The Album Exchange

[Janszoon]

@Janszoon are you familiar with the 1980  album Feminina by Brazilian artist Joyce?



If not, that will be my pick 🙂 if you already know it, I'd like to find something else.

I'm not familiar, but I'm looking forward to giving the album a listen. I still haven't thought of something for you but I'll post something soon.

[Trollheart]

Trollheart do you want to be my pair?

Sorry, fire: only saw this now.
Sure, sock it to me.
Do you want to use the same album (and me use the one I have) or start a new pairing, as it were?
Sorry for the late reply.

thanks
a new album will be fine 

Cool.
Since you have somewhat of a liking for Irish artists, try this one:

[Janszoon]

@Guybrush  Ok, here's my pick for you, Shandai Ya / Stanka by The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices (ft. Lisa Gerrard). Let me know if you've heard it before and I'll pick something else.

[Guybrush]

@Guybrush  Ok, here's my pick for you, Shandai Ya / Stanka by The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices (ft. Lisa Gerrard). Let me know if you've heard it before and I'll pick something else.

Never heard! Looking forward to it 🙂

[fire]

for trollheart

Huskvarna Blues
by Behzad Mehrnoosh
Release date: 01 May, 2012
my favourite album by him.

https://behzadmehrnoosh.bandcamp.com/album/huskvarna-blues

[Trollheart]

Sounds like Lisdoonvarna! 
I'll give it a go, thanks.

[fire]

The Long Acre
by In Tua Nua

the band is new to me
listening now (20:25) from anghami
the first track is ok, a bit shouty.
overall they are ok, ordinary songs.
the lead singer has a nice voice.
the only thing that i didn't connect with is their fusing with irish instruments, it is not good at times.
finished listening (21:26).

thanks trollheart 


 

[Guybrush]

I've gotten to listen through The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices, the first half while cleaning the kitchen and the latter half in the car.

My past experience with this bulgarian style singing has been in 80s pop music, most notably through Kate Bush who used a bulgarian women's choir on songs like Hello Earth and Deeper Understanding. I've never checked it out on its own, though.

As I was listening to the first track I was a bit sceptical at first, but then the percussion came in, the song modulates and the whole thing becomes a lot more enjoyable. This singing style has a crazy sort of energy to it, especially the first track where you can hear various whoops and seizures going on in the background. I don't think bulgarian singing sounds great on its own (more just exotic), but the way it's done here is pretty cool. As far as world music go, it seems more commercially sensible and catchy than I thought it would be. The production also seems quite good. For example, the voices sound good and it's got some nice sounding bass on the tracks, like the Rano one, that makes it fun to up the volume a bit.

This sort of world music isn't quite up my alley, but I still enjoyed it. The track I liked the most on my first listen through was one of two live tracks, Rite of Passage. It does sound mysterious and, to me, a little middle eastern even (even if it isn't really). Performances are good, both vocal and instrumental and I'm sure it must've been impressive to actually see that performance live.

[Janszoon]

@Guybrush Thanks for your review The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices! He's mine for Joyce's Feminina, sorry it took me so long.

I'm a fan of a lot of MPB and bossa nova, but like new age and acid jazz, this is music that often tiptoes close to the line of sounding like elevator music. I felt this struggle deeply while listening to this album.

The first track, "Feminina", is great. It leans more in the direction of bossa nova than most of this album, and it was a lovely addition to my drive across the city the first time I listened to it. "Banana" is also a fun song, with its lush birdsong layered in under propulsive bass and quicksilver acoustic guitar plucking. "Coração de Criança" is nice and mellow with cool, subtle drumming and soaring vocals. The penultimate track, "Aldeia de Ogum" is probably my second favorite on album, after "Feminina", with beautiful vocals, percussion, guitar, and flute.

Unfortunately, those four are the only real standouts to me. None of the rest of the songs are bad per se, when taken on their own, but they're all very sedate. This works perfectly fine in the case of "Compor", which serves as the album's denouement, but elsewhere on the album, though, the results are mixed. More than half the songs are like this and it's just too much to make the whole album work for me. If the balance were shifted so that there were a few more tracks like "Feminina" and a few less like "Mistérios" it could have created a situation where the sedate tracks functioned more as interludes. As it stands, this is an album with four or five good songs that I'd rather add to a playlist than listen to in the context of the full album.

[Guybrush]

^Thanks for your honest review! I'm glad you found something to like 🙂

I discovered this album when we were in London in 2014 to see Kate Bush at the Apollo. We'd dropped by a record store and was browsing. Usually I don't pay much mind to what's playing in the store, but this time it caught my ear and I just had to ask the guy behind the counter what he'd put on. It was this album by Joyce, someone I'd never heard of (although I've come to realize she's relatively popular). For me, it was love at first hearing. it's also one of my summer albums.

I like all of it, of course.. including Misterios which is on my daughter's bedtime playlist 🙂

[Guybrush]

By the way! The song Clareana was written for her daughters Clara and Ana whom you can hear singing and laughing towards the end of the song. I find it really endearing 🥰

[Guybrush]

I'm up for another one of these.

Anyone game?

[Lexi Darling]

I'd definitely be down. I have a bit more room to listen to albums front to back lately and I'd love to hear what you all would recommend!

[Guybrush]

I'd definitely be down. I have a bit more room to listen to albums front to back lately and I'd love to hear what you all would recommend!

Well. Then I hope you like exotica 😅 it's summer and I love listening to exotica during summer, although admittedly some of it works best as background music.

My favorite in that genre, and one I'm sure I've forced on others here, is The Forbidden Sounds of Don Tiki by Don Tiki. It's their debut and it's also guested by a certain Martin Denny.



For anyone interested, let me know if you have trouble finding it 😊

[Lexi Darling]

Sounds interesting! I do like a lot of lounge music and exotica from the 50s and 60s but I've never delved into any later revivalist stuff.

So for you, Guybrush, I recall you saying you liked prog, so I'd like to recommend one of my favorite fairly obscure prog albums: Pulsar - The Strands of the Future (1976). Without spoiling anything, I think you will probably understand exactly why I rate it so highly pretty quick, haha.

The whole thing is on Youtube, I'm eager to know what you think!