Palyrria - Palyrria [2004]

Born out of the need for experimentation PALYRRIA is a band that has devised and perfected its own, unique musical style. Created in 1996 as a dance project it wasnt until 1999 that the band decided to turn into its own musical direction, a mixture of western electronica and traditional music from around the Mediterranean. They call it world-electro and indeed this music is neither electronic nor ethnic. PALYRRIA has always been fascinated by traditional music and some of the bands members have worked with renowned traditional musicians, but living in Greece one realizes that traditional music goes way beyond the last millennium, back in times when people chose to express themselves in much more ecstatic and paganistic ways. Ancient ceremonies around the Mediterranean have always been filled with music and musical expression. It wouldnt be far from the truth if one was to draw a parallel between those events and the rave parties the world witnessed in the beginning of the nineties. The similarities are striking and have been the source of inspiration for the dynamic musical context of PALYRRIA. Aeolian scales, pentatonic music, instruments that come out of the depths of history, are presented alongside pumping bass lines, techno grooves, vocoders, clicks and cuts, in an attempt to create music that transcends the centuries and is both ancient and futuristic at the same time. Let the strangeness ware off and enjoy music that comes straight from the source.

Enjoy! 

The Baghdaddies - Random Acts Of Kindness [2003]

Touring the world for 14 years, the Baghdaddies’ music is world music with  strong Balkan tendencies alongside Caribbean grooves, Middle Eastern rhythms and even some Geordie [native Newcastle] touches, all awash with influences such as ska, jazz, punk , delivered with theatre and exuberance. Uplifting and infectiously danceable, full of blistering brass, rousing 5 part vocal harmonies and a rhythm section that you can’t keep still to. Songs to listen to and party!
  This album is called Random Acts Of Kindness  and you can't listen to it and not smile. On paper, the lyrics might not aspire to poetry, but the exuberant performance style and musical dexterity brings them to life. Songs like Winter Winds, the title track and 6/8 - We'll Be Late would grace any party. 


                                          

                                                                           Enjoy!

Agir Roman - OST [1997]

 

Ağır Roman  is a 1997 Turkish film directed by Mustafa Altıoklar, adapted from Metin Kaçan's best selling novel Ağır Roman.
I can say that this movie is one of the best Turkish movies in the 90s knowing that it was nominated for many awards in several film festivals. The story is about a family who's living in a suburban in Istanbul. Love, family, passion, death, pain are the main themes as well as hope and rage which define the life in this area. People need to fight in order to survive. In the end, the tragic chain of events keeps going on as if in old Greek tragedies. 
 The soundtrack has music written by Attila Özdemiroğlu,in some songs with the participation of Yusuf Taşkın and one of Cem Karaca.

                                                              Enjoy! 

Theologos Gryllis - Tsambouna jazz [2001]

Happy new year dear fellows!

Mention of the first tsabouna might date back to ancient Greece
(446-385 BC) through Aristophanes, who refers to it as "ta fysatiria"
(blown things), but the bagpipe-like instrument unique to the Greek isles [not
to be confused with Macedonia's gaida] has come a long way since.
Thanks to a fine instrumentalist, who despite his 62 years, looks to the
future generations, Patmos native Theologos Gryllis meets local jazzmen Yorgos
Kontrafouris, Takis Barberis and Giannis Sarikos - among others - and proves
that when there's a will, there's definitely a way. The tsabouna might
have a limited six-note range and restricted dynamics, but Gryllis does
wonders with these six notes, taking the traditional instrument (made of
goatskin, reeds and goat bones) to new jazz territories. Gryllis' acrobatic
feats dress upbeat jazz standards giving these a local colour without
distorting their 'Western' sense of flow. "I Had Three Loves", dedicated to
the memory of music critic Rinio Papanikola, is a fine example as is the brisk
"Satyrs" conjuring images of a rapturous Dionysaic orgy and the pop-based
"Naxos Bar". Kudos to producer Michalis Koumbios for a wonderfully fresh idea.
A disc well worth exploring, especially by the jazz lover! 

                                                              Enjoy!

Max Roach – M’Boom [1980]

This is credited to Max Roach, who formed the M’Boom ‘re:percussion ensemble’ around 1970, but it’s very much a group work. The ensemble features a bunch of experienced drummer-percussionists – Roy Brooks, Freddie Waits, Joe Chambers, Ray Mantilla etc . Before you run away with thoughts of endless soloing, this is an album of tunes, using “more than 100 different instruments of determinate and indeterminate pitch”, which means a whole lot of marimba, vibes, xylophones, timpani, gongs, bells, and pretty much every instrument you can bang on. Banged on by men who really know how to bang on shit. This is a particularly colorful set that is easily recommended not only to jazz and percussion fans but to followers of World music.

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Toufic Farroukh - Drab Zeen [2002]

Drab Zeen represents one of the finest examples of this important emerging new sub-genre, Arab-jazz. The genius of this disc is how Farroukh has effortlessly melded such disparate elements as jazz trombone and saxophone, chill-beats, French vocals, acoustic piano, oud, ney, and accordion into a singly tapestry of unique sounds, all the while retaining the essential elements of each instrumental voice even as he transforms the whole into something entirely new and heretofore unheard.
Farroukh has grown in every facet of his music-making: tighter and more evocative compositions, a richer and more varied sound palette, cleaner production, superior sax blowing, and a deeper groove.
An altogether remarkable disc.

                                                                   Enjoy!

Kristi Stassinopoulou - Taxidoscopio [2006]

Kristi Stassinopoulou has created her own unique electro-world style with Greek folk rhythms, psychedelia, haunting vocal harmonies and a crystal clear voice.
The successful blend of traditional Greek rhythms and sound colours, haunting Byzantine vocal lines, rembetika music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica, combined with Kristi's vivid scenic appearance and personality and her colourful band, sparked great response and led to frequent appearances in music festivals and clubs mostly in Europe, N. America and Brazil..
 As on this album, she normally collaborates with her long-time musical partner & husband : composer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their current approach is still internationalist, neo-hippie, paganistic, experimental and described by them as ‘greekadelia’.Normally a 5-piece, the band on this album play a wide variety of instruments including : saz, laouto, lyre, gaida (greek bagpipe), saxophones, guitars, keyboards, percussion & djembe - and is expanded by guest musicians on individual tracks playing harp, tablas, trumpet & trombone.

                                                                                Enjoy!

Ouelele - Another collection of modern afro rhythms [1999]

It's unclear what is supposed to unite the tracks on Ouelele, an eclectic anthology of African and African-derived music, aside from the announcement in the too-sparse liner notes that all the tracks are "rare" and "obscure." But there is a theme here, intentional or not: All these songs -- from 12 different artists from the late '60s to the late '90s -- fuse Africa's native music with the jazz and funk devised by the descendants of Africans living in the West. And so we have South African Letta M'Bulu's "What's Wrong With Groovin'," which swings as much as it grooves; Henri Guéon's "Volcano," which marries Antillean drums to American brass; and "World War IV" by Antibalas, a band that plays hardcore Afrobeat -- in New York City. By the time Smahila and the S.B.'s concluded the nearly 19-minute "African Movement," it wasn't clear just who was being channeled, Fela Kuti or James Brown. There are no weak tracks on this album, but the best is "Unity" by Philip Cohran and the African Heritage Ensemble. From a droning, hypnotic violin line, Cohran builds a piece that would sound equally at home a million years in the past and a million years in the future.

                                                                              Enjoy!

Suns of Arqa - Brief History of S.O.A. [1998]

A Brief History of SOA is a retrospective compilation album, featuring tracks from all the releases prior to signing a major deal with EMI records. It serves as a brilliant introduction to SUNS OF ARQA, or simply a good way to plug those holes in your SOA collection. This album reflects very well the diversity of SUNS OF ARQA’S music, and emphasises that their commitment to style and spirituality has been there from the start.

Unpredictable to the end A Brief History’ begins with two tracks, which have been changing people’s musical perspectives around the globe, a superb blend of Indian melodies, dub reggae bass line and sheer dance power. Featuring N.MAGRIEL, mastering India’s most exotic bowed instrument the Sarangi ‘voice of a hundred colours’, with its 35 sympathetic strings. On drums sees the return of their original sticksman CHRIS JOYCE, back after many years in purgatory with Simply Red. With impressive dub mixes from the likes of YOUTH and ADRIAN SHERWOOD make this essential listening.

Introducing many of the artists who have recorded with the SUNS’ over their epic musical career, including the mighty powerful vocals of PRINCE FAR-I, from a long deleted 12”single, and the closing song from his last live show. SANYOGITA KUMARI’s ethereal vocals on the YAM YAM mix of Govinda’s Dream. The ancient dhrupad lyrics from Indian classical artist REBA BHADURI and the awesome heavy dub bass from leading light WADADA. This is a ‘must have’ CD for any collection.

                                
                                                                         
                                                                            Enjoy!

Mode Plagal - ΙΙ [1998] + III [2001]

The second album of Mode Plagal moves gracefully across genres such as jazz, ethnic funk or trance and makes music sound the way Simonides, the ancient Greek writer described it, "just like pouring wine". Mode Plagal is the band's name but also "their manner". And in Mode Plagal II they prove what that means. 

The Mode Plagal formed in 1990 and managed to create a unique musical idiom with references primarily to traditional Greek music and lyrics and sounds in Byzantine, Balkan, African, funky, groovy, rock, blues rhythms and many other factors are music as influences. The new discs have a new element in comparison with the previous two, the songs are more than the orchestral pieces as more emphasis on the wealth of folk poetry. The Mode Plagal adapts songs from Central Greece, Epirus, Thrace, Macedonia, Patmos. In their new album together with the Giota Vei, Savina Yannatou, Helen Tsaligopoulou and Theodosia Tsatsos, each with its unique interpretation, add their own stamp to the sound of Mode Plagal.

                                Enjoy!  Mode Plagal II + Mode Plagal III

Okay Temiz & Johnny Dyani - Witchdoctor's Son [1976]

  
 This album is a great combination between jazz and traditional  music with a lot of experimentation.Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani as a driving force create an amazing rhythm section that Saffet Gundeger with his clarinet and Gunnar Bergsten with barytone sax combine a beautiful mix of east and western melodies.This album created during the period that Temiz and Dyani were running a jazz club in Istanbul.Not to be confused with the same named album that Dyani made in 1978 with different musicians.

                                                                               Enjoy!

TRT Ara Müzikleri 1

  

 Amazing compilation from famous turkish jazz and folk musicians , 12 great traditional folk songs blended with jazzy groovy sounds. These songs were recorded for turkish national television and radio in the early 70's.

                               Yonca Stüdyo Ork. - Yunus

it includes the super groovy track:

                               Çeçen kýzý by Nathan Davis & Emin Fýndýkoðlu

                                                                             Enjoy!

Mercan Dede : Seyahatname & 800

Mercan Dede believes that when you put digital, electronic sounds together with hand-made, human ones, you can create universal language, capable of uniting old and young, ancient and modern, East and West. It's a bold claim, but the Turkish-born and Montreal-based musician/producer/DJ has the career and the music to back it up. When he takes the stage with his group Secret Tribe, he hovers at the side behind his turntables and electronics, occasionally picking up a traditional wooden flute, or ney to float in sweet, breathy melodies, while masters of the kanun (zither), clarinet, darbuka (hand drum) and whatever other instruments he's decided to include that night, ornament his grooves and spin magical, trance melodies to match the whirling of the group's spectacular dervish dancer, Mira Burke.

Mercan Dede - Seyahatname [2001]

  

 Created for dancers, these pieces have a wonderful Turkish elegance. Mercan Dede, who moved from Turkey to Canada, uses musicians from both countries to create his sound, which manages to be spacious and airy without ever floating away. Spoken word samples add to the atmosphere, as on the opening of "Semaname," where a rhythm that could almost be Native American appears under a wispy flute line; although it never completely develops as a piece of music, there's still something lovely about it. Like many of the pieces here, the rhythm is more important than the melody; on "Hayalname," for example, there are layers of polyrhythms throughout the piece. Dede understands Turkish music, and doesn't go for easy, flashy sounds. Instead, he subtly mixes melodies with programmed beats on "Sahname" or the antiphonal phrasing between instruments over brooding synth tones at the opening of "Vefaname." By its very nature, this is different to Dede's other albums, where the emphasis is on melody. But, listened to on its own terms, this is a great success.     

                                                                                     

 

Enjoy! 

Mercan Dede - 800 [2007]

  Focusing on the divine beauty of the ney, percussive instruments, and poetic vocals in various languages, Mercan Dede puts forth an album dedicated to his teacher, the Mevlana in celebration of his 800th birthday. Music, dance and poetry were art forms integral to the Mevlana`s teachings, and on this album Mercan Dede creates a final tribute that fully conveys the lessons the Mevlana set out to teach eight centuries ago. Peace is the central theme of this album and as a result it sets out to convey humanistic messages and poems from one track to the next.

                                                                                 Enjoy!

The Souljazz Orchestra - Rising Sun [2010]

Rising Sun is the Souljazz Orchestra's first all-acoustic afro-jazz album. Playing over thirty different instruments, the group creates a rich soundscape of otherwordly jazz, driven by heavy African rhythms and soulful grooves. The esoteric arrangements and fiery improvisations make it one of the Souljazz Orchestra's most unique offerings.

Enjoy!

Äl Jawala - Asphalt Pirate Radio [2009]

With their combination of Balkan Soul and funky dance beats 
Äl Jawala   boil  European clubs and festivals from France to the Black Sea.

Äl Jawala  create an absorbing and innovating urban sound that takes the
soul of Balkan-brass out to the Dancefloors. 
An explosive and highly charged cocktail, in which cultural limits fade.
Äl Jawala  reaches out further than the common “Style-Mix-Formats”. They
dare to reach into the unexplored, they break loose, transform into a  orchestra,
become DJ,Punkband and Storyteller.

In May 2009 the German Pioneers of Balkan Big Beats released their first studio album
.. Asphalt Pirate Radio... 
Focused energy, the quintessence after nine years of live experiences, lyrical,
up-front and 100% dancing pleasures guaranteed! Rooted in the soul of the Balkans
and grown from the European streets.

Enjoy! 

Embryo - Rocksession [1973]

This outstanding German band plays a trippy jazz rock like no one else. "Rockession" is a very technical, achieved effort which develops long instrumental, groovy, syncopated tunes with an enormous feeling. This album can easily be a real revelation for every jazz rock lovers.

Enjoy!

Baba Zula - Duble Oryantal [2005]

Intrepid buccaneers and experimentalists Baba Zula continue to explore uncharted waters with this, their third "Duble Oryantal (Belly Double)" album on Doublemoon. Mixed and mastered in the heart of mega-city Istanbul by legendary British dub producer Mad Professor, who also worked on their last outing "Psychebelly Dance Music", "Duble Oryantal" is the culmination of years of fearless musical adventuring, and as usual there's a talented and eclectic supporting cast on board for a share of the bounty.
Guest musicians include reggae legends Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, Alexander Hacke - bassist with seminal German noise artists Einsturzende Neubauten and Crime and the City Solution, Canadian vocalist and regular collaborator Brenna MacCrimmon and three acclaimed artists who span the spectrum from traditional Turkish music (celebrated clarinettist Hüsnü Þenlendirici from Laço Tayfa) to Turkish rock and pop (Özkan Uður from MFÖ), and writer-painter-musician Mehmet Güreli.
The very natural cross-breeding of reggae and oriental music takes well in Baba Zula's electronic treatments of traditional Turkish instruments, and with "Duble Oryantal (Belly Double)" they have further developed the new genre they have named oriental dub.

Enjoy!

The Burger Project – We live in Athens [2009]

The Burger Project are here to turn your favorite songs into “hybrids”!! They have a spicy sense of humor, no artistic arrogance but all the knowledge, passion and talent it comes with.

They are a cover band. Something common in Greece and the world over since the 50’s. You may recall a small band called the Beatles who started out like that. Nothing new here then, so why bother? Simply because The Burger Project found a way to combine fun and imminence, the basic ingredients of a good live concert and also being inventive in a way that you don’t expect when you seek a good night out.

Their surreal outfits, uncommon for Greek audiences, provoke and alienate at first. Until they start playing. Then you realize that their eccentricity is only the visual analogy to their ground breaking music. You also understand that choosing their attire is a natural process similar to how the breathe life into an 80’s hit like ‘Take My Breath Away’, giving it a Jamaican twist or ‘swinging’ ‘Another One Bites the Dust’. In their album ‘We Live in Athens’ they talk about relentlessly mixing musical memories of a whole generation, rediscovering and covering ‘diamonds’ from swing to punk, and from disco to country: Clash, Alice Cooper, Queen, Ramones, Thin Lizzy, Godfathers, White Stripes, Prince, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Sonics, Undertones, Tsitsanis et. What they don’t say is that someone might even fall in love with a song that they used to hate until they heard it from The Burger Project.

Enjoy!

Osibisa - Happy Children [1973]

In the wake of the massive early-'70s success of Santana, a flurry of groups that combined rock with traditional percussion were signed to major labels. Osibisa, though a completely different animal than Carlos Santana and crew, were one of these groups. On Happy Children, the band's fourth album and one of their best, Osibisa emerge as a true world fusion group, merging a myriad of styles to an extent unmatched by almost any other unit of the period. The band usually shies away from anything like traditional pop structures, favoring long jams played on top of a repetitive bass vamp in the tradition of live Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis's Bitches Brew period. Unlike these two artists, however, Osibisa usually emphasizes group dynamic shifts and Blood Sweat and Tears/Tower of Power-style written-out horn lines over individual solos. As they were an African group recording in London, the band's basic rhythms also differ significantly from those of its contemporaries. They play a style of music that has its roots in authentic tribal drumming and chants. Consequently, there are similarities to New Orleans second line, Southern and West Coast/Sly Stone funk, Jamaican reggae, and Afro-cuban jazz, but in a raw, driving manner that seems to pre-date all of these styles. At the same time, on several tunes, Osibisa brings a Duke Ellington-like harmonic sense that belies the members' musical sophistication. Though they don't generally approach anything resembling a pop tune here (which might make the album a hard listen for the casual funk fan), Happy Children is a fascinating glimpse at a band successfully fusing a celebratory, pre-rock energy with ancient rhythms and modern jazz harmony. 

Enjoy! 

Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics [2010]

A gem from the great Lloyd Miller – backed by modern Brit jazz funk maestros The Heliocentrics – and a credit to the legacies of all involved! Miller has worked timeless, hypnotic magic on an array of Middle Eastern and Asian instrumentation throughout his career, here playing piano, Indian santur, clarinet, Chinese sona, sitar, wood flute, oud and more – and this effort stands strongly with the best of it. He's accompanied by the masterful Malcolm Catto & The Heliocentrics – showing as much depth and versatility as ever in largely acoustic and improvisational setting – and the bottom line is that it's just as wonderful as their work with Mulatu. As much as we've flipped out over the Heliocentrics efforts as headliners to date, it's quite stunning how well they work backing such influential and legendary figures. Essential! Includes "Electricone", "Nava", "Mandala", "Spiritual Jazz", "Bali Bronze", "Modality", "Salendro", "Pari Ru", "Lloyd's Diatribe", "Fantasia" (Pts 1 & 2), "Chahargah", "Sunda Sunset" and more.

Enjoy!