Playlist “Psyche van het Folk”, Radio Centraal, Antwerp : MOSTLY SITAR FUSIONS ; 2004-12-8 : 1. ORIENTAL REBÉTIKA : * Music & Words V.A.:The Rough guide to Rebétika (GR,1928-2004)**°°’ Tr.1, Rosa Askenazi : “Enas Mangas Sto Teke Mou” 4 min Tr.7, Andonios ‘Dalgas’ Dhiamandidhis : “Manes Tsergiach” 4 min Tr.8, Grigoris Asikis : “Nini” 3 min Tr.11, Efstratios Payioumdzis : “Manes Rast Neva” 4 min -15 This release gives a documentary-like overview of rebétika. Rebétika was mostly the style of the urban Greek living in the Ottoman Empire who after a Greek military push were forced to leave Turkey becoming an oppressed minority and marginal part of society in Greece. Their early style holds the middle between Turkish music and Greek music, full of emotions and with drug-association. New Greek nationalists prefer to call it the Greek blues, but this is no description of the style. I especially like the eastern & Byzantine styled early rebétika. - Roza Askenazi is one of the most known classical voices of rebétika. Homepage : http://www.btinternet.com/~judyin.london/rozaeskenazi/roza1.htm Other example of her voice : "Usak-Tsifte-Teli Manes" http://mfile.akamai.com/6547/rm/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/usrm/776/106776_1_10.ram?obj=v10522 - Andonios ‘Dalgas’ Dhiamandidhis, a beautiful Constantinopolitan voice, who sadly stopped with music and life input, and receded a terminal depression and a destroyed life, after the German invasion in 1941. Other example of his voice : "Tis Ksenityas O Ponos" http://mfile.akamai.com/6547/rm/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/usrm/776/106776_1_16.ram?obj=v10522 - Grigoris Asikis is considered as an oud master and a singer with another golden voice, somewhat Turkish-like. - Efstratios Payioumdzis, who also has a second, very different track, shows more a poor man’s folk voice, the track closest in energy to earliest American blues, but with elements of Ottoman, Byzantine music, with a medieval-(tarantella-)like outro. Article-like review : http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/folk.html Some ideas (audio) of Oriental rebétika : http://www.arhoolie.com/titles/7005.shtml 2. “INDIAN” FLAVOURED GUITAR : * Locust Music Sir Richard Bishop : Improvika (US,2004)***°° Tr.1, “Provenance Unknown” 4 min Very improvisational guitar style ; this track and somewhat the whole album has a somewhat similar effect as a raga, without ever being one. It has in fact many influences that come like improvisational ideas. Best is to listen to the whole album at once. Review : http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/guitar4.html * Indian Rec. Prasanna with Haridwaramangalam : Natabharaivi (IND,2000)**°° Tr.1, “Varnam” 6 min Tr.7, “Bhajan” 3 min 9 -28 Electric raga guitarist plays Karnatic instrumentals accompanied on ghatam (and tampura). Listed with links on http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/RAGAGUITAR.html Other similar audio examples from same album at his homepage http://www.guitarprasanna.com/mainindex.html * Simla House Barun Kumar Pal & Ray Spiegel : Ragas on slide guitar (IND/US,2003)****° Tr.3, “Raga Malkauns”, part 3 : “Drut Gat (Teen Tal)” 12 min -40 Barun plays a special designed slide guitar most suitable for playing Indian raga. Wonderful music in Indian classical music style. This particular Indian slide guitar sounds close to sitar, but is of course still different. Review http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/guitar4.html * Simla House Ray Spiegel Ensemble : Raga Jazz (US,2004)***°° Tr.1, “Amber” 12 min Tr.4, “Barun’s Boogie” 10 min Tr.7, “Night Vision” 5 min 27 -67 Very good raga jazz, with Barun Kumar Pal on slide-guitar, Ray Spiegel on drums and additional bas & drums. Review : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/indojazzreview.html (audio of older release on his webpage) 3. TO INDO-JAZZ : * Galloping Goat Natraj : Deccan Dance (US,1998)**° Tr.5, “Don’t Utter” 9 min -76 Jazz music with raga and African elements, creating their own kind of fusion jazz. The rhythm structure of Indian music is left out and the sax improvises, unlike a sitar, in a jazz mode on the Indian inspirations. This is a track composed by the electric violinist, but with contributions of each member. The bass here has an African element, the violin a contemporary element, the sax a jazz element, and some part of the percussion an Indian flavour. Review : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/indojazzreview.html * Dorian Disc Natraj : Meet me Anywhere(US,1992)**** Because second hour is taken out and other reasons this release will be airplayed not this time but in near future. Review : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/indojazzreview.html 4. AFRO-INDIAN FUSION : * H.O.Earth Mus. Terracotta (UK,2003)*°° Tr.2, “Dance with Shiva" 8 min -84 Track with Middle Eastern, African and Indian touch & Jazz fusion approach. Well produced adaptation of ethnical styles, especially Indian, with some New Age touches and with best production for a more mainstream public. Review : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/indojazzreview.html * KanKan : I will not airplay her music but still wanted to mention this artist. KanKan is a Japanese sitar-player and composer. She participated with Björk,and others. Info : http://www.dgmpublishing.com/IOM/InterviewsKanKan.htm & http://www.mp3.com.au/artist.asp?id=16392 5. SITAR-GROOVE : * Okko Rec. Okko : Sitar & Electronics (D,1971)**°° Tr.4, “East Indian Traffic” 5 min Tr.7, “Pointed sails on Ganges” 7 min 12 -96 Reissue of this classic 70’s psych item with moog and sitar, band. With one Beatles cover, some a go go psych, psychrock and psych, most of it with sitar, some of it slightly in follow-up of Ananda Shankar’s great contributions. I am not sure if the longer sitar track of the original LP has been left out on the CD. If so, it is a shame. I know some pop-psych lovers would prefer not to have it on it instead. This first track is heavier psych-rock with sitar. The second track starts as a simple but nice sitar instrumental, and then adds drums, electric guitar. Listed with cover : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/SITARBEAT.html * private Alberto Marsicano (BRA,2004)***° Latest project of Marsicano is sitar bossa nova. Review : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/SITARREVIEW.html -LAST HOUR WILL BE TAKEN OVER BECAUSE OF A SPECIAL RADIO-PROJECT, A COOPERATION WITH SCHOOL-CHILDREN - -STILL PLAYED AFTER THE RADIO-PROJECT : * Stoned Records Kali Bahlu : takes the forest children to a journey of Cosmic Remembrance (US,1967)**°°° (Tr.1, “A Game called who I am” 11 min) (Tr.3, “How can I tell my Guru” 8 min 19) Beautiful, somewhat unique, but somehow completely mentally disturbed, hippie- talk and singing with semi-spiritual music with sitar, congas with a percussion like electric guitar drone, with naïve semi-pure high-pitched voice. This might be an LSD trip in music, but I’m not sure. It’s difficult to withstand listening to the complete text. It’s strange to see how far a mind can dwell into spiritual fantasies. Rumour has it that Bahlu is living in NJ and currently became Christian. “Also interesting is that Kali's daughter actually contacted the WFMU radio station when she found Kali's name on a 'FMU play list during a Google search. Not to be outdone, DJ Kenny G followed up by starting the rumour (and was announcing it on-air) after hearing "Little Harem Girl" that Marianne Nowottny was the daughter of Kali Bahlu...” Mark, Abaton Books -I had plans to play to a complete session of Dr.Timothy Leary’s, but because of the project it was impossible to broadcast this now. I just leave my comments here :- * Performance Rec. Dr.Timothy Leary : Turn on Tune in, Drop Out (US,1967)***** (Complete score 37 min) When we listen back to Dr.Timothy Leary’s attempts of LSD trip guidances, based upon the Tibetan Book of The Dead, it’s clear how structured and pure these were. This text starts with a veena drone (Maryvonne Giercarz), acoustic guitar (Lars Eric) and Tibetan bowl. The “voyager” on this trip was Dr.Ralph Metzner. I think at the end of his life Leary realised that his “make your own personal religion” and “use drugs to free your mind”, even when that last thing was meant to be done only with psychiatrist accompaniment, got at the end completely out of hand. The free religions and drug use caused more mentally disbalanced people than free minds. Still this recording on its own is a strong statement, performance. It seems that there was a film with it. His impact on music however was strong, with fine results, especially in Germany on the Cosmic Music genre (Ashra Temple,..). It is still understandable how he was sentenced to prison for his research a numerous of times, even if he was a scientist with a Phd. Personal website : http://www.leary.com/ Another page : http://fusionanomaly.net/timothyleary.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other playlists : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/2004.html General overview index page : www.radiocentraal.be/psychevanhetfolk More detailed index page : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/index.html Newsletter of this radioshow and related WebPages : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psychevanhetfolk/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PS. SOME WAY TO VIEW THE LINKS : SAVE THIS AS TEXT-FILE, OPEN AS WORD FILE, AND THEN YOU CAN EASILY ACTIVATE ALL LINKS ! Or receive my playlist through e-mail beforehand, together with new reviews : psychevanhetfolk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com