1 Comment Posted on November 28, 2013November 28, 2013 Eastern Europe, Europe

Climb the Black Mountain

Not so sinister, is it?

This week we visit the 3rd youngest country on Earth, and also one of the smallest (born prematurely, or perhaps Serbia smoked during pregnancy) … Montenegro! It’s still a mystery why the place is called ‘Black Mountain’, or why the rest of the world still uses the Italian name (real name: Crna Gora). No matter, we have come for the music!

Montenegro as a nation-state is barely 7 years old, but the coastal Balkan nation has a discrete history that extends to a time well before its incorporation into the former Yugoslavia– heck, they even had a king. It’s a bit complex (brain-draining) to get into the specifics of nationhood and identity, so let’s just say that the borders have changed but the musical masters have stayed. Therefore, we shall not confine our soundsplash to post-2006 independence. We would miss the formative years of Rambo Amadeus!

Leave a comment Posted on November 22, 2013November 25, 2013 Africa, Current Episode, Music, West Africa

Sounds) Suppress)) Struggle)))

¡Música! It will manifest inner strength and help transcend troubles of the material world. In the case of Guinea-Bissau, a small, perpetually politically-handicapped nation of only 1.5 million humans, the odds against a music industry’s very existence have been overwhelming. ((Manecas Costa’s Paraiso di Gumbe (2003) is considered the first album recorded in the country. Before then, Bissau-Guineans mostly recorded in Portugal, and neighboring countries Sénégal and Guinea))

Despite the hardships that the people have faced since independence from Portugal in 1974, Bissau-Guineans have created beautiful, culture-unifying music to express their quest for shared emancipation. Some of the most exceptional music came out of the push for nationhood, as bands such as Super Mama Djombo provided the soundtrack for revolution.

This week’s program features nearly an hour of music spanning the first four decades of Guinea-Bissau’s existence. The groups display many different degrees of blending between Portuguese and ethnic African influences (chiefly Mandinga and Fula). I hope you hear something that moves you.

Listen to the sounds of Guinea-Bissau here.

Leave a comment Posted on October 30, 2013 Current Episode, Halloween, Music

Haunt your House Party

There can be no light without night. Right?

To celebrate the coming of darkness, this week’s radio broadcast features many sinister sounds to help you awaken the spirits within the walls— including horror rap, drone rock, screamadelic surf, Caribbean shaman-folk, and of course, vampire disco.

Plus a real oddity: the world’s first ever electronic piece of music (or anti-music), somehow buried in an unmarked gravestone of historical significance, barely acknowledged as a truly revolutionary artifact. The piece of music in question: a 1944 field recording made in Cairo of a Zar spirit possession ceremony. Eerie enough already, but once original sound wizard Halim El-Dabh manipulated the recording using primitive filtration and reverberation techniques (literally moving walls) the piece takes on a truly surreal afterlife of its own. Here is a sample:

Check out the Wandering Rhythms Halloween Special, but please give yourself a mini-exorcism in between each half-hour segment:

Part 1 ((listen)) Part 2 ((listen)) Part 3 ((listen)) Part 4 ((listen))

And who can resist this timeless slice of horror satire:

Leave a comment Posted on September 26, 2013November 28, 2013 Africa, Music, Southern Africa

A Mandolin and Electronic Heartbeats

Dear friends, I have fallen hopelessly behind on these posts.. but the show has skipped nary a beat! From this week’s radio broadcast, a performance by our good friend Brandon “Blocktreat” Hoffman:

We preview tracks from his forthcoming album Stuff Gets Bent, and talk about bears, beat-making, and bear attacks on beat-making machines. {{Listen here}}

Also, a short trip to the highest nation in Africa: the Kingdom of Lesotho!

Hear here!

Africa’s John Wayne

Leave a comment Posted on June 6, 2013 Music, South Asia

Malay of Many Flavas

This week we sample the wildest sounds of the modern Malaysian soundscape… The many mixings of Chinese, Indian, Indigenous and European peoples have manifested to form a frothy stew of electronic strangeness! Hear many kinds of rock (space, grindcore, garage, surf, ambient, unidentifiable), throwback hip pop, and ancient drums stomp on our untamed journey…

Hear the first hour’s global mix HERE

Hear the Malaysian feature HERE

WANDERING RHYTHMS RADIO