Two Different Recordings With Vague Similarities
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Artist:
The first one might be of interest to indie rock guitarists. It's the only recording that I know of where Madagascar's top guitarist D'Gary plays an electric guitar. Accompanist Nantha Kumar plays tablas and kanjira. It's an instrumental called "Politikinao Nahoda" from his CD Akata Meso from 2000.
About it, the CD's liner notes say: "D'Gary s'adresse aux vieux sages (nahoda) à qui la tradition réserve le respect et le pouvoir pour les mettre en guard contre leur politique approximative et abusive," which Dictionary.com translates as: "D'Gary is directed to the old wise men (nahoda) to whom the tradition reserve the respect and the power to implement guard against their policy."
a photo of D'Gary not playing an electric guitar
I have two earlier posts, this and that, that feature D'Gary.
The above may have softened you up for the other piece here, Don Tre Pa-Yam "Rabbit" doing "Plaing Si'am Gai Nyo." It was recorded in Siam, which means before 1949 when the country's name changed to Thailand. It's from a 1998 CD The Secret Museum of Mankind, Vol. 5 - Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48 (Yazoo label).
The liner notes say: "Under the guise of the 'singers of the Department of Fine Art' comes this northern tribe group bearing the emblem of their record label, at the request of His Majesty Bhunnibol Aduldet, and featuring a high-powered version of the khaen known locally as the salo'."
Locating MOG account...
Comments (13)
That first song did indeed soften me up and take me under it's spell. My life is better having heard that, which I love to say and try to say it often. The trap door opened after that. I felt myself falling without any sense of land coming. Not quite halfway in though, it became a little more friendly on the ears. I was then swept into the rhythm and never looked back.
briangm, like me you've probably imagined pushing a button which causes the person in front of you to fall through a trap door. Here, instead of ending up on the sidewalk, your clicking the littlemp3 triangle had you "falling without any sense of land coming," an elegant way to enjoy a piece of music. Sheer poetry.
How did I miss this? Why was i not notified? Whatever....great music for a windy cold Sunday afternnon
Thank you, deadmandeadman. My Feed often decides to let me know about posts only from their comments.
Spike! Something about the first song reminded me of another song but I could not think of it for the life of me. I am really enjoying this tune and I like his electric guitar sound!
Finally, I rhink it's come to me, and here again is the beauty of how one song can not only be enjoyed for its own self but also lead us to think of another!
I think both the guitar and the drums sound pretty similar (although D'Gary goes much further with the guitar, not surprisingly), what do you think?
*I meant to compare to this BowWowWow song circa 1983?
jaggerandrea, you're right about the two being reminiscent of each other, and that links like that are a pleasure to come upon, on one's own. And thank you for serving up BowWowWow, a group I'd heard of but hadn't actually heard until now.
you're welcome!
I'm familiar with D'Gary's Glittering sounsdcpes from previous posts, but pre-1948 Siamese music took me into a place with which I was not familiar.
It was certainly "interesting".
Baudolino, it's also ver-y in-ter-est-ing, to boot! :<) Fortunately I don't have to tie it to indie rock in order for it to interest you.
i'm betting that first track is on one of Mickey Hart's playlists!
Robin, that's an exciting thought. He certainly would understand their rhythm better than I. You led me to figure out at least that the tune has six beats to a measure. Decades ago my mother mentioned that Hart, who by that time had written his book, wanted to talk to her about something---it had to have been because she had been a friend of composer Harry Partch---and she amusedly mentioned being worried that he'd be stoned. I just realized I never asked her how it went.