sailing through the sonoran.

picked this up the other night from a tiny hole in the wall mercado here in seattle, & just had to share it. chalino sánchez is a goddamn champion around these parts. he has the voice of a golden throated caracara & his songs speak to the depths of the soul. if you haven't listened to the last album i posted of his then don't sleep & grab both.

i just wasn't made for these times.

brian wilson is the greatest songwriter of all time. he was also the best producer of all time. i think a lot of people forget about that aspect of his earlier career. this is a collection of projects he worked on. dig the honeys which was brian's wife at the time & how much they sound like a mix between the beach boys & the ronettes. if brian hadn't been derailed by mike love, he could have single handedly changed the face of modern humanity. or at least produced some really amazing albums. anyway, you should grab this & throw it on now that the weather is warming up for y'all.

everyone is my friend.

Still unknown in the West, Ooleya Mint Amartichitt is on her way to becoming the new star of the Mauritanian Griot universe. Her singing blends traditional and modern elements, and is distinguished by an extremely wide vocal range. Today her fame spreads to the Arabic Peninsula where she is called upon to perform, ever filled with the nostalgia of the nomadic times. Intelligent, beautiful, and brilliant, Ooleya Mint Amartichitt sings her poetry surrounded by brothers and sisters completely attentive to her talent. When her rugged yet sophisticated voice mixes with those of her sisters, the effect is almost hallucinogenic. She praises the former dignitaries of her tribe, and those of the Ulad Mubarak, but she also evokes the warriors, the villages, and the encampments of yesteryear before the droughts pushed the tribes south to settle in the region of Ouarchat. - mondomix

one of the most arresting & haunting set of vocals i have ever heard ranking up with my favorite yma sumac. don't sleep on this one, this is a game changer. again, if anyone knows of more records from her, please let me know. i need more of her in my life. includes booklet & cover scans.

miss tambourine wrist.

Mariza Koch (Greek:Μαρίζα Κωχ) is a Greek folk music singer who has recorded many albums since starting her career in 1971.^[1] On the wider stage she is best remembered for representing her homeland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1976 with the song Panayia Mou, Panayia Mou. Mariza Koch was born in Athens in 1944 but lived in her mother's hometown in Santorini from a young age.^[2] Her father was a German
In an off-beat but original way Mariza Koch began her musical career in 1971 with an album titled "Arabas". It consisted of a collection of traditional Greek folk songs blended with unusual beats from traditional and modern electronic instrumental sounds. One could even term the sound as folk rock. On the other hand Mariza's unique vocals became the center piece of the music which on more than one occasion needed no accompaniment. No matter what one called it, the album was a resounding success. More albums followed with the sound eventually mellowing back into the original folk sounds of the past, where traditional instruments are used in there entirety. Koch's most recent album included elements of traditional Greek music and Jazz Fusion. On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Koch the 29th top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era (since 1960) - some fucked translation of her greek wikipedia page.

mαρίζα kωχ is a greek psyche folk rock sweetheart & this album hails from 71'. her voice took a song or two to resonate with these ol' ears, but when it did it became a soothing balm to heal my soul after a hectic week. i don't think i have ever stumbled across this in my travels through the deep reaches of the wasteland, but if anyone knows of more albums from her, please let me know. this is incredibly great, & y'all should really enjoy this one.

more manna.

Gu Mei (real name: Gu Jia-Mi, In English- Carrie Ku/Koo Mei) was born in 1934. Nicknamed "Lovebird" in her youth, at the height of her career she was dubbed "Little Skylark". She hails from Suzhou, in Jiangsu province in Southeastern China. In 1949 she moved to Hong Kong and two years later began to perform, landing a role in a Cantonese film "The Second Wife". By the next year she was acting and singing in Mandarin language films; her first song being called "I Don't Want to Be Apart from You".

In the 1950s she was signed to Great World, Big China and Phillips records, and largely remained a second tier actress. 1958 she went to Thailand to promote one of her movies, and she was invited to stay and make films there, where she became fluent in Thai and gained considerable popularity as a singer and actress in Bangkok. After her return to Hong Kong her popularity continued to increase on into the early sixties, as she continued to act, and her voice became familiar through the title songs of popular films ("Mountain Song" and "Dreams" - the latter is track 4 on this disc). Considered primarily a singer with only a few uneven appearances in films, in 1965 she starred in the Shaw Brothers' movie "The Lark" to great success and acclaim for both her singing and acting.

In 1969 she found herself free of all contracts, and she moved to Taiwan. There she began to host a variety show, "Everyday a Star" on TV. In 1971 she released her final record, a collaborative album with Chen Fen-Lan, another famous singer at the time in Taiwan. Her final movie was a Taiwanese ghost film, "The Bride From Hell". From that time on, she has neither sang nor acted, but instead started to paint. She has had many exhibitions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, America and Canada. In 1977 she received an award from the Hong Kong Museum of Fine Arts. In May 1998, having not performed in 27 years, she sang as a favor for her brother at one of his concerts. She currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.- remorseful prober via what's in my ipod

another virgin being birthed. grab the only other album i could find from her here at this site.

edit: i stand corrected. gary at bodega pop already beat me to the punch with posting this gem. well, you can't always be king of the mountain eh?

ps thanks gary for letting me know. i bought this at a local store around here, & the dude knew nothing about it, & i couldn't find anything out about her other than on that ipod blog. it makes me feel like a writer for the new york times. pinky promise i will fact check before i just run my mouth.

goodbye surfing, hello god.

the beach boys are tied with the smiths as my favorite band of all time. i feel they are put down by snobby condescending people as that kokomo band, or even worse people only remember them as that kokomo band. i think the greatest travesty of it all though is when those pitchfork hipster assholes who name drop the beach boys are asked what their favorite song or album is, & it's always pet sounds. don't get me wrong, pet sounds is one of the most creative & beautful albums ever put to tape, but they have such a wide career! granted, i don't listen to anything after friends, but brian wilson is the reason i listen to the beach boys. he is single handedly the greatest songwriter of all time. anyway, this is my mix of pre-pet sounds material, picking all of my favorite tunes from them. ps mike love is a motherfucker who deserved to die 45 years ago, & still deserves to die now. don't besmirch the good name of brian wilson for a few bucks you money hungry no talent ass clown.

the voice of supreme light.

yma sumac has quickly become one of my absolute favorites. her voice is stunningly beautiful in the same way that damia is... haunting nether regions that only john lilly has visited. this is my own rip and is the highest bitrate i have seen around the wastelands.