Save the Date! For The Riff’s Upcoming “Album” of the Month Discussion We’re Going On A World Tour.
Around the World in Ten Songs
(Reposted from “The Riff”)
I hear a lot of complaints about YouTube. Some of them seem valid: There are privacy concerns and, of course, all of the problems that go along with social media platforms in general. There is a lot of garbage posted, and more every day. I get that.
Still, I’m thankful for YouTube. Most of the music I listen to would have remained unknown to me without it. Streaming platforms are of little help — they are designed to feed you more of what you already know. Spotify and Pandora don’t show me new stuff — and even when they think they’re sending stuff I’ll like, they often get it wrong!
So, I follow odd leads, hang out with music streamers, chat with other music fans, follow suggestions from comments on videos, share music with people who have good stuff to share back, click on stuff that looks unfamiliar, and generally try to do what the algorithms don’t. Yes, I end up wading through lots of bad stuff. But I also find priceless gems. My recent discovery of the Siberian group Otyken is a perfect example.
The U.S. and U.K. function roughly as one music market, distinct from the rest of the world. We are the largest music market by dollars spent. Due to our influence, we have gotten used to setting the trends for the rest of the world. Plenty of us believe, without really questioning it, that our music, movies, and pop culture are the only thing out there.
But we are just over 4% of the world’s population, 6% if we include the other anglophone countries; collectively we make around 6% of the world’s music. Interestingly, the reason we are largely unaware of the other 94% is not just cultural chauvinism. It is also a result of official policy, at least here in the U.S.
“Huh?” you say. “Isn’t that a little exaggerated?”
Well, no. The U.S. is a protected market. We have laws and regulations that protect our movie and music industries from foreign competition.
Don’t believe me?
Aside from the outrage we should feel over being cossetted like this, casting a wider net requires some deliberate effort.
For this month’s Riff Album of the Month, I put together a “virtual album” consisting of ten songs I love (well, one is not technically a song), which also represent a diverse range of cultures and styles of music. Some of them are “Western” in form and use Western scales, while others are based on different scales and time signatures.
Some of the vocalists do things you would never hear a Western singer attempt.
In our last discussion, we opened the field up to playlists and settled on ten as a manageable number. I started with a much longer list, so I had to make some hard choices. I pruned the tree further by taking out songs that would make the whole thing run too long.
Don’t read anything else into the order — it’s alphabetical by artist’s name.
Some of these artists are not on streaming services like Spotify, so I just went with single YouTube clips. One important benefit of doing so is that the visuals help capture the spirit and intent of many of these bands.
The first one happens to be the one you are most likely to have heard before because it charted in the U.S. If you read my column semi-regularly, you probably know some of the other artists as well since I have written about several of them before.
Regulars to the Album of the Month discussions may know some of these artists just because you all spend so much time listening to new stuff. (Steve Goldberg, for one, is familiar with most of them — we even went together to see one of these bands live!) Still, I hope some of these choices give you that little dopamine hit that comes from finding something new and cool.
I know some of you like to nerd out on stuff. I’ve tried to do some of that work so you can just sit back and let yourself form an impression. In the discussion, I would love to hear from you:
Which of these artists had you heard before?
Which artists would you want to hear more of?
Which fascinated you and made you want to know more, about the genre, the culture, the backstory?
Would any of these go on your playlist?
Here is a link to the whole playlist in one place.
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Burna Boy (Nigeria): “Monsters You Made”
Born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, Burna Boy is probably Africa's biggest international breakout pop star. He mixes tropes from various influences, from traditional African beats and melodies to reggae and hip-hop.
He is big in the club scene, including in the U.S. He does a lot of straight-up party music, which is how I first found him. However, like this song, he also does more pointed social and political commentary.
To the extent you care about numbers, he has more Grammy nominations than any other African artist and has regularly cracked the Billboard 200. In other words, Burna Boy is the artist on this list you are most likely to have heard before.
(Lyrics in English)
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Eivør Palsdottir (Faeroe Islands): “TRØLLABUNDIN (Spellbound)”
Like Iceland, the Faeroe Islands were initially settled by Vikings, who came with their families and slaves. They are now an autonomous territory of the Kingdom (formerly the Empire) of Denmark. They are close to the Arctic Circle and get less than three hours of sunshine many days of the year.
You can imagine this has played a role in their fascination with darkness and magic.
Palsdottir uses unusual vocal techniques, to say the least. One of them is to voice notes on the inhale, creating a gasping sound that is quite startling if you haven’t heard it before.
She has been performing since she was 13 and has released some 20 albums and EPs, including collaborations with a wide variety of other musicians. The variety is head-spinning, and I have barely scratched the surface. I do know I want to see her live, and I hope she performs this.
The entire performance feels like a spell, which, of course, was the point.
(English translation here)
Fatoumata Diawara (Mali): “Nterini”
Malian composer, singer, and instrumentalist Fatoumata Diawara is one of the first breakout stars from Africa to gain global recognition. She writes beautiful songs, has a rich, textured voice, and can even play some mean guitar leads.
She mostly sings about societal concerns like freedom, sovereignty, civil war, emigration, genocide, misogyny, and race relations. As grim as some subjects are, she always conveys a sense of hope that things can be better. She has little visibility in the U.S. but a big international following.
Diawara is a signature example of what we are missing because of the barriers our government has put up to foreign artists. She was long denied a visa to visit the U.S. She finally broke through in 2013 when she was invited to perform at the Clinton Global Initiative annual gathering.
I think she’s wonderful, but should it take this kind of patronage to get in the gates here? What hope does that offer emerging artists?
(English translation here)
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Faun (Germany): “Walpurgisnacht” (“St. Walpurga’s night”)
Faun were founded in 1998 and describe their music as “Pagan folk.” They play traditional instruments from all over Europe, the British Isles, and even the Middle East. They also occasionally incorporate modern electric instruments, which has led to their being classified by some as folk metal.
Much of their music celebrates nature and spirituality. In much of Europe, the lines between paganism, nature worship, and Christianity are blurred.
For example, many of our Christian symbols, such as Christmas trees and Easter eggs, come from pagan fertility rituals. Faun have staked out a place at the intersection of all that.
Their lyrics draw on everything from the Scandinavian Eddas to early-medieval folk tales and even Persian chants, with an underlying current of mysticism. Their popularity has been boosted partly by growing popular interest in such diverse movements as Wicca, nature worship, and spiritual feminism — a lot of their imagery evokes the Divine Feminine.
St. Walpurga was a real person, an 8th-century English missionary who spent her life in what is now Germany. She was renowned as a mystic and healer. Modern celebrations of Walpurgisnacht take place in early May and involve bonfires, dancing, and music, meant to ward off diseases, curses, and evil spells.
Faun have previously played festivals in North America and will be making their first headlining tour in October of this year (only on the East Coast, unfortunately). https://faune.de/en/tour/
(English translation here.)
The Hu (Mongolia): “Yuve Yuve Yu”
The Hu are Mongolia’s biggest cultural export. They were founded in 2016 in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, by four classically trained musicians. They combine traditional Mongolian chanting, throat singing and instruments with modern rock gear (drums, electric bass and guitar).
Personnel (special prize if you can pronounce these):
Galbadrakh “Gala” Tsendbaatar — morin khuur (traditional horsehead fiddle); throat singing
Nyamjantsan “Jaya” Galsanjamts — tumur hhuur (flute) tsuur (jew’s harp); throat singing
Enkhsaikhan “Enkush” Batjargal — morin khuur; throat singing
Temuulen “Temka” Naranbaatar — tovshuur (Mongolian lute); backing vocals
Four additional musicians join them for live tours.
Much of their music is about Mongolian history, traditions, and culture. They sing about respecting their ancestors while also being modern. “Yuve Yuve Yu” is about people who mindlessly boast about their glorious past without doing anything to achieve greatness today.
Today, their videos collectively have almost 200 times as many views as the entire population of their country. They have done several international tours in both Europe and North America. I saw them the last time they were in San Francisco. Every Central Asian living in the Bay Area seems to have shown up, Mongolians for a day.
(English translation here)
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Otyken (Siberia): “Phenomenon”
Otyken are a group from remote central Siberia. They are all members of small tribes (Chulym, Ket, Selkup, Tuvan, etc.) who speak historically related Turkic languages. There are just over 50 native speakers of the Chulym language left in the world. Like other tribes in the region, they were decimated by centuries of invasion and war and, more recently, by rampant environmental destruction starting in the Soviet era.
Around 20 singers and musicians regularly play with Otyken. Eight core members do most of the touring. Their day jobs are as beekeepers, farmers, fishers, and craftswomen in the Taiga of central Siberia.
Their instruments include an ikili (a two-stringed bowed instrument used in Siberia, similar to the Mongolian morin khuur), khomys (jew’s harp, also known as “jaw harp”); rattles similar to maracas and tambourines; a local variant of the mandolin; and several kinds of drums, as well as modern electric bass guitar and electronic keyboard/synthesizer.
They occasionally play a saxophone they found abandoned in the forest near one of their villages. All of their songs incorporate throat singing, and in some of their songs they use bird and animal calls.
To date, they have released tracks mainly in Chulym, but also a few in Khakass, a related tribal language, and one song in Russian, addressed to the people who took their land. As they say in one of their songs: “The land is yours now, but the sky is ours.” (Lyrics in subtitles)
Peliatan Dance Group (Bali): “Sekar Jupun”
This is the most metal thing on the list, but don’t be deterred — it is not what you think. Gamelan is both the formal and popular music of Indonesia — sort of like orchestral and Big Band, all in one. It is played on a mix of metallophones (all-metal drum-like instruments), traditional drums, and pipes. There are a few other instruments involved, but those are the mainstays. A typical ensemble is 20–30 musicians.
Balinese, Javanese, and Sundanese Gamelan differ from each other in various ways, including the mix of instruments used and the approach to composition. I have barely scratched the surface of understanding it — just enough to know it is as deep a subject as Western classical music theory.
Gamelan anticipated post-modern Western classical music using complex, asynchronous time signatures, programmed dissonance, and unexpected transitions for centuries. The metallophones are tuned in pairs, so each pair is slightly mismatched by a few hundredths of a tone (one tone being our equivalent of the difference between a B and a C). This produces a shimmering effect that sounds “out of tune” to Western ears not accustomed to it.
These shimmering sounds are considered to have spiritual significance. That spirituality is enhanced by adjacent musicians in an ensemble sharing each other’s instruments. This reinforces the central role of harmony and requires the entire ensemble to have an almost telepathic connection.
Out of all that comes something hypnotically beautiful. Some 40 years ago, I saw another Gamelan ensemble on one of their rare tours of the U.S., and it remains one of the most haunting and memorable concerts I’ve ever attended. I recently discovered that there is a Gamelan workshop in San Francisco that trains and performs under the guidance of visiting experts from Indonesia.
The group in this video normally plays with a troupe of female dancers, but I picked a piece without dancing so we could focus on the music itself. It’s also short—most Gamelan pieces are at least 20 minutes long.
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Voice of Baceprot (Indonesia): “God Allow Me (Please) to Play Music”
Our pop music culture has a weird conception of courage. It seems to refer to picking at one’s emotional scabs in front of an audience. So, imagine a group of teenage girls in a conservative Muslim village in Indonesia starting a rock group in the face of opposition from their parents. Add in death threats from the cultural police.
That, to me, is actual courage.
VOB started as junior high schoolers, tutored by a local music teacher to play rock instruments. When they first performed in public, they did covers of well-known Western rock bands while starting to write original material. They are now releasing their own music, have gone viral on YouTube, and have toured internationally.
Personnel:
Firdda Marsya Kurnia (vocals and guitar)
Widi Rahmawati (bass, vocals)
Euis Siti Aisyah (drums)
They consider themselves faithful Muslims and wear hijab on stage (with some enhancements, hence “the costumes”). They still get opposition and threats from people angry that girls are playing rowdy music and speaking their minds, but they are not backing down. Even the band's name is defiant: “Baceprot” means “noisy” or “loud” in their dialect.
This song is about people who use religion as an excuse to persecute artists. While we are gazing at our navels in self-pity, these young women are singing on behalf of people the world over who face violence and sometimes death for having their own minds.
I’ve seen them live, and they were incendiary. (Lyrics in English, also with subtitles)
Wagakki Band (Japan): “Tengaku”
“Wagakki” is Japanese for “traditional instruments.”
The band was founded by the shigin (classical poetry) singer, SUZUHANA Yuko, a classically trained pianist. She developed the concept of fusing traditional Japanese instruments and musical tropes with modern Western music. The full band consists of eight musicians: three on Western instruments (bass, guitar, drums), four on Japanese instruments, and Suzuhana-sama on vocals and sometimes piano.
The “lute” thing is a Shamisen.
The “harp” thing is a Koto.
The “flute thing” is a Shakuhachi.
The Japanese drums are collectively called “Wadaiko.”
They have done multiple world tours and were on my bucket list to see live. Unfortunately, they’ve decided to suspend their activity as a band at the end of this year.
(English translation here)
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The Warning (Mexico): “Evolve” (live at the 2023 VMAs)
The Warning are:
Daniela “Dany” Villarreal Velez: guitars, piano, lead and backing vocals (born Jan. 2000)
Paulina “Pau” Villarreal Velez: drums, piano, lead and backing vocals (born Feb. 2002)
Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal Velez: bass, piano, backing vocals (born Dec. 2004)
The girls largely write their own songs. Like Lennon/McCartney, they always share credit, regardless of which composer was the primary. Fans often refer to them simply as DPA.
For a group of cheery, effervescent (if intense) young women, they write self-aware, sometimes shockingly dark material. This song was written as they were emerging into adulthood, with all the risks that brings. “I’m not in danger, I’m the danger now!” is one of the best lines I’ve ever heard. They conclude that there is no choice but to move forward and evolve.
They have started collaborating with other songwriters, most of whom actually approached them about working together. These include Anton DeLost, who has produced Highly Suspect, Cleopatrick, and the Dead Poets Society, and Dan Lancaster, who has co-written and produced songs by Muse and Bring Me the Horizon, among others.
They were invited to participate in the Black List album (covers of songs from Metallica’s Black Album). They were easily the least famous band to be asked, but were tapped for the opening track. It is now one of the most celebrated songs on the album.
Most recently, they were invited by Japanese hard rockers Band-Maid to do a series of co-headlining shows in Japan, which sent fans of both bands into near delirium. Without having planned it, they have become ambassadors for female empowerment and members of a growing worldwide community of women who rock.
Technically, they are not at the level of a Cream or a Rush, but Dany, the oldest, is only 24, so they have plenty of time to get there. Pau has already won multiple awards, including “Best Up and Coming” drummer in the Modern Drummer readers’ poll and Drumeo’s “Rock Drummer of the Year” for 2023.
Now, there are certainly things missing from this video. There is no twerking. No titty-shaking. No pole-humping. There is no army of half-naked backup dancers. No autotune. No bullshit.
I saw them live two years ago, and they burned the house down.
Watch them do it again (Lyrics in English):
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How to join the discussion:
Sunday Aug 25, 2024 ⋅ 4pm — 6pm (Eastern Time — New York)
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If you are not a regular at the Album of the Month discussions, welcome! As Kevin Alexander would say, it’s a safe place; you can participate as much/as little as you’d like.
super excited to discuss these important artists and bands and stellar songs. I only know 6 out of the 10 so I’m looking forward to exploring more
from them as well as the new stuff!