We are traveling to South America’s heartland, the country of many polkas… Paraguay! Handcuffed by many dictatorships and maniacal leaders, this small landlocked republic has had a delayed musical upbringing (no foreign influence permitted between 1954 and 1989). Yet with the isolation came the developed of their own funky styles, many of which are variations of the polka. What else do you need to know?! What if I told you that the harp is the side dish of choice in most Paraguayan folk music? We’re laying out the goods on this week’s show.. trip well.
Music
Supersonisk Dansk Musik
Pack your children’s books and winter boots, we’re catching the next Nordic soundwave to Denmark. Stuck in the backseat between Sweden and Germany, the Danish may not have much legroom to work with but they occupy their space with musical eclecticism and grace. A European hub for contemporary jazz since the 1920s, Denmark has also played host to early electronic music, Viking folk, violin armadas, and on anon.
To think, humans were already sculpting this style of aural alchemy 50 years ago..
Tune in and ye shall hear with new ears)))
Yemenite Gold Mines
The opulent adventures of the oud are very well represented in the music of Yemen. We will explore these ancient stringed sounds and many more as we go digging for records in a Middle Eastern country in the midst of a great revolution. Lay back, relax, and try the khat..
Deutsch Hip Hop, meet Cameroonian Makossa
Germany and Cameroon make unlikely musical mates, but for two hours this week they will reign supreme! We are joined on the show this week by Christian Gossen, world traveler and connoisseur of fine German hip hop, who shares his favorite underground sounds and brings us up to speed on a scene that remains virtually unknown in this part of the world.
Then for the second half of the show we will explore the breadth of music from Cameroon, a country in Africa that displays a wonderful diversity of landscapes, peoples, and sounds.
Makossa hits with the force of a freight train.. When you feel the beat, you have been converted. This track by André-Marie Tala, for instance, was played for James Brown when he visited Africa in 1975:
The scoundrel (may he rest in peace) wrote new lyrics and passed it off as his own!
Cameroon: the real thing since forever.
Una fiesta Nicaragüense de esplendor sónico!
Although Nicaragua has yet to give birth to a style of music heard round the world, the largest country in Central America nurses many young styles between its two coasts. African-influenced Reggae and Punta music shakes the Caribbean shores, while Spanish-inflected folk and Chicheros brass music pumps up the Pacific. But marimbas are everywhere! Shake it boys!
This week’s trip also includes orchestral hip hop, uncensored funk, ’60s Spanish-Invasion rockn’roll, and the music of revolutions..
WANDERING RHYTHMS RADIO 