I must admit, I was not expecting such a beautiful tenor voice accompanied by guitar. When i read indigenous Australian music - I was thinking something rhythmic, etc.
Whether you agree with it or not, the whole world associates Reggae, Ska, Dub, whatever it shall be named with the country of Jamaica more than any other region.
Of course I agree with this, but my point is that the whole tapestry of Jamaican music is too broad a church to be tacked to the ‘regional’ genre, and only ended up that way because of the OP. It goes back to my age-old argument of many people basing their opinion of Jamaican music on the output of Bob Marley from 1971 onwards. Marley’s Island albums have always been closer to AOR to me, and take away the subject matter they could easily pass as such. They are not ‘regional’ music, having been tailored specifically for a Western audience. Ironically Heart Of The Congos is the antithesis, albeit still falling under the same genre.
Take your point about the influence of US Rhythm and Blues in other genres, and agree that Kuti’s work for example is as rooted in Western stylings as anything that came out of Nigeria before it (especially given his link-up with Ginger Baker). High-Life the same.
I guess I’m a bit of a purist and thought the original plan of having ‘Caribbean’ music (including Calypso, Mento, Soca and the like as well as albums from JA) would have been a much better idea. As it is the decision was made to lump it in with music from 90% of the rest of the world, so a work like HotC ends up ‘competing’ with indigenous music from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa or wherever. The only Congos-related LP I wanted to see in a regional thread was this:
I know this is a stretch - but it was my experience that this reminded me of middle eastern neighbors I had while living in Germany. They used to blast cool music on the weekends. This was the only song I could catch that they'd play, even though this isn't "arabic music", they played plenty of pop music that was middle eastern music influenced and this was a massive hit at the time in Germany so I picked it up elsewhere and was like, oh that's what they were playing.
Makes sense since she's technically from Belgium (I think I read).
These were the first responses I had to it:
So far it seems like a decent survey into Bahamian music for someone who has never heard Bahamian music. I'm even hearing a bit of possibly influence on Louis Prima in A Conch Ain't Got No Bone.
Fitting to hear a rendition of John B. Sail (Wreck Of The John B.) on a Bahamian music record.
Fits a bit in with some Kingston Trio I like too.
Also I just read this and have no idea... seems legit that I got that wrong and assumed they were the same:
Quote:
It's Blind Blake the calypso singer, not Blind Blake the bluesman...
Rank Album
1 Allegria (1990) (album) by Gipsy Kings
2 Music Of India (Three Classical Ragas) by Ravi Shankar
3 Acabou Chorare - Novos Baianos
4 Buena Vista Social Club
5 Expensive Shit - Fela Kuti
6 Rodrigo y Gabriela by Rodrigo y Gabriela
7 Heart Of The Congos by The Congos
8 A Second Album Of Bahamian Songs by Blind Blake
9 Gurrumul by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
10 Vinicius de Moraes e Baden Powell- Os Afro Sambas
11 Gedida by Natacha Atlas
1. While the seeming live recordings (don't know for sure) aren't the best fidelity and the music isn't the best ever written, I feel this is some of the most "real" music emotionally I really like. Idk - it's just so raw and I read they'd do weddings and the such - a bit romantic at times and not just in the lovey dovey way, rather I feel enveloped into their music when I listen to it. It's raw and real music to me that many albums can't touch, even if not the best from a production/music perspective. That's not to say though that it's actually to the benefit of the record in my opinion - the excitement of the music is well captured and their stylized guitar playing is well above any slightly above average music.
2. This album always takes me to another world. I feel like I literally transcend space and time. The instrumentation and what feels like naturally occurring cosmic sounds from all the instrumentation. It really does take music at a whole new level with seemingly "simple" instruments. Incredibly creative.
3. I was quite taken by this. I love the female singer's smooth style. I also like how a few tracks have this massive bass tone and licks. It's incredibly diverse musically, and while catchy, it also musically is quite the journey.
4. This was kind of a sleeper for me in the past. Not bad, just not terribly interesting. I think this is my like 5-7th listen on it, and this time around the swagger and swing of the album really came alive. I've said this a few times now, but I totally wanted to jam to this in a 50s chevy while smoking a cigar, wearing comfy shorts/button up and sandals . I'd end up at the beach after eating some wonderful food and drinks.
5. My cousin has recently gotten me into this kind of music and so it was nice to warm up to this jam. I don't know what else to say other than fantastic music and reminds me of my cousin somehow. We just recently started playing music that basically sounds a lot like this. I really dig it, but didn't really find an emotional attachment to it yet... hasn't quite clicked as good as it is.
6. My previous statement stands - fantastic guitar playing and rhythm. This is a bit like that Allegria album but a subtle distinction between their I want to say European interpretation and the Latin feel off this record if that makes any sense. They are just passionate in different ways. Also the sound production is much better. I was in my kitchen and was like, this totally sounds like a rendition of Stairway... go check the track name and sure enough. While it was pretty cool, I liked the first half of the album better.
7. I liked the legit Rastafarian lyrics here. I mentioned before I really dig the falsetto vocal on this. Unique for my experiences with Reggae. Solid bass production... reminds me of the first time I recorded as a bassist. I was direct in, so I sounded great to almost over powering compared to the live tracking of the drums and two guitarists. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as solo tracking to perfect the mix. I don't really know anything about this kind of music, but it seemed like it incorporated a diverse collection of sounds from this kind of music.
8.I didn't get a version that was 100% the same, but 85-90% there. I must admit the first track I listened to was Peas and Rice and wasn't terribly excited to listen to the rest of the record. Then my tracklisting skipped to the end of the record and started getting much more interesting. Curious if it is the time period it was recorded in or if Bahamian music was a bigger influence on early rock n' roll than I realized, but hearing early rock n' roll type stuff on it similar to Louis Prima. But then totally other things going on sounding a bit like Kingston Trio. Anyway, way more solid as it went along. Cool to hear a Bahamian artist perform John B. Sail (Wreck Of The John B.).
9. Dude has an angelic tenor voice. The guitar playing was smooth and fantastic. Having said that, it's this low in the list because I just didn't have any emotional connection to it. It lacked some musical depth too - not a lot of dynamic to it. This is another I have only listened to once, so probably deserves another listen to really make this judgement, but so it is for now.
10. I wasn't crazy about this for some reason. I want to blame it on the production (at least how it was in my car... it was really quiet), but then again my number 1 album has poor production. It clearly has good musical elements to it (quite beautiful actually), but emotionally it didn't intrigue me and as a foreign language to me, that's critical. IDK... to be honest I only listened to it once as well... probably deserves more than that - my first gut feeling.
11. This was hard to put last, but finally I didn't think it musically or emotionally took me to the same places the first album did. I had a great memory of it while living in Germany, but other than that, the music itself felt a little lacking to me. There were high points for sure and if this were a top 100 list, it probably would find itself on there, but just not as good as the others. There were a couple really cool tracks though.
The last 3 I changed the order like 3 times on ... haha - this list was much harder than the Jazz list to finalize.
I know this is a stretch - but it was my experience that this reminded me of middle eastern neighbors I had while living in Germany. They used to blast cool music on the weekends. This was the only song I could catch that they'd play, even though this isn't "arabic music", they played plenty of pop music that was middle eastern music influenced and this was a massive hit at the time in Germany so I picked it up elsewhere and was like, oh that's what they were playing.
Makes sense since she's technically from Belgium (I think I read).
If I end up being the only one listening to the finalists and then putting a submission in for how they rank the finalists (see OP), then likely the top 3 of the finalists will defacto win.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
