Between April 27th and 30th Word the Cat will be co-curating its 2nd film festival. Films include Electric Dragon 80000V, The Foul King and Santiago Alvarez newsreels.
There’s a permanent link for the full programme here. All screenings to take place at the Common Place, Wharf Street, Leeds.
Starting a series of posts gives me the motivation to post more stuff to finish them. So here is the first part of a tour of Asian pop music.
Indonesia
Indonesia is best known on ‘world music’ commercial circuits for Gamelan – orchestral (often court) music played on xylophones, drums and gongs. Indonesia is a HUGE (about 240 million people – the fourth largest country by population in the world) and diverse state and clearly Gamelan isn’t all thats going on musically. Here’s an in no way exhaustive something on popular musics from the two largest islands which form the Indonesian state; Java and Sumatra.
Dangdut
This music emerged in the 60s among the muslim working class of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. It carries influences from Bollywood and Arabic pop as well as ubiquitos Western rock influence. The picture below is of Dangdut star Rhoma Irama.
Rhoma Irama – Qur’an Dan Koran 5.9mb
Orkes Kroncong Mutiara – Terbelah Dua 8.1mb
Kroncong
This music also emerged from urban centres in the 30s and 40s. It was mainly played on the kroncong, a type of ukelele (below) and played by poor European setttlers. There’s a strong Portugese influence. Both this and the Dangdut are taken from this LP. There’s info on other recordings here. The picture is of Suhaery Mufti of Orkes Kroncong Mutiara.
Orkes Kroncong Bintang – Bocah Gunung 7.6mb
Orkes Kroncong Mutiara – Kroncong Segenggam 7.8mb
Sumatra
There isn’t much background on this music I can find. The tracks were issued on the Sublime Frequencies LP ‘Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol.1′ and lifted from cassettes with little artist info. The music all dates from the 80s or earlier though and is from Sumatra.
Unknown – Unknown 4.2mb
Marios Group – Borungsku si derita 7.2mb
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PS/ Catch Bill Laswell’s re-edit of (about 5) early 70s Miles Davis LPs here (via Hearwax)
And more Finland/Fonal stuff over at Wirewool
–Thanks to everyone who linked to or commented on this month’s mix–
Between 1957 and 1964 Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl and Charles Parker produced eight radio ballads for BBC Radio. The radio ballad was a new form of programme that spliced together interviews and music in a way much denser than usual BBC programming. The programmes also marked one of the first times where regional accents were allowed to be heard on the radio (other programmes would use voice actors to play the parts of people in interview). The programmes were issued on LP in the 60s by Decca and have recently be re-issued on CD by folk label Topic. They’ve been used in classrooms and re-broadcast several times since.
The first programme was called ‘The Ballad of John Axon’ and told the story of a Stockport railway driver who died while warning the signalman that his train was out of control. He was awarded the George Cross for bravery posthumously.
The programme featured interviews with his wife and workmates and as well as telling the story of the accident gave the railwaymen an opportunity to talk about their lives and profession. In these two tracks the fireman on John Axon’s train talks about the journey on the morning of the accident and what he and John Axon were planning to do when they got off work. The songs around the interview are sung by Ewan MacColl.
The rain was gently falling… 3mb
Come all you British loco men… 5mb
This programme was a great success and MacColl, Seeger and Parker were soon comissioned to make another. This time was the subject was the construction of Britain’s first motorway: the M1 or as it was called then the London-Yorkshire motor highway. The programme (‘Song of a Road‘ – broadcast in 1959) was a major leap from ‘John Axon’. Rather than interviewing a handful of people, MacColl, Seeger and Parker interviewed thousands. The BBC also exercised more editorial control on this programme as it was deemed to be an issue of national importance. In points it is more documentary- like. The most compelling parts, however, are when subjectivity creeps back in and we hear the migrant work force responsible for much of the construction telling their stories.
What made you come into this game?… 9.5mb
Just a Road 3.8mb
Despite being a bit of a muddle, ‘Song of a Road’ was well received and MacColl, Seeger and Parker would go on to make six more programmes on the subjects of: coal mining, herring fishing, polio sufferers, teenagers, boxers and Britain’s nomadic peoples. Here’s a track from ‘The Big Hewer’ 1961’s programme on mining communities in South Wales, Derbyshire and the North East of England.
Deep down in a man’s heart… 6mb
Word The Cat – March 06 mix 34mb
Built from: Joe Hisaishi, Skullflower, The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary, Zeni Geva, Birchville Cat Motel, Dynamix II, Joe Heaney, Gato Barbieri and more.
One broken computer and much to-ing and fro-ing with Apple customer services later, Word The Cat returns…
RIP Ivor Cutler WFMU have a video for download here. I’ll try and dig up some mp3s to post in the near future. For a load of Ivor Cutler mp3s look here (thanks phil).
WFMU also host a great video of New Zealand drone/noise heads The Dead C performing on TV here.
The always interesting Words and Music blog currently carries this weighty piece from pianist Cecil Taylor with improv dons Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Tony Oxley. It’s on yousendit so get it while you can.
March’s delayed mix soon come. In the meantime here’s 11 minutes of bowed bass from Cecil McBee’s 1974 Mutima LP on Strata East. McBee is prolific. I know him best from his playing as a sidesman on Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders records from the 70s though he’s also played with Sam Rivers, Miles Davis, Horace Tapscott, Freddie Hubbard etc.
Cecil McBee – From Within 12mb
