Vypsaná fiXa, Tata Bojs - Czech rock

Tata Bojs was founded in Prague already in 1988. From then on they recorded 8 albums in total.

Tata bojs - tanečnice
Youtube playlist for more videos
http://www.tatabojs.cz/ The webpage is very well equipped with videos and music.

Vypsaná fiXa is a Czech rock band founded in 1994 in Pardubice, their original music is sort of punk rock with surrealist texts which are said to be the business of lead singer Márdi.

Vypsaná fixa - Mažoretka
More Vypsaná fiXa on youtube

Terroristene - Norwegian Reggae

Yay. There's this Norwegian reggae band and guess what they even sing in Norwegian.
"Oh that's nice", you will say, "but they're probably too small to ever get the chance to listen to some songs".
But NO.
They have a lot of songs and two videos on their website, completely free.
Enjoy Terroristene :]

Zanzibár - Pop Rock from Hungary

Just some nice pop rock from Hungary.
Here's the band Zanzibar.


Vagyom rad

I actually like this video more, but it's a bit more "controversial" than the first one and I didn't want to scare someone away :p
You can listen to quite some songs on their homepage.


Az igazi nevem

Tajik music part two

Featured a site about Tajik music in a previous post already. The reason for this new post is a project at Indiana University of the Centre for Languages of the Central Asia Region:
Click here and then on the left on music. There's some Tajik songs streaming in a flash applet and the good thing is it's with lyrics and you can just click on the words in Tajik to see the translation in English, very comfortable. It's fun to listen to the songs like that!

Alumiinium, Sinu Sädelev Sõber - Estonian Fusion

This band is from Estonia. They have been founded in 1994 and have from then on released two albums. They have never given any concerts, they just produce music in the studio. I find this music really nice, relaxing. I would describe it as chillout-pop with pleasant vocals. It's hard to find English info on this band but I will show you what the Estonian wikipedia is writing about them: Alumiinium, Sinu Sädelev Sõber on Eesti ansambel, mis viljeleb elektrooniliste ja naturaalinstrumentide sümbioosi tulemusel loodud futu, kitarrirocki, uusromantika ja gooti sugemetega popmuusikat, mida bänd ise on iseloomustanud väljendiga alumiinium-pop.
My knowledge of Estonian is unfortunately restricted to international loanwords (;)) so I would say they are an ensemble that produces music in a symbiosis of natural instruments, guitar music and electronic stuff which in the end sounds like romantic pop music. :]
Check their webpage, then -- MUUSIKA and click your way through to some mp3s (which are there, my word on it).
There's also a video.
Enjoy!

Las Ultrasónicas - Persian Rock

Found out about this band of 4 girls from Mexico recently.
Had to feature them here cause I saw their video "descocada", which is really a must see. I then thought they must be fairly well known, but there are only 500 scrabbles on last.fm, so I thought it's good to post about them. Below the afore-mentioned video.

watch more stuff on youtube.com

Thåström - Swedish Punk

Sven Joakim Thåström (born March 20, 1957), as an artist known as Thåström, is one of Sweden's best known punk rock musician.

Thåström grew up in Högdalen and Rågsved, working class suburbs south of Stockholm, where he during 1977-1982 was the lead singer of punk band Ebba Grön. During a break with Ebba Grön (due to that the bassplayer had to serve time in jail which unofficially was the end of Ebba Grön in 1983) he became the leader of Rymdimperiet, later renamed Imperiet, with rock music inspired by the 80s sound. Imperiet also recorded an album with some of their songs translated to English, to try on the international market. (wiki)
I have highlighted Ebba Grön and Imperiet, cause that's bands you should really know if you want to get into Swedish music. Ebba Grön is THE Swedish word for Punk Rock. It's like Black Flag or whatever, a true classic. And Imperiet has got a cool sound to it, too. A bit 80s. However this guys solo carreer is worth mentioning, I thought!
His website is really lame (So I don't mention it here!). It's really a bit like that: the further West you go, the more "Western" musicians are the pickier are they about their "products". It's a shame! If they really love their stuff why don't they show it. If they really enjoyed making people happy with music, why don't they share their work. Ugh! But well, you know how to get music, don't you! :]

Ebi - Persian classic

I am not sure if I have presented Googoosh on this blog. I think I must have, but if not, browse wiki and see for yourself, I might post something later. But this time EBI. I think we can compare them. They both left Iran after the Islamic Revolution (correct me if I am wrong), having been very famous there for their music before and then continued to produce music in exile. The video above is a classic, there's also newer stuff on youtube, but I don't like it so much.
However here is another video of a performance of him being a bit older ;) :]

Los Cafres and Gondwana

Reggae group from Argentina. If you like that you might also want to try out a band named Gondwanda from Chile; they split up some time ago, but that doesn't make the music they produced any worse later off, does it?
Below a video by Gondwana "Felicidad"

Gor Mkhitarian - Armenian Folk

Gor Mkhitarian is the lead guitarist of the popular Armenian band "Lav Eli". He has in 2001 begun with a solo carrer and has since then released 3 albums. I will cite hetq.nm.ru to describe his music: "In his music, Mkhitarian makes a case for writing the next chapter in Armenia's rich musical history by updating the sound and feel of the classic Armenian folk song. But what has made Mkhitarian a favorite in Armenia is his uncanny ability to combine unique songwriting ability with stunning modern arrangements of Armenian folk music."
Check out his web site and cdbaby for samples, links to samples respectively.
There's also English language tracks on the albums ;)


Wherever (it's in Armenian despite the English title)

Мумий Тролль - Russian Rock

Mumiy Troll (Мумий Тролль [ˈmumʲij ˈtrɔlʲ]) is a Russian rock group, founded in 1984 in Vladivostok by linguist Ilia Lagutenko (Илья Лагутенко).
more youtube videos
wikipedia article
mp3s from the newest album (official website)
official website

Chinese.. yea.. what is this? :D

I found this neat clip on youtube by chance.
Some people just can't tag their clips right.
I have no idea what this is. But I enjoyed to watch it, maybe you do, too?
And if anyone knows who's singing here, please comment ;)

Pinhani - Turkish rock

They're quite nice. This is the song "beni al".
You can download three songs on their web sitesi:
İstanbul'da
Hele Bi Gel
Dön Bak Dünyaya

Tajik music

Some mp3s

Arsenal and Stereo Total - Similar Bands from Different Countries

I will present these two bands in one post cause they have relatively much in common.
Point one is they don't restrict themselves on one language. Point two, neither do they restrict themselves on two languages. But enjoy singing in quite a broad range. Arsenal for example is from Belgium but they sing in Chinese, Portuguese, French and English. Berlin-based Stereo Total feature songs from Japanese over Turkish to French, German and of course English. While the latter band might be perceived as quite more "strange" by most as their lyrics are pretty bizarre. I still thought there would be nothing wrong about comparing them like I did here, haha. :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy them a bit, Youtube of course features many songs and videos again, and for the case of Arsenal they also provide you with downloads for most of their songs on their webpage.


Arsenal - Longee


Stereo Total - Ich bin nackt

Turkmen music

Browsing the Turkmenistan section of Neweurasia.net, I found an article on Turkmen music linking to the site turkmens.com where you can download loads of Turkmen stuff completely free. It's not only music, but browsing this site you could find something more interesting including some videos. Thanks to the neweurasia.net guys for this.

Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro - Japanese Jazz

Well they make instrumental music. Funk, or whatever you wish to call it. I think I could mention them here nevertheless. They are from Japan. Let's not start the nut picking :)
Here's a flyer of the show where they performed in the video below:

Yes it's all very English but let's not argue, just enjoy them. Aren't they weird/strange? :)

Kazakh artist: "Urker"

That's the song "Tugan Elim", which is among many others available completely free on the official website:
urker.kz
mp3s
and videos
Interview with Urker at neweurasia.net

Abeba Lakew

Abby Lakew - Achawtegn
taken from this album
Just browse youtube, there's a whole lot of more songs by her.
Here's another good one:

"Egnalaye"
Isn't it a great cover song? Awesome :)

Syriac Music Database

Syriac is a Semitic language currently spoken by 1.5 million people throughout the Middle East. Although most speakers are bilingual these days, modern technology is allowing Syraic speakers to promote themselves through newspapers and music.

I hope some of you enjoy this eventually. :)

Kapela Ze Wsi Warszawa / Electro folk

Polish artists merge traditional folk music with electronic tunes and create this formidable new diverse music you can watch and listen to below.


"Żurawie PV"

The band fits perfectly to this blog. As they write in their About Us page of their homepage
"Warsaw Village Band is a result of response against narrow-mindness and surrounding us mass-culture, which in fact leads to destruction of human dignity. The band is a radical turn to sources in search of musical inspirations and immemorial virtues. It is also an exploration of folklore and archaic sounds of our ancestors and our instincts. Moreover it's inexhaustible source of fun, joy and spontaneity."

Some songs have English titles but actually do feature Polish lyrics.

On their homepage they present one song which can be downloaded for free:
Download "The Owl" here.

Big thanks from me (and everybody who likes this!) to our Polish reader Fiedor who wrote me an email recommending more unknown Polish artists of which this is one. Some more are to come at a later point maybe!