Södra Bergens Balalaikor – "Södra Bergens Balalaikor" (MNW – MNW 19 P) 1971

Apart from austere joyless classical music, Dictators like their peasant classes to entertain themselves by doing traditional dances to horrific localized folk like this .Woe betide any smart alek liberal who whips out an electric organ or a new fangled digital accordian to sing songs in any foreign tongue,that doesn't exude love of country or praise the family unit. Out would be wheeled the portable guillotine so beloved of the Nazi's, for public execution parties.....complete with doomy classical and creepy Folk orchestra's in a jolly up as the offenders severed head is placed on the 'peoples' spike at the entrance of the city.

Although this scenario doesn't generally happen in peace lovin' Sweden...yet....this creepy,but menacingly funny balalaika band was a pinko non profit orchestra that boasted up to 30 balaikas and a choir in it's line-up,probably with it's own Swedish communist party lyicist. You may not be surprised to know that this started as a music school project,hence the deliberately emphasised 'bum' notes,which I guess indicates a pretension towards humor.

You may also be surprised to know that Södra Bergens Balalaikor was part of the Swedish 'Progg Movement' as discussed on the last post. This explains those grubby socialist jibes that your's truly aimed in the orchestra's general direction. That being the politics of choice for the 'Progg' movement...and why not? It worked for Amon Duul...forward slash...Baader-Meinhof's Red Army Faction....fun fun fun? Being cajoled into these movements,must be like being shut in a Japanese prison sweat box with an insurance salesman.

Don't It just make you wanna kick seven shades of shite out of the nearest self-righteous soap boxing aspiring political activist ? Leave us alone you cunts....please?

If Vladimir 'The impailer' Putin ever got anywhere near your home town you better start paying attention to your local folk volunteers and get yerself a Balalaika.....acoustic of course; as well as genning up on austere classical music.A guaranteed ticket away from having electrodes attached to your genitalia,before being waterboarded in a bath of human shit. 

This was the kind of stuff one could find in the 'Bargain Bin' section of the famed Ultima Thule shop of Leicester....which I'm sure I've mentioned before? It might have been cheap(it isn't now) but this stuff could empty a room almost as quickly as an Amon Duul I LP.

There are certainly shades of the Portsmouth Sinfonia going on here, and maybe even The 3 Mustaphas 3 from the 70's and 80's respectively. However i'm not sure how serious SBB or these other similar projects were,which is also a pointer towards sophisticated comedy,as it is with the aforementioned examples in this paragraph.They could be the Swedish Incredible String Band for all I know.

Having heard quite a few of the other Swedish 'Progg' groups,I can now warn you,in a polite way, that they aren't very good at all.So don't go thinking that there's an Italian Prog type gold mine of wonderful progressive rock just waiting like low hanging fruit fro yourselves to gorge on until you're sick.....dunno about you but I'm sick already.I'm also quite pleased to say that this has nothing to do with Rock In Opposition,except maybe 60's student politics, which is supposedly what the recent train of thought was supposed to be about.

Tracklist:

A1 Under Äppelträdet 3:10
A2 Zhaleika 2:17
A3 Dnjepr 2:30
A4 Kärleksvisa 2:30
A5 Månen Lyser 3:56
A6 Timon 3:11
B1 Poljanka 3:30
B2 Azamat 1:35
B3 Den Lille Gåskarlen 2:15
B4 Under Eken 1:33
B5 Vallåt Från Ryssland 2:00
B6 Gogov, Gogov 1:40
B7 Kamarinskaja 3:47

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Various Artists– "Music From Saharan Cellphones Vol. 1" (Sahel Sounds – SS01) 2010

The sound quality of the 'cell phone',as north Americans call them, mobile's for the more sensible quarters of the planet, hits a new low in the recorded medium.If seen on an oscilloscope, lo-bit digital sound capture has the appearance of a block diagram,or brutalist architecture from the Soviet Era so beloved of Vlad "destroyer of worlds wannabe" Putin.He loves the Soviet era almost as much as he does wearing his built up shoes,he being another short arse dictator with a toxic inferiority complex.

This angular sound quality adds a certain je ne sais pas pourquoi,to the pieces involved,and has one imagining a distant horizon sinking below the most distant dune ,and not a person to be seen,except yourself and a 'cell phone' packed with fuzzy desert music from Mali and neighbouring territories who have likely now succumbed to the latest schoolgirl kidnapping antics of Boko Haram.....why is the Earth so full of complete bastards?

As a Stupid White man, I awkwardly find most African music as strangely uplifting as it is incomprehensible to the soul-less paleface.I am often unmoved by such foreign concepts such as 'Soul' music .This, of course makes me feel uncomfortable,being English and raised under the gray skies of misery that imprisons the British Isles.The only way we can assimilate Soul Music is if its backed by Vince Clarke on synthesiser,or a pure expression of misery....in other words Yazoo and Joy Division....that's real white soul music that is.Well..Maybe not Yazoo,you know what i'm getting at(?)as if you are on this blog it is almost certain you are of caucasian origin,but it certainly is NOT the blue eyed soul of such awfulness as Simply Red or Paul Young,and others who simply copy our brethren of colour....I thought I'd end this blurb on a 'Woke' note before i go back to sleep after re-runs of "Love They Neighbour" on me lickle illegal telly-box. The very same Telly-Box on which i just witnessed a crowd of Hungarian school children Jeering the England football team for taking the Knee'!? Makes you just wanna give up dunnit?

This tape is rather flipping good.....having said that,i don't want more than one.....there are another couple of volumes available that should satisfy any guilt laden Honky very nicely indeed.

WARNING!: severe danger of White man dancing in the area!

Tracklist:

A1 - Baye - Tinariwe
A2 - Abdallah - Desert Blues

A3 - Niger - Autotune
A4 - Koudede - Souveniram
A5 - Hamdawa - Algeria
A6 - Hamza Wassila
B1 - Morib - Kabablon
B2 - Auguste Solo - Decale
B3 - Yeli Fuzzo - Abandé
B4 - Tuareg - Old Synth
B5 - Flamzy - Protection
B6 - Aminata W. - Sakou Si Bory
B7 - Papito - Iba One

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Various Artists– "Synths From The Sahara" (Sahel Sounds ) 2014

Try and explain the concept of Kraftwerk to an african and you'd get one of those... 'what the fucking hell are you talking about???'.... kind of looks. You won't get any exotic versions of "Are Friends Electric?" from the Sahara any time soon, just loads of stuff that they always used to play, but...with synthesizers.

Less than interested in the new sonic opportunities  that these electronic toys offered, they just play these things in the same way a classical pianist would play them.....cluelessly,but charming.....except the African would never have considered themselves as the height of civilized sophistication,like those bastards in the classical world would do.

Basically, if the musicians involved, as represented on this C60, had played these same tunes on traditional instruments it would have sounded exactly the same.....so why bother?

What I wanna hear is a weirdo from Mali who dresses and sounds like Gary Numan in 1979...that would be something special to behold.

This is as close as i get to the thoroughly 'do not resuscitate' middle class world of Global, or World, music,as championed by such poncy twerps as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon,and David Byrne....although David Byrne is in absolutely no way a twerp, just dreadfully misguided on occasion.

However, play this at any white suburban wine and cheese vernissage in support of their local artist 'of Colour',and you'd be heralded as a white hero of outstanding tolerance.

In their minds, anyone who plays any African music simply cannot be Racist,and therefore an eagerly anticipated member of the White Non-Racist but I am multitudes that smear themselves across the western world like so much shit on so much scented (bog roll)toilet paper.

Racist moi?...Naaaaah...well...er....probably.

I do remember being part of an argument about whether Ali G was racist or not, when one of the gobbier participants shouted "look! I've slept with a black man so how can I be Racist!?".....hmmmm?

Who's the most celebrated African Musican?...no, not Fela Kuti, it's obviously Freddie Mercury of Course....that's why there's a track called 'Bismillah' on here inni?.

Tracklist:

A1 Japonais– Bambino Instrui
A2 Mamman Sani– Boodo
A3 Mamman Sani– Ameran
A4 Ahmedou Lewla– Track 15
A5 Unknown Artist– Mauritania
A6 Sidiki Diabate– Amuse
B1 Maloma Et Becave– Untitled
B2 Mamman Sani– Ci Dadi
B3 Ahmedou Lewla– Track 1
B4 Japonais– Nouveau Instrui
B5 Mamman Sani– Bismillah

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Кола Бельды / Kola Beldy ‎– "Белый Остров / White Island" (Мелодия ‎– С60 27841 007) 1989

Never really been a big fan of ethnic,slash,'world' music......I blame Peter Gabriel for that, and all those  middle class Womad festival fans, whose very existence seems to remove any point in making,writing about, or listening to music at all. The very thought of millionaire urban folkies exploiting the impoverished musicians of a third world country to win a 'Grammy' for their theft, makes me wanna bash my own brains in. Specifically, I'm thinking Paul Simon here.....what a bastard he was/is!?
High in the 'Bastard' stakes, along with Simon, is Coca-Cola, but replace the 'C' with a 'K' and we get super-bizarre Nanai tribe member and trad folk singer Kola Beldy.
In 1986 he was awarded the title of 'Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR' (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist republic!?);we've all got one of those.....haven't we???He had a number of Soviet-era permfrost themed hits, most famously with the top ten smash,  "I will take you to the tundra", hmmmm yes please???......you don't get hits with titles like that in the UK.....well....I suppose we did have "Snooker Loopy",which you sure as hell wouldn't find in the Soviet Charts of the time.You wouldn't think that Chas,of Chas'n'Dave, was in Gene Vincent's backing band in the early sixties now would you?
The awards kept coming for Kola,winning "Award no.2"(that's the name of the award NOT his second award!) at the 'Sopot International Song Festival' in 1973....what "Award no.1" was, and who won it,remains a closely gaurded state secret to this day.
This album, has any number of bizarre sounds augmenting Kola's ethno-operatic fusion,which adds greatly to its score on the 'weird' scale.Certainly one for the coveted 'Other' section in the record shop.
Luckily, politics and common sense stopped Paul Simon from making a 'collaboration' with Mr Beldy, and just good luck saved him from Peter Gabriel's insidious clutches.The Iron Curtain had its uses after all?

Tracklist:

1 White Island (Saami Song)
2 Master Of Forest (Mansi Song)
3 A Seagull (Dolgan Song)
4 Return Home (Chukchi Song)
5 To The Ocean (Yukagir Song)
6 A Hunter (Evenki Song)
7 Fisher-woman (Evenki Song)
8 Holiday (Eskimo Song)
9 By Dog Sledge (Hanti Song)
10 My Darling (Hanti Song)
11 Greeting (Ulchi Song)
12 Strange Girls (Nanai Song)
13 Kmali Chinekh (Itelmen Song)
14 Emaron Island (Nanai Song)
15 Toasting Song (Yakutian Song)
16 Snowy Tundra (Saami Song)
17 My Little Reindeer (Evenki Song)
18 Fisher's Song (Nanai Song)

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This Heat / Albert Marcœur ‎– "Untitled" (split C-35, Tago Mago 4753) 1982

More early Heat from 1977/8, as This Heat do Can's ethnological forgery series with some bloke from Ghana, called Mario Boyer Diekuuroh. Do I detect Gamelan instruments,and various ethnic percussion devices jamming with our heroes? World music crossover is one of the worst ideas since the Sinclair C5. Never understood the appeal it has to the white middle classes of the west. Probably so they can say “I'm not Racist I like World Music”!? I'm pretty open minded (yes!?)musically,as you likely guessed, but World music/afro beat goes in the 'just don't get it' dustbin of my mind,along with: Soul music, Hip Hop ,white reggae(which Charles Bullen inexplicably stooped to after This Heat!?), and whatever category Mumford and sons are in! And I have tried to like this shit believe me! (except Mumford and Son who I could quite easily beat to death with their fucking banjo!).

At least on this cassette we are saved by the presence of This Heat to bring some sanity to the situation, and no banjo's! There are a few good moments,but don't expect it to sound like Deceit, just like some ethno jam sessions,with some passing traveller hippie they met in a pub when drunk.

The other side of this cassette has some fairly interesting modern composition avant rock crossover symphony film soundtrack, called “Deux lions au Soliel”, by some French ex-progger Albert Marcoeur. Good stuff,especially the last part which I mistook for an unknown This Heat number.

Tracklist: 

A	–Albert Marcœur-	Deux Lions Au Soleil
B	–This Heat with Mario Boyer Diekuuroh-	Various Cassette Recordings, 1977-78

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