Башня Rowan - Russian Folk Rock from St. Petersburg

Bashnya Rowan is a Russian folk rock group from Saint Petersburg. They were formed in 1995 and are said to have been inspired by other St.-Petersburb-based folk rock bands of that time like Птица Си(+mp3s) and Р*ождество.

All songs as mp3 samples on mnogomp3.net

Zóna A - Grandfathers of Slovak Punk Rock

Bratislavske dievcata
I really love Slovakia. This band is one oldest Slovak punk rock bands. It was formed in 1984. During the Communist Regime in the ČSSR they had to play in secret under fake names. About 4 band tapes were circulating at that time. In 1985 there was even a first film made about them but it was never broadcasted because State Television labeled it: "not suitable for communist youth". A year later the band members passports were confiscicated by the secret police to avoid them appearing on a festival of the scene in Poland (JAROCIN). It was not until 1988 when as a result of the whole Perestroika in the Eastern Block the band was first allowed to play on festivals and there were interviews in Newspapers. The state-owned record company OPUS even offered to put out an official record, the band however refused this offer because they did not want to change some disputed lyrics in order to make this deal come true! After 1990 they have also toured some Western European countries, like Austria, Italy, Germany. One if not the most famous Slovak punk rock band of all times :)

Enjoy some videos

Yasmin Levy - Ladino music

Yasmin Levy is an Israeli artist singing in the Ladino language, the language of the Sephardic Jews. Pretty understandable if you've got some knowledge of Spanish or another Romance language. Wonderful tunes, inspired by Flamenco of Andalusia and Arabic and of course Jewish influence. She has already been among the Nominees of BBC World Music Award 2006 in the category 'culture crossing' and this year for Mid East and North Africa. Just follow all the links on BBC there's a lot of music samples, even including a complete concert of her from 2005. Have a listen!

La alegria

Erkin Koray - Classic rock from Turkey

Erkin Koray is one of the really big artists playing decent classic psychedelic Rock from the 70s !

"Allahaşkına"

"Anladın mı?"

Bénabar - French pop music

Bénabar is a French songwriter. You will hear that his music is a lot inspired from classic French chanson. Easy listening music and humorous lyrics about the small things in life.

Bénabar - Le dîner
web site

Preßburger Klezmer Band - Slovak Neo Klezmer

Wonderful group from Bratislava (cf. name). Formed in 1995, doing a great job producing nice neo klezmer music combining it freely with other styles balkank folk but also dub elements.
website

Horkýže Slíže - More Slovak Rock!

EEEMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Horkýže Slíže - A Ja Sprostá

Živé Kvety - Slovak rock

Hehe. Had to do this double post on Slovak music. There's just too much of good stuff there. Živé Kvety is a Slovak alternative rock band. Maybe I should add there's a certain folk and kitsch flavour added to their tunes. It's really interesting. I found to love them really fast. You should just see for yourselves, yeah! They have a lot online, for people like us, far away from where they record or the records are sold.
MP3 and Videos
My favourite song

Kolowrat - Slovak rock music

A small rock group from the Slovak Republic. There is some samples of what's the music like they play on their web site. Unfortunately a lot of what is there is in .wma format. Ewww. But here's one sample in .mp3.
Bar Paula.mp3

Rokia Traoré - Malaian Contemporary Music

Rokia Traoré is a Malaian singer, song-writer and guitarist. She was born in 1974 in the Bambara ethnic group. Her father was a diplomat, thus enabling her to 'get around' quite a bit, due to his work. She always used to sing and when her father was stationed in Brussels she began to perform publically. She was given an award by Radio France as 'African Discovery of the Year' in 1997.

Unfortunately there's no streaming media online, to be linked here, you will have to browse her official website. There are some samples, sadly no complete songs. But then, buying albums like these is never bad and you will support actual musicians.

official website

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Classic (mostly) prog rock from Italy -

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso were one of the most popular Italian prog-rock bands in the 1970s. Here's some video from youtube:

750,000 Anni Fa L'amore
If you love trashy stuff you shouldn't miss out this song from later times of them.

Fokofpolisiekar - Afrikaans rock music from South Africa

Happy New Year. First band of the new year is Fokofpolisiekar (go figure the name yourself :P) from South Africa.

Fokofpolisiekar - Ek skyn
They are absolutely amazing. Go to their myspace to listen to some songs (unfortunately the download option has been disabled)