to be sure, but then some songs "reach the part that other songs don't reach". Even my cold cynical soul has been moved by this one, for example:-

Thank you for the link! I definitely did think about the implications of a straight white dude making a huge mainstream country hit out of a song written by a queer black woman (I didn't actually previously know about Chapman's connection to lesbian identity). Good food for thought.

I'm honestly pretty illiterate when it comes to most country. I can enjoy some country songs I know just on the merits of being good pop songs, but I don't really understand it on anything more than a surface level. It's not a culture I identify with lyrically or aesthetically; in all the country songs I like, it's always the least "country-ish" elements that I latch onto.

ambient americana

^ Thanks for the contribution, tristan  :thumb: Great title, and a genre label I haven't heard of before. With the music, though, the first two tracks were enough for me, I'm afraid: too much ambient and not enough americana. :(

The Paris, Texas album might be considered ambient americana, perhaps: a mainly instrumental album with tracks that never really leave the mood of this opener:

Quote from: tristan_geoff on Jul 30, 2023, 11:40 AM

ambient americana

This is such interesting stuff! Reminds me a lot of The KLF's Chill Out with the ambient sampling and such. I love works that kind of deconstruct classic sounds and recontextualize them, thanks for posting this!

Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jul 29, 2023, 08:25 PMI'm honestly pretty illiterate when it comes to most country. I can enjoy some country songs I know just on the merits of being good pop songs, but I don't really understand it on anything more than a surface level. It's not a culture I identify with lyrically or aesthetically; in all the country songs I like, it's always the least "country-ish" elements that I latch onto.

Yeah, as a genre, I don't like it much, and the culture you mention is always gonna remain alien to me.

This song, on the other hand, "calls to my ancestral roots" (if you'll excuse the pretention) :-



I feel like I want to go into the woods tonight and perform some arcane Druid ritual with Pol Mac Adaim and whoever the girl in the song is.

Here's a song that's hitting the headlines outside of music-orientated media because it was used during the GOP candidates debate the other day:-

QuoteIn a YouTube video shared on Friday, the singer addressed his song having been played at this week's 2024 Republican presidential primary debate, saying that he found it "funny" because the song "is written about the people on that stage."

Folk-Country-Rock-Rap: all genres that have given voice to the plight of the common man. A couple of my personal favourites have been Woody Guthrie, and also Ewan McColl:-


 

This year's Le Cri De Caire by the group by the same name is a beautiful mix of arabic music, jazz and minimal classical. Highly recommend the whole album.

Good to see you here, grindy! That's a great, moody track. Thanks.

The combination of traditional Indian sounds and electronica has been around for a long time now, but here's a recent good song from MIDIval Punditz, helped out on this occasion by a female vocalist:-

My favourite track from Argentinian singer, Mona Maca Mu:-


What's it about? These are the opening lines:
Every time I think I'm waking up,
I feel like I've stopped walking
And an alarm sounds in you
And an alarm sounds in me"

Afro-Mexicans are a larger-than-you-might-imagine ethnic group, They don't get a lot of attention, and people can only guess at what their music first sounded like. Here are some dancers today who freely admit that they are retro-inventing a style, based on what they've gleaned from the internet:-


...and here is a 1996 theatrical re-imagining of how Afro-Mexican music might have been, in the unlikely event that it was sung by a choir trained in the European tradition. This is a short song from the soundtrack to La Antorcha Encendida, a Mexican historical drama, and its intention is to evoke a party among slaves during Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain, so round about 1790.
 

Not sure how to classify this but probably okay to post here.

It's probably happened to us all: you're at a party and someone asks you, "Which is your favourite '70s instrumental album from Turkmenistan?" If you were caught out and didn't have an answer ready, don't worry: the best answer is of course,"Firyuza's debut, self-titled and only album - Firyuza."

You can either memorize the answer for future use, or even better, listen to the album itself, which is fresh and surprising all the way, imo, as it confidently shifts between traditional, prog and jazz:-

... and if you really want to show off, you'll say, "Of course, in the 70's Turkmenistan was still part of the USSR, but here's a map of the country today that I like to keep in my pocket for occasions such as this:

(https://www.worldometers.info/img/maps/turkmenistan_physical_map.gif)

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Nov 11, 2023, 05:14 AMIt's probably happened to us all: you're at a party and someone asks you, "Which is your favourite '70s instrumental album from Turkmenistan?" If you were caught out and didn't have an answer ready, don't worry: the best answer is of course,"Firyuza's debut, self-titled and only album - Firyuza."

You can either memorize the answer for future use, or even better, listen to the album itself, which is fresh and surprising all the way, imo, as it confidently shifts between traditional, prog and jazz:-

That Funked Up East channel is a fine resource, Lisna, for former Soviet bloc explorations! Just listening to their latest post which is probably less folk and more international, and has a US tinge. I think those two nations have a lot more in common than a lot of people think. Someone bang their heads together  :banghead:

Quote from: Saulaac on Nov 24, 2023, 11:32 PMThat Funked Up East channel is a fine resource, Lisna, for former Soviet bloc explorations! Just listening to their latest post which is probably less folk and more international, and has a US tinge. I think those two nations have a lot more in common than a lot of people think. Someone bang their heads together  :banghead:

Heck yeah, I love that channel. Discovered a bunch of ambient and electronic gems from it, like this.

Quote from: Saulaac on Nov 24, 2023, 11:32 PMThat Funked Up East channel is a fine resource, Lisna, for former Soviet bloc explorations! Just listening to their latest post which is probably less folk and more international, and has a US tinge. I think those two nations have a lot more in common than a lot of people think. Someone bang their heads together  :banghead:

^ That's a great album, Saulaac. Thanks. It has a big, bold sound all the way through, with more brass than I expected. For some reason I couldn't shrug off the feeling that I was listening to the soundtrack of some seventies spy-action movie,but I liked it very much nonetheless. :thumb:

Next up for me: listen to Mrs. Waffles' rec and then consider taking the plunge and subscribing to the YouTube channel you both mention.
In the meantime, last night I was re-discovering an album I downloaded years ago: Abyssinia Infinite by Zion Roots:-

Listen to this song and re-adjust your attitude to life!

I don't care if it rains or freezes long as I got my plastic Jesus
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car
Going ninety, it ain't scary 'cause I've got the Virgin Mary
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car
I'm in the backseat sinning, Jesus up there grinning
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car
Green, white, pink or yellow, I don't care 'cause he's my feller
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car

If you are intrigued by unusual genre names, or if you are struggling through winter and want a reminder that sunny and carefree times will come again, then a bit of Rake And Scrape music may interest you. It's the local name of calypso music in the Bahamas, the name coming from the original skiffle-type instruments used: a saw, an upturned bucket and rake handle to serve as the base, etc. In this song by Stileet, you can see some homemade instruments, and although their sound is rather swallowed up by the rest of the band, it's still a good example and celebration of the style:-

Thin, whiny, insistent : everything about this album is wonderful so far:-

GUYS the new Mdou Moctar album is fantastic get listening

Music is hard to categorize (hindustani americana dub?) but fucking amazing.

^ Yeah, that track sounds wonderful ! :thumb: I would struggle to explain what dub is, but you'll hear some in this track by Dusminguet, a band from Barcelona who mix up rock with various Latin sounds:-

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Quote from: Marie Monday on May 20, 2024, 09:39 PMGUYS the new Mdou Moctar album is fantastic get listening

Thanks for the heads up ! Here's the title track for anyone who wants a taste:-

The Hmong were an isolated ethnic group living in the mountains of Laos, but they had to leave their homeland during/after the war in Vietnam.
Some ended up in Thailand, others in the USA (as many had fought on the American side in that war). Their traditional music has morphed into something with a more international flavour, and here's an example of how that combination sounds:-

this is a sort of folk music I suppose, recommended mostly because of the insane powerhouse French singing

^Paix is a briliant song on that album. Thanks for posting it, Marie.
I wondered where I had heard that organ in France and remembered Dave McRae's meanderings during Robert Wyatt's concert on French TV.

Quote from: Marie Monday on Jun 10, 2024, 08:54 PMthis is a sort of folk music I suppose, recommended mostly because of the insane powerhouse French singing

^ Impossible not to click on the music after a description like that, Marie ! I've played, and enjoyed, about half the album and particularly liked the organ which, for me, gave the music an agreeably dated sound. Nothing as precise as your association, though, Saulaac, and no excuse for me as I actually saw Matching Mole live many years ago.
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Here's some more powerful singing, from Hungaraian band Makám, on their 2003 album, Anzix :-

 

Somewhat folkish low key russian ArtPop with some really cool fretless bass

I have no doubt that tumbleweed is blowing through my "Trollheart Listens to Every Album on Wiki's List for 2023" thread, but I'm enjoying it (mostly) and I've come across quite a few good artists. Don't know if you know this woman but in a country style, she rocks! Well worth checking out. I only listened to her 2023 album (obvs) which is titled Come Get Your Wife but it was more than enough to make me a fan. Not a single bad track, and this is one of my favourites.

"Try Jesus" - Elle King

^ Yes, that's a great track Trollheart. I like a girl-with-guts song, and this one has it all: the band, the lyrics and a distinctive twang to Elle King's voice. Thanks for the rec. :thumb:
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I'm afraid this track may be too jazzy for you, TH, but it's something I'm enjoying today. The 2011 album from Australian band Shaolin Afronauts; their music is usually labelled "Afrobeat", so I guess they belong in the "world music" category:-

Well they're certainly a weird looking bunch!  :laughing:
Hell with it: here's an exclusive sneak review of that album; I imagine it'd be right up your country lane, Lisna!

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/Come_Get_Your_Wife.webp/316px-Come_Get_Your_Wife.webp.png)
Album title:  Come Get Your Wife
Artist: Elle King
Genre: Country
Nationality: American
Release date: January 27
Position in Discography: Third
Tracks: 12
Familiar with this artist? No
Heard of this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? A little
Average RYM Score: 2.95
Highest chart position: Unknown

And back to country we go, hopefully with a better result this time. I'm sure it's intended, but man does she epitomise the idea of trailer trash on that cover! Like we say here in Ireland, "fur coat no knickers." Not that I can see, but, you know. I'm half-hoping this is going to be a sort of Pistol Annies deal, where the lady lets loose on all the men in her life, growlin' and spittin' and cussin' them all to hell in whatever mode of transport they prefer. Raunchy, in your face, don't fuck with me country is what I hope for. What I may get could be something entirely else, but on the basis of the cover I think that might not be too vain a hope. For those who care, Elle King is the daughter of actor Rob Schneider, but whether that has anything to do with her rise to fame (her last single topped the country charts, so I'm told) I have no idea. She has an impressive stage career though, having supported, among others, Heart, Joan Jett, Miranda Lambert and, um, Train.

Okay, she refused to ride on the coat-tails of her father's fame, changing her name - or at least, using the maiden one of her mother, model London King - so that she could be her own person. That's good to hear. Nominated for four Grammys, playing guitar since she was thirteen and influenced by a wide range of musicians, from Earl Scruggs and the Man in Black to the other man in black, or men in black, AC/DC, Blondie, Hank Williams and Otis Redding. Sounding good so far. But what's the music like?

Okay well right away this is more like it! Love the banjo, the sort of stripped-down style, and with song titles like "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)", "Blacked Out" and "Crawlin' Mood", this sounds more like country music sung from the heart and taken from experience. Don't think there'll be too many soppy love songs here. Yeah already I like this so much I've kicked up the volume and I'm, um, grooving along. This is going to be class. What's also great about her is (and here I suppose I'll get into trouble for being sexist but what else is new?) she doesn't look like a pretty country chick. I'm not saying she's not good looking but she has that kind of real, earthy look to her, not a Shania or a Faith or any of a myriad of "pretty girls" who sing, or purport to sing country. She looks, well, genuine. You can believe the stuff she sings about has happened to her, or to people she knows. It's honest, it's from the heart, it's, well, it's country. Proper country.

Her love of rock music is evident in the harder-hitting punch of tracks like "Before You Met Me" and what may be the ultimate dumping song,  "Tulsa",  while there's a certain sense of divas like Taylor Swift or Charli XCX or whoever in the gloriously irreverent and defiant "Drunk", which features my favourite Pistol Annie, Miranda Lambert. "Lucky" kind of skirts the edges of bro/sis(?) country but manages to avoid falling over the side into mediocrity, and what country album worth its salt don't feature the J-man? "Try Jesus" may sound like a dinner suggestion, but serves to leaven out the hard-drinkin', leave me alone songs, allowing Elle to mellow out a little in the arms of her Saviour. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that if you believe. Don't knock it etc.

Sure I could go on. The fiddle and banjo work in perfect harmony on "Crawlin' Mood", songs like "Jersey Giant" only come around once in a while, and it's been a long time since I heard such an honest, take-me-as-I-am unapologetic autobiographical song as "Bonafide." Testify, sister! Yeah, if you want real country music, warts and all, as Waits once growled, "shit on the boots", real cowgirl stuff, stick this album on. Probably best you have a bottle of Jack, too. Just, you know, for atmosphere.

Any good tracks? Every damn one!
Agree with RYM? Nah, should be a lot higher.
Would I listen to this album again? Hell yeah!
Of choice, would I check out more from this artist? Definitely
Of choice, would I be interested in checking out more from this genre or subgenre? Always
Score: 10/10

Thank you very much for posting that album review out of sequence for my benefit, Trollheart  :love:

I'm sorry I haven't replied until now, but I using your review as a guide, I listened to Elle's album, and I largely agree with you, even down to the tracks that you singled out for special mention. A great album!
"Fur coat, no knickers"  :laughing: Good one, Trolls; never heard that before !
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One good rec deserves another, but this one falls short of Elle King, I fear; Hurray For The Riff Raff have too many slow songs for my liking, but here's a great track where the tempo lifts up a bit.-

Not sure how well this one fits into the thread but it's still got a country/folk vibe despite the lyrics...



John Denver sings "War Pigs" (Black Sabbath

Here's a short and sweet gospel song :


Unlike most of the songs I found by the Maverick Saints duo, it's not a traditional song according to the YouTube notes:

QuoteThe Maverick Saints: Featuring Sandra Stephens and Chris Falson. "On the Other Side"
An original song by Chris Falson, written for a friend's memorial service.

This song fits the "world" bit of the thread, but don't expect any folk or country on this track, Nobody Fails by Ofege. To quote Pitchfork:

The slinky rhythms of Latin American music have been around for so long, but there are always new artists who want to explore their sonic possibilities. This Rauw Alejandro track, released last year, has a slow, slightly sinister vibe imo:-

A simple story, and an old song in a stripped down version by Sinead O'Connor:-


To make such simplicity so powerful is not easy imo, but here's why I'm posting Molly Malone today: there's an odd news story that goes with:-

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgnex2zy7qo