a sublime frequencies call out: how often do you listen to radio palestine, i remember syria, bush taxi mali, etc.

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radio palestine's probably my favorite. i only listen to it once or twice a month, but that's a lot for me. Radio Syria, Princess Nicotine, Radio Sumatra, Radio Java, and Cambodian Cassette Archives are all fantastic.
also, scott seward OTM about lhasa.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Radio Haiti! Radio Zagreb! Radio Bougainville!

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

listened to radio morocco tonight - still awesome.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 March 2005 09:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't forget the salsa channel at Digitally Imported (mostly old school): http://www.di.fm/

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Now playing boogaloo: Hector Lavoe "Eso Se Baila Asi"

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

vahid, this streaming Persian radio is pretty good.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Sunday, 20 March 2005 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

(Based on like 5 minutes of listening.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Sunday, 20 March 2005 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

not just pretty good, it is very awesome. i think i can (tentatively) say that it is very representative of what iranian-americans of my parent's generation listen to.

you'll notice there is very little anxiety between trad / modern and pop / classical. i am increasingly convinced that is a unique part of western culture.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

actually i am sure it is representative of secular iranian-iranian listening tastes, too (some of the stuff on there wouldn't pass mullah muster).

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

hey rockist today is actually also a pretty good day - it is going to be mad and celebratory for probably at least 18 more hrs, since persian new year's is being celebrated yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, I ended up switching to Qur'anic recitation. That was earlier though. I have the Iranian radio back on. It reminds me a lot of some of the songs on a contemporary Afghan CD I bought a little while back. Some of the bombast synth stuff was just getting on my nerves earlier.

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Monday, 21 March 2005 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you happen to know this Afghan singer Hasib Ashrafi?

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Monday, 21 March 2005 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

i think perhaps we are born immune to bombastic synths. in fact, bombastic synthwork is maybe my favorite part. sometimes it reminds me of latin freestyle with a not-quite-bhangra beat. i just need to find a suitable diva before i unleash my freestyle-oriented iranian electroclash project on the world (i'm calling it Yazziz)

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 21 March 2005 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

So to ask a dumb question, what is Persian new year? Is it a specific national tradition? (I don't even know where New Year's falls in the Islamic calendar.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Monday, 21 March 2005 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

1st day of spring, celebrated by every religious group. the thematics are similar to easter (rebirth, renewal, fuzzy animals and candy)

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 21 March 2005 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

SATURDAY and SUNDAY!!!!! (2 Special Events)

Saturday April 2nd

HEMLOCK TAVERN (1131 Polk Street/San Francisco)

10 PM $8 cover and they have a SMOKING ROOM!

http://www.hemlocktavern.com/

Master Musicians of Bukkake (from Seattle)

Sequel 4000 (Comedy Sketch group)

Pusser’s Phinn (Southeast Asian Molam and beyond)

A Film By Alvarius B. "Jazz Classics"(Javanese Puppets GO Avant Jazz!!!!) 30 minutes

Sunday April 3rd

An Evening with Sublime Frequencies

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

701 Mission Street SF CA 94103 http://www.ybca.org

SPECIAL SCREENING TWO SHOWS: 5:00 and 8:00 PM

Niger: Magic and Ecstasy in the Sahel

(the PREMIER of this upcoming DVD in abbreviated form/ 55 minutes)

Sublime Frequencies Archives #3

(film collage from SE Asia/ 35 minutes)

2 SHOWS: 5:00 & 8:00 pm • Screening Room
$10 regular $9 YBCA Members, seniors & students

Hisham Mayet/Alan Bishop in person for Q & A.

DO NOT MISS THIS!!!!!
Tuareg Electric Guitar trance rock, Bori cult dance ceremonies, Fulani Folk and Roadhouse Gospel Rave-ups are some of the segments included in this celebration of life in the Sahel region of Africa, filmed by Hisham Mayet on location in Niger. Opening the program will be an exclusive glimpse into Southeast Asia captured in Cambodia, Burma, and Thailand by the Sublime Frequencies Collective: Explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international music, sound anomalies, and unique forms of human and natural expression. (90 min running time, plus talk).

― bashosings (basho), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I am so going to this.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I will be in Seattle. I will pay tribute by "playing" A Love Supreme.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

Radio Pyongyang is the best, partly for the weird English pronunciations.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

Hahah, I'm not alone!

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

That is a good one.

http://www.bidoun.com/issues/issue_10/08_all.html#article

http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/musicsoundnoise/ethnopsyche

critiques of sublime frequencies courtesy of Jace/DJ Rupture's mudd up blog at negrophonic.com

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 15 April 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

omar souleyman is a funky god!

― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 15 April 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

very interesting articles, thanx curmudgeon.

I really like Pyongyang as well, the only other radio one I heard was Sumatra which didn´t really wow me.

― sleeve, Sunday, 15 April 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

i just need to find a suitable diva before i unleash my freestyle-oriented iranian electroclash project on the world (i'm calling it Yazziz)

-- vahid (vahid), Sunday, March 20, 2005 9:16 PM (2 years ago)

still waiting for this!!

― s1ocki, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

Interesting stuff in that 2nd link about the lack of context in these CDs (and real ethnomusicologists hearing them and being like "What? These are massive, famous pop hits. Hate to rain on your look-how-crazy-and-exotic parade...") as well as lack of payment (or even credit) for the songwriters. The Sun City Girls guy's psychotic defensiveness is a major turnoff as well. But these CDs are very cool, regardless.

― Ben Boyerrr, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

(or rather the first link)

― Ben Boyerrr, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

why is the fact that they're hits a problem?? that's what i LIKE about these cds!!

― s1ocki, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

They don't give credits to the artists or pay royalties.

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

x-post: It's not that they're hits, it's that they're consistently presented as this 'unknown' material. I've complained about this on other SF threads as well -- much as I like the music that's been presented here, the fact remains that track identification and the like has never been consistently done, and both pieces linked undercut the various claims in SF's defense I've read/heard that such identification could never be done. Sounds like it rather easily can, in many if not necessarily in all instances.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

here's the thing though (in my opinion)... Would you rather that they just keep these treasures for themselves and not release them?

I think that the SF releases are a mix of nearly untraceable "field recordings" and easily traceable "hits" but I think it's kind of unfair to call them out because "they don't pay royalties". There are a lot of American labels that everyone seems to think are really cool but THEY don't pay royalties either. That never seems to come up here. And they wouldn't have to do ANY detective work to do it.

I mean are we only now just coming to grips with the fact that the Sun City Girls people are a bunch of quirky weirdos who just do whatever the fuck they want?

my iPod is (sic) now has a desperate global fuckedness about tit.

OTM, except for the confusing tit part...

― Saxby D. Elder, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

Where is the thread where we were just discussing this?!?!

― Alex in SF, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:24 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wait here it is:

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=37935

― Alex in SF, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:25 (nineteen years ago)

steets of lhassa is DA HOTTNESSS

― chaki, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

Just to note, the Group Doueh compilation LP is properly credited and was created with the full knowledge of the group, who actually gave SF the recordings. It's fantastic, by the way.

― QuantumNoise, Monday, 16 April 2007 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

i should first say that i'm biased 'cause i'm friends with alan and hisham. and i really respect mark and the other people who've worked on the and with the label.

from what i've seen, all of the critiques of the label on ethical grounds do not seem very cogent or to have the facts straight -- any of which could easily be cleared up by contacting alan or hisham via the s.f. site -- they're eminently reachable.

as to critiques of the music itself, some of the sublime freq. releases that are collage-y are not my favorite. but they've yet to release anything that's not at least good, in my opinion.

the dvds have all been stellar, especially those shot by hisham.

hisham interview from blastitude here: http://www.blastitude.com/19/MAYET.htm

― Mike McGooney-gal, Monday, 16 April 2007 02:45 (nineteen years ago)

What do you not find cogent, and what facts do you not think the critics have straight?

― curmudgeon, Monday, 16 April 2007 03:46 (nineteen years ago)

while i entirely understand the sort other ethical coundrums "field recordings create", i have always understood the SF releases to be very little about ethnography or the sort of "rough guide"/"explorer series" nonsense that purports that fastidious documentation and payment really makes up for the "sideshow" mentality that drives most collections of music not from one of our cultural centeres in the west.

as far as ive ever understood, SF recordings have been about experience or a total immersion in a different listening experience. To that end showing all the chords with linernotes and credits and extensisve information would undermine the project. I'll admit there is some trouble in this thinking, given subtitles like the pop-folk sounds of..., but I dont think the label is trying to do a "world music" or field recording sort of thing at all. these records always seemed like "and heres a nuther bit of mind fuckery for ya kids" stabs at having fun and questioning consumption patterns.

this perspective doesn't make the problems some of the critics cite go away, but it may agrue that it shouldnt really matter.

― bb, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

no one is asking for the chords and extensive linar notes, dicknose! it just would be nice if they credited the artists with the music these dudes probably worked hard on and put their heart into! how would that undermine anything!??! if someone in nigera put one of my songs on "the sounds of the 818" cd without any credit id be pissed!

― chaki, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 07:42 (nineteen years ago)

And, as was stated above (but not cited, as it was in the other thread), Bishop doesn't exactly endear himself to the curious.

Listeners may find it difficult to be angry with SF; for musicians, it's not such a stretch. Jayce Clayton, a writer and DJ who has worked extensively with Moroccan musicians, was shocked to find well-known songs by well-known bands presented as mysterious tokens of Arab genius on Radio Morocco. (One person's sublimity is another person's livelihood.) One of those bands, Nass El Ghiwane, was a pioneering, genre-bending, psychedelic jam-rock band (not unlike the Sun City Girls them-selves). There is a sense in which Nass El Ghi-wane seem like secret sharers in the whole SF enterprise: in Hisham Mayet's forthcoming film, Trans-Saharan Musical Brotherhoods, one of the most mind-blowing performances features the audience singing, dancing, and swaying along as a cover band pounds its way through an old Nass El Ghiwane song. Viewers of the film, however, or at least of the cut I saw, learn nothing about the song, its performers, or its authors (save for the not unimportant fact that they are fucking awesome).

Critics of the SF modus operandi have a way of getting under Bishop's skin. Complain about a lack of context or compensation, and he'll attempt to smother you with a surrealistic pillow, denouncing "hipster progressives... squirming on the rump of an epileptic unicorn, attempting to decipher which buttons to push to claim their fifteen minutes of fame."

― Ben Boyerrr, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 10:17 (nineteen years ago)

Dunno about Sumatra, but Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Khaled both released some great albums in the first half of the 90s.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 10:19 (nineteen years ago)

chaki, exactly. but of course, in this context, the property of some enigmatic third-world Other doesn't count as true property, deserving of Western intellectual property rights. This is an utter extension of Western imperialism. In other words, this is racist.

― modestmickey, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

Bishop comes off as a smug hipster something or other. (Who does he think his audience is if not hipster progressives?)

As long as your familiarity and knowledge grows, that original experience of naive disorientation in the face of a new music is going to eventually disappear. I have mixed feeling about their attempt to preserve and maintain it, though it's interesting.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

But this North Korean one is pretty great on first listen.

Some of this reminds me of the kitschiest Arabic pop things I've heard. It's like the same weird type of synthesizer sounds and other similarities too.

Also, at the moment I'm feeling more sympathetic to the whole idea of trying to maintain that sense of disorientation as a listener. It can't really be that impossible, can it? If one wanted to.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 20 July 2007 23:54 (eighteen years ago)

five years pass...

diving back into the catalog after a few years away, particularly princess nicotine. i don't regret stanning over these for one damn second.

― sriracha bishop (get bent), Thursday, 20 September 2012 00:23 (thirteen years ago)

Singapore A-Go-Go is one of the best albums for a groovy house party ever

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 20 September 2012 00:42 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

i don't know where to put this, brings to mind the Guitars of the Golden Triangle release from a cpl years back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYGl-l0Toig
cross-post with psych/drone/freak thread really. don't know if this has had much play around here, but goodness it smokes

― kyenkyen, Tuesday, 12 November 2013 20:38 (twelve years ago)

wow... pretty cosmic jams.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 02:04 (twelve years ago)

no thread for ขุนนริทร์ศิลป์พิณประยุกต์?
Psychedelic Rock that's not Psychedelic Rock

― mizzell, Wednesday, 13 November 2013 03:40 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

Wow. This entire George Wassouf concert in Lebanon in 1992:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P49-4O9lu0

Have posted and re-posted parts of it. It is admittedly raw and ridiculous in various ways, but I still love the bulk of it. He and his band are on fire throughout.

(Actually I think the guy in the red shirt who introduces him did a human beat-box routine at the intro. but that appears to have been cut. Not joking.)

― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 9 February 2018 00:08 (eight years ago)

2018 is the 25th anniversary of my passionate attachment to Arab music, and George Wassouf was possibly the first Arab singer I really cared about, even if his flaws and limitations have become glaringly obvious over time. So there is an excuse for my half-assed threads and thread revivals on related interest.

― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 9 February 2018 00:11 (eight years ago)

Skipping 63 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Sorry if I came off as overly snarky in my last post but he's given me thinly veiled useless bigot creep vibes forever which I think were actually masked a bit even to myself by his world music expertise. I take his particular brand of bigotry a bit personally and he should never be allowed to return. May he find peace and enlightenment elsewhere.

― omar little, Monday, 12 February 2018 07:30 (eight years ago)

Dinsdale: Thanks. I've amended the post.

Calzino: for fucks sake man.

― mod, Monday, 12 February 2018 10:25 (eight years ago)

six years pass...

Spent some time with the catalog and the following were my POX:

Radio Java
Bush Taxi Mali
Group Doueh: Guitar Music From the Western Sahara
Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan vol. 1
I Remember Syria
Phương Tâm: Magical Nights – Saigon Surf, Twist & Soul (1964-1966)
Omar Souleyman: Highway to Hassake
Singapore A-Go-Go Vol. 1
Baba Commandant: Juguya
Brokenhearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica from Southeast Asia

― Mrs. Ippei (Steve Shasta), Monday, 24 June 2024 17:22 (one year ago)

Huge fan of that Phương Tâm compilation, its so good

― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Monday, 24 June 2024 17:54 (one year ago)

big yes to Doueh and Souleyman - Cambodian Cassette Archives was also a hit in this household

― that's that me: a Viking (seandalai), Monday, 24 June 2024 21:39 (one year ago)

^^ yes to Cambodian Cassette Archives, there are a few truly amazing songs on that one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ1QZnRXs58

― brimstead, Monday, 24 June 2024 21:59 (one year ago)

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