Waiphot Phetsuphan | The History of Princess Suphankanlaya

Dig the first track 

 
Wrastle with the second track 

Come to papa. 

Um, Peter, could you come in here a moment, please? 

So, I got this CD at Thai-Cam Video (5230 Southeast Foster Road, Portland, Ore.) and it's not quite like anything I've heard before. I think it's Thai and am guessing luk thung. But the guy singing (whom I've taken to calling "Inset Thai Guy" or "Inset" for short) is doing something in some of these songs that I've never quite heard before, lots of long, drawn-out, occasionally flat or otherwise slightly off "uhhhnnn"s, "ahhhhnnnns" and the like, and a generally sort of almost exclamatory kind of half singing. 

Is it a style? Or is it simply The Magic of Inset? [Update: See comments, where Yoshio provides the singer's name and Peter provides context for the style and album.]

As I've been hinting (read: bragging) for several posts now, I totally scored while in Portland last December, much of the take coming from two visits to Thai Cam Video, a media and grocery store run by a woman named Nang who told me she moved to Portland in 1980 from Cambodia by way of Thailand. Nang is half Cambodian, half Burmese and, although I did not ask her, I assume she left Cambodia for Thailand in the 70s for what would be rather obvious reasons. 

Nang opened Thai Cam Video in 2003, which means she's been in business nearly a decade, a comforting fact, considering that I didn't expect the place would still be there on this trip. (I'd first discovered it on a trip to the west coast in 2009 and when I called in advance of this recent trip, there was no answer.) I wanted to ask Nang more about her life, but didn't want to pry too much, so I asked her if it was possible to get good Cambodian food in the area. It was: Mekong Bistro, 8200 NE Siskiyou Street, where I wound up having my first-ever taste of amok trey, which I implore each and every one of you reading this right now to seek out and try at least once before you exit your earthly form. 

Nang also told me where to find Cambodian and Lao temples in the area. (There is, I hadn't realized before, a sizable southeast Asian population in the area. For instance, block after block of Vietnamese businesses on the way to the airport that I only noticed, alas, on the way to the airport.) Nang asked for my contact info in case she ever made it out to New York; I was surprised to hear that she'd never been to the east coast. I bought an obscene number of Cambodian, Lao and Thai CDs from her, creating two sizable towers near the register before my friend Rodney returned to rescue me from taking another dive back into the stacks.

Unknown Cambodian CD dated 1996

Listen to the mind-blowing second track


Listen to the broken ethereality that is the third song


Attempt to wrap your mind around the snakey male-female duo of track seven

Get the baffling whole here.

I have a lot I'd like to say about this and a couple dozen other fabulous CDs I picked up at Thai-Cam Video in Portland, Oregon last month ... but it's in the 50s in Queens today, and I need me some bike time. Let's reconvene in a couple of days when the weather forces us both back indoors again, yeah?

Upper Hutt Posse | Te Reo Maori Remixes

 

Listen to "Te Hono Whakakoro" 

 

Listen to "Tangata Whenua" 

Listen to "Anei Ko Te Wiya" from the bonus MC Wiya disc

Grab it all here.

One of the many projects I've been working on recently has been the steady compiling of songs for a politicized global rap mix. So imagine my Blueberry Hill-level thrill when, tonight after work, I decided to stop by the Asia Society to check out the super freaky Lin Tianmiao show and, in a remainder bin in the bookstore, found this CD by hyper-politicized Aotearoa / New Zealand hip-hop group, Upper Hutt Posse. 

This band, which got its start playing  reggae in 1985, is probably the greatest thing musically to have ever come out of this particular Polynesian island country. In addition to socially-conscious lyrics, the music itself is utterly thrilling, as thrilling in places as Public Enemy was in their day. (Don't believe me? Give "Tangata Whenua" a whirl.)

From the band's Wikipedia page:

UHP formed as a four-piece reggae band in 1985. Since their inception, Dean Hapeta (also known as D Word or Te Kupu) and the Posse have been fighting racial injustice through their music. In 1988 they released New Zealand's first rap record and their first 12-inch hip hop record, "E Tū", through Jayrem Records. The song combined African American revolutionary rhetoric with an explicitly Māori frame of reference. It pays homage to the rebel Māori warrior chiefs of Aotearoa's colonial history, Hone Heke, Te Kooti, and Te Rauparaha.

Writing about the band, Stephen Zepke insisted that "Upper Hutt Posse aren't a symptom of the recent rise in Maori activism, they're a cause." 

Bappi Lahiri | Dance Dance

Listen to the title song 

 
Listen to "Zindagi Meri Dance" 

 
Listen to "Dil Mera Todo Na" 

Dance is life; life is dance. Live it. [Alas, Divshare removed access to this file.]


I'm sorry. Can someone please explain how it is that I've been running this more-or-less respectable online free music bodega for the last three years without having once whipped out the ol' Bappi? 

Look: I know how much you hate it when the creepy proprietor hovers around you like this. You just want to anonymously peruse the shelves, your pretty head free of care. This is your "me" time. The last thing in the world you want to see is me coming around the register and pulling down "must listen"s with my half-clenched, talon-like hands. But this time I just can't help myself. Seriously. Take a seat, I implore you. 

I realize the samples above are long. Very, very long. And they don't hit their grooves, most of them, for a full minute, minute-and-a-half, two minutes. But MY GOD do they groove. 

I'm sorry, I'm making you cringe. I can see that. I'll back off a bit. 

Is this far enough away? 

(Cough.) 

I just ... it's ... FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY WILL YOU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM ALREADY?!? Really, I swear to you, this is easily one of the most devastatingly fabulous pieces of pop trash you have ever heard. I don't care how much Algerian Rai, how much Bollywood, how many Cambodian Rocks, how much Dabke, how many Ethiopian Grooves you've spent your time on earth stuffing into your ears.

This album is a revelation. 

Hassan Dikouk & Najat Aatabou | Hassan Dikouk & Najat Aatabou

Listen to "Ya Salam Alik Ya Madame"

Are you wanting a copy?

As you've probably noticed by now, I'm back from vacation, fully energized, and readier than ever to move product. As I indicated in previous posts, I picked up quite the stash of Cambodian, Lao, Thai and Vietnamese CDs while in Stumptown last month; however, because I couldn't fit them in my suitcase I shipped them all in boxes to my office -- meaning I won't actually see them until this coming Monday when I drag my sad, tired, "is the vaycay really ovay?" ass back in to work.

Meanwhile, holy crap, it looks like I still have oodles of awesome CDs I haven't yet placed on the shelves here. 

This one, a relatively recent recording by the great Najat Aatabou in collaboration with Hassan Dikouk, I almost certainly picked up in Marakkesh -- I suspect this because the CD back cover has been inserted backwards into the CD case, meaning you're meant to open it from the point of view of someone who reads from right to left.

But, honestly? That's just a guess and it's quite possible I picked it up at the now defunct Princess Music in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Wherever I got this, it most certainly rawks, though if you're looking for something more "trad," you should click on the link two paras above, where the indefatigable Tim Abdellah has posted three early recordings of the so-called "Siren of Khemisset" (though I found nothing there by Dikouk).

And speaking of Tim ... his last postings at Moroccan Tape Stash were back in October. Come out, come out, wherever you are! We miss you ...

Hang on the Box | "No Sexy"

Listen to "No Sexy"

An article I wrote about Hang on the Box, China's first all-girl punk unit, just went live at Burning Ambulance. Read it here.

Ezra

Sub