Rimitti | Hina ou Hina

Listen to "Skerna And Amara"

Get the whole thing here.

I found this in one of many now-closed Arabic music places in Bayridge, Brooklyn, maybe three years ago or so. Each of those no-longer-existent places had a section of rai music, but for some reason, this was the only Rimitti I was ever able to find there.

Cheikha Rimitti is, of course, legendary. A bit about her here.

Uncreative Genius | Alt Japan

Listen to a mind-blowing remix of James Brown's "Super Bad"


Listen to a fabulous breakcore track


And if those two don't convince you, this will

Get all 50 songs here.

A collection of Japanese covers, remixes, pastiche, breakcore, retro and beyond, culled after reading Simon Reynolds' Retromania.

I was a huge fan of Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up And Start Again, a terrific critical and social history of British and American 80s post-punk. So when Retromania was published, I descended on a copy like the admitted culture vulture that I am.

It's a brilliant book. I think anyone interested in pop music, or more generally, in pop culture, should read it. But I didn't agree with all of it. And I definitely wasn't sympathetic to the book's almost non-existent coverage of non-Western pop. If you've read the book yourself, you can probably guess what chapter raised most of my hackles. That's right, Chapter 5: Turning Japanese: The Empire of Retro and the Hipster International. The one chapter that even acknowledges that other cultures produce pop--in this case, Japanese Shibuya-kei artists.

I'm hardly an expert on Japanese pop music. I've been there twice for very limited visits. I do have, however, a rather fabulous collection of CDs and MP3s of Japanese alt pop that, if nothing else, proves that this music is about something more than mere "consumer affluence." Also, it isn't particularly "Japanese" to mimic others in the creation of one's "own" pop culture. This is something the entire First World is adept at/reliant upon, especially the British, and especially 60s British pop artists.

I'm not going to launch a critique of the book--which you can (and should) read for yourself. Instead, I've put together a sonic riposte that, whether or not you've read Reynold's book, I'm pretty sure you'll love.

Sabahat Akkiraz | Türkü Hayattır

Listen to the first song on this CD

Get it all here.

Found at Uludag Video, 1922 Ave W, Brooklyn. Alas, they ceased selling imported CDs a couple of years ago, saying it cost more to import audio than they were able to make back. They're now (assuming they're still there) simply renting and selling pirated DVDs of Turkish movies.

A rather mind-blowing song by Akkiraz via YouTube:

Anthony Wong | badtaste ... but i smell good

Listen to the first track

Get it all here.

God, I love this CD. I bought it, for a dollar, in the bin outside the DVD/CD/VCD store at the corner of Bowery and Canal, one of the few of my favorite foreign-media haunts in NYC that is still in business. I bought it, to be totally honest, because I loved the title. I had no idea who the singer was, although he did look oddly familiar ...

It turns out the singer has long been one of my absolute favorite Hong Kong cinema actors. There is no equivalent for this sort of thing in U.S. culture. It's not like Harvey Keitel cut a CD and it happened not to suck. Or, as might be the case here, it sucked in ways previously unimaginable, and sucked so hard and so relentlessly, that it was actually, finally, totally great. (Did I mention how much I love this CD?) Because most Hong Kong actors, from the late Anita Mui to the insanely popular Andy Lau, have singing careers that are every bit as robust as their acting careers. It's just that most of them don't sound in any way, shape or form like this.

Many, possibly even all, of the songs are covers. Wong covers Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" (a super Xtreme crazy fucked up backwards alphabet poetry magnet gay & lesbian Islam double fupa rainbow high point), Nirvana's "All Apologies" and whatever the hell the song is that I don't know the name of in the sample song above. (Someone please let me know. I've been dying to know ... for years, now.) But these are not mere covers. These are Xtreme emu-on-sheep action covers. "Don't cry for me ... next door neighbor," the chorus exhorts in the sample song above. Where the hell did that come from? Where did any of this come from?

I love, love, love, love, love, love, love every moment of this monument to bad taste and good smell. If you get even 7% of the thrill I do listening to it, I'll have done a swell thing posting it here.

Ménélik | Phenomenelik

Play "Tranquille"

Get the whole thing here.

Found at Bastille Day on 61st Street, withdrawn from the French Institute's library. I think I payed $1. Ménélik is a French rapper who was born in Cameroon and who moved to France at the age of 9. This was his first CD, released in 1995 when he was 25 years old. I'm not sure what I'm more surprised by: That I haven't really heard or heard about much Francophone rap or that this is as good as it is. Definitely iPod-worthy!

Surinder Kaur + Prakash Kaur | Solid Gold

Listen to a crazy-great track from this CD

Get the disc here.

I found this absolute gem four or five years ago in Manhattan on Lexington Ave near the corner of 28th at a particularly fabulous Indian cinema and music store that I believe closed down within the next year. The owner's son complained bitterly that the store was not doing well because they did not sell pirated material. Everyone, he said, preferred to get things on the cheap. But his father had integrity and sold only original discs.

Read more about Surinder Kaur here.

Mandalay Thein Zaw & Soe Sandar Tun | Mya Na Di

Listen to track from this sublime CD

Get the whole thing here.

Found at Thiri Video in east Elmhurst. Peter Doolan of Monrakplengthai had found out about this place a while ago and contacted me to see if I'd be interested in coming along with him on his first trip there. We finally met up today and made the trek.

I'm heading out the door, but I have another CD from the same store that I'll upload this coming week sometime, and when I do, I'll tell you all about our trip to Thiri.

Until then ... enjoy this insanely fabulous CD!

Hoàng Oanh | Souvenir Ky Niem 04, Ngay Em 20 Tuoi

Listen to the first track on this hair-raisingly beautiful CD

Get the whole kit & kaboodle here.

Frankly, I'm scared to upload anymore music until September 1st, when my Divshare account limit zeroes out again. When I started this blog last year I had about 5 or 6 visitors a day; now I'm getting well over 100. By pop music standards, 100 people a day ain't much, but it's enough to push me up to the next level of Divshare accountage or whatever the word is that means "Gary, we're going to need a lot more money from you if you want to keep doing this."

But, what the hay. This is something I found on Argyle Street in Chicago a few years ago, and is one of my five favorite Vietnamese CDs. Hoàng Oanh is probably the most famous female singer from Vietnam prior to 1975 when, obviously, everything changed. I've got another fabulous CD from her on this site; just click on "Vietnam" in the label cloud to the right. I think Oanh now lives in Cerrito, Calif., and still performs.

Here's a somewhat recent performance on video:

Tsin Ting | Song of Tomorrow

Listen to Hong Kong go-go classic, "Firebird"

Get it all here.

Want the track listing?

I found this terrific CD, and two dozen others from the same (deservedly) legendary series, at one of my favorite Chinatown DVD/CD stores on Bowery. The shop, sadly, has since closed, though not before I happily absconded with their entire stock of these.

And, more upsetting, I don't know what's become of this series, either. Most that were previously available through yesasia are out of print, and have been for years. There is no website anywhere that I could find from the publisher. From what I can tell, this project has been abandoned.

Get more from this series at What's in my iPod? and Ambuscade from Ten Sides.

Read a bit about Tsin Ting's life and career here.

See the clip from Hong Kong Nocturne, where this song made its debut:

Various Artists | 21st Century Japan

Listen to the first song from this set

Hear song number 5

Listen to the 21st song

Get all 30 songs here.

A nice shout out about Bodega Pop from WFMU's "Beware of the Blog" reminds me that, in fact, my initial plan was not to do a blog at all, but a CD label. Talking with conceptual poet and WFMU DJ Kenneth Goldsmith, who encouraged me to consider doing a blog instead, ultimately led me (and now you) here.

Kenny was right, of course; I've probably posted more music to this blog in the first year than I'd have been able to publish in CD form, even if I lived to be 100. But a boy can still dream, can't he?

Were I to seriously consider a label, I think the very first project would be to compile a couple dozen of the most thrilling contemporary tracks from Japan, focusing on indy rock and some of the more accessible experimental stuff--from noodles and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her to Melt Banana and OOIOO.

And that is, more or less, what I've done here. Some of this was found in Japan, but most of it was discovered online, a good portion of it at Rebel Japan Music, one of my all-time favorite music blogs.

If you like what you hear, I encourage you to seek out other music by the bands that intrigue you; many of whom, again, can be found on Rebel Japan.

And don't be too harsh on my imaginary CD cover--it's the first I've ever "designed."