traditional music

i'm looking for anything that is folk or traditional, preferably as unadorned as possible and from countries other than the united states or england. not really interested in modern reworkings. original recordings along the lines of alan lomax's field recordings, except not american, would be preferable.

are you familiar with the mickey hart "endangered music project?" i have all the ones on this page and they're pretty awesome.

i am now, thanks.

whoa, that indonesian south sea expedition stuff is amazing. gonna buy it.

Peru

well sorry if that's not what you wanted but I really like it

Zaphod, is there any preference in region you have? Also, how "indigenous" does it have to be - are you interested even anything remotely pop/Western influenced or just straight-up field recording ethno-musicologist stuff like Lomax or the Mickey Heart collections?

I mostly ask because strictly speaking even the best and most raw, authentic non-Pure Moods-world-music releases out there are still Western influenced if you're being literal: Samba in Brazil, Soukous in Congo, or Hawaiian folk music all were realized with Western instruments but completely rooted in local music and culture. Arguably, it's really hard to say anything is 100% traditional since the ability to record music was introduced in the late 19th century, with very few exceptions. Entire genres exist specifically because of the interchanging of different cultural and music traditions - especially between the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

If you're also looking at the more pop-oriented stuff, there's a lot of weird and wonderful and authentic world pop music from the later half of the 20th century being released from old cassettes, vinyl and reel-to-reel recordings found overseas. A lot of stuff from the Saharan countries exist and are distributed solely though SIM cards for example. Sublime Frequencies a good one: http://www.discogs.com/label/Sublime+Frequencies

what alcofribas posted is what i'm looking for. anything like that.

i took a class on exactly what youre talking about. heres a link to the book we used, it came with 2 CDs of traditional music from around the world. it has some really amazing stuff. everything from Taiwanese pop to tribal music that no one has ever heard before. i doubt you would want the book (unless youre into that kinda stuff) but with a little looking i bet you could find just the CDs.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Music-Terry-E-Miller/dp/0415988780/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360207711&sr=1-1&keywords=world+music+a+global+journey+cds

^I'd like to hear more about that. I took a course about pop music around the world and another about the music of Brazil. Both were taught by an ethno-musicologist who wrote his thesis on the traditional music of a specific region of Peru (non-pan flute he stressed).

Well, I have like dozens of things to recommend on the top of my head, I'll probably keep posting later.

I'll start with a place I lived as a kid and some of the first "traditional music" I ever head - Okinawa. There's a pretty good playlist with some folk music, starting with a really good example of and older recording of a song.

It's upbeat but to me there's a really melancholy feel to most of it, they often use the same chords and scales I suppose.

Korean traditional court music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MMulcRsTeE

Korean story-telling music:

i'm a big fan of georgian traditional music. beautiful melodies and awesome polyphonic vocal arrangements

<p>i just got this awesome long playing LP (about 35 minutes each side) of Hungarian folk music recorded on wax cylinder and acetate lathe cuts back in the 20s and 30s curated by Bela Bartok. I highly recommend it. Ill find the title and more info about it tomorrow<br />

edit: this is not the same as Bartok's hungarian folk song renditions, this is actual original folk music and some of the earliest known recordings of Hungarian folk. </p>

I hope we can get a good thread here going where just keep posting different regions/genres!

This is a really good Gamelan recording from the 1970s. I can't find it on youtube but the same person who recorded it also made this Court performance recording:

http://youtu.be/7mato5-0sdg

Good introduction to Pow-wow music. Pow-wow performances are pretty organic and moving, I'd like to attend a proper one at some point. There's even internet streams of it playing 24/7. I remember listening to a local radio station playing pow-wow recordings and becoming quite hypnotized by it and then 10 minutes I heard a PA announcement for someone to move their 1985 red Buick or something like that. After all they're performed out big outdoor gatherings and public fairs.

I find it really hard to look for other traditional Native American because anytime I search for recordings I just find jazz fusion and modern world music flute stuff that sounds like the Xavier: Renegade Angel OST. Surely there's good stuff out there but I'm too lazy to look hard.

There is also the Nonesuch Explorer Series if you are really after that early world music thing.

Mike Heron of Incredible String Band said that they were well into these records back in the day.

For something a little more modern maybe check out Mikel Laboa & Haizea from the Basque country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO5mXG2RX_s

you maybe familar with this one already as its made many appearances on folk comps

Wow, I'm kicking myself for not knowing about either Haizea or Mikel Laboa since I'm part Basque! Though in my defense my grandmother mostly listens to old polka and Elvis. Thanks for sharing those - I like the psych sound of Haizea a lot too, reminds me a little bit of Os Mutantes.

The first two Haizea albums have a nice soft psych sound. They are great. I also have a box set of Mikel Loboa that I acquired when I visited the region a long time ago. You can buy those Haizea disks at any Basque grocery store. Its common to find them in the impulse buy section right before you check-out...

But looking at Zaphod's avatar I'm reminded of all those beautiful traditional japanese folk songs from old samurai movies. Every once in a while Zatoichi or a beautiful woman will bust into a pretty japanese song that just kills me. I wish I knew a little more about that stuff.

steindor andersson's Rimur album of recordings (modern) of traditional Icelandic folk is great.

  On 2/7/2013 at 4:41 AM, joshuatx said:

^I'd like to hear more about that. I took a course about pop music around the world and another about the music of Brazil. Both were taught by an ethno-musicologist who wrote his thesis on the traditional music of a specific region of Peru (non-pan flute he stressed).

well this book we used mainly focused on the regions of Southeast Asia, the Philippines, several countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Australia, and some of the Middle East. it would focus on the traditional folk side of each country and how they developed it.

along with actually learning about their music we would also learn a little about the culture, which was pretty cool. i learned quite a bit from that class. both musically and culturally. i absolutely loved learning about so many different instruments too.

  On 2/8/2013 at 3:00 AM, Frankie5fingers said:

 

  On 2/7/2013 at 4:41 AM, joshuatx said:

^I'd like to hear more about that. I took a course about pop music around the world and another about the music of Brazil. Both were taught by an ethno-musicologist who wrote his thesis on the traditional music of a specific region of Peru (non-pan flute he stressed).

well this book we used mainly focused on the regions of Southeast Asia, the Philippines, several countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Australia, and some of the Middle East. it would focus on the traditional folk side of each country and how they developed it.

 

along with actually learning about their music we would also learn a little about the culture, which was pretty cool. i learned quite a bit from that class. both musically and culturally. i absolutely loved learning about so many different instruments too.

Very, cool, the courses I took were similar in format. Also took a very informative class on the music of South Africa, very much like Brazil in the sense that they have so many distinct genres and styles tied to different ethnic groups there. Glad you got take such a course - I have no idea how many universities offer such classes.

Just found this - huge collection here at the British Library, all streaming. Literally thousands of recordings. The wax cylinder collection of 1890-1910 alone has 244 recordings.

that's amazing.

wow, nice!

  On 2/8/2013 at 4:30 AM, joshuatx said:

Just found this - huge collection here at the British Library, all streaming. Literally thousands of recordings. The wax cylinder collection of 1890-1910 alone has 244 recordings.

excellent

i wish i could grab the whole collection archive.org style, but still good of them to share

anything for you here?

http://www.ubu.com/ethno/soundings.html

1st example here is just a wee scottish trad lol for you... the 2nd is 200 warriors from bali with awesome synchopated chanting...

  On 2/8/2013 at 1:30 PM, Adjective said:

 

  On 2/8/2013 at 4:30 AM, joshuatx said:

Just found this - huge collection here at the British Library, all streaming. Literally thousands of recordings. The wax cylinder collection of 1890-1910 alone has 244 recordings.

excellent

i wish i could grab the whole collection archive.org style, but still good of them to share

Yeah I should see of DownThemAll! works later on when I'm at my home pc. When it comes to recorded pure traditional music I can't think of anywhere else to find so much in one site - at least in terms of easy browsing.