The Pan Islamic Tradition- Music Of Morocco

Again apologies for a gap in posts- it was more travel which of course means more music to digitize. I'll get better about posting regularly, and here's some good stuff to start with. A 1975 Lyrichord release of some music from the Moroccan Islamic brotherhoods. Side 1 is Gnaoua/Gnawa recordings while Side 2 is less commonly heard J'bala tracks. All of it is seriously good, trancey jams. Get it here.

Omar Khorshid- Rhythms Of The Orient

There are certain artists I like a lot, and as previously mentioned, Omar Khorshid is most definitely one of them. Here's 1974's 'Rhythm Of The Orient' with a classic Rashid Distribution cover and the original release of 'Guitar El Chark'. It's a great record (and a sound file gifted by a friend) and it's here.

Куд Кочо Рацин

Another of my digitizing projects is the stack of Balkan 'folk' 45's that's accumulated, and here's a good one. Macedonians doing 'Folk Dances For The Zurla & Drum'. I'm a huge fan of anything involving reeds, and the Macedonians do it well, from bagpipes to the simple zurla. (A convenient visiting expert was helpful in explaining some of the finer points of the instruments which was quite interesting indeed.) Преземете the tracks here.

Bairaag

Apologies for the lag on this post, it's been busy with a last minute trip and some issues with storage volume. Excuses aside, it's all sorted and we're back on it. A recent project has been the ripping of some Bollywood vinyl, and here's the start of that- 'Bairaag', from 1976. Kalyanji Anadji in charge of the music, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshka and Mahendra Kapoor on the vocals- you can't go wrong. Better yet, the film stars the very lovely Leena Chandavarkar who's first husband died in an accidental shooting and who's second husband was the much older Kishore Kumar, all of which is fantastically Bollywood. Enjoy the music here.

Discostan 1 Year Anniversary!

Come on down!

A delay....

Sorry friends, storage space issues. It will be fixed by this time next week as soon as a little burst of travel is over. There's good stuff waiting to be uploaded, and the digitization of the Bollywood vinyl has started in earnest, so be prepared. In the meantime, enjoy this. The first minute and a half is a bizarre collection of stills, but then it gets going and does it ever get going......

Turkish Delight

Another one of those things with really interesting music hidden inside a dubious cover. Side one is really more Macedonian gypsy music (Esma Rejepova & Stevo Teodsievski being present) while side 2 features the Dolgru Yol Turkish Ensemble doing exactly what you'd want them to do. Monitor Records had an interesting run there, lots of very good and authentic folkloric style music repackaged into at best cheesy and often slightly lurid covers- an interesting artistic concept for a label, but not too different to several of the current reissue labels do nowadays. Get the gypsy/Ottoman party here.