“Andy Hidalgo who has headed the orchestra at the US Officer’s Clup in Taipei since 1954 brings out his second album -Taiwan Memories- at the request of many who have heard his versatile organization play. It is hoped that such members as China Nite and Taiwan By The China Sea, particularly, will bring nostalgia to […]
Torkom Saraydarian was a Turkish-born spiritual teacher of Armenian descent who spent his last years in Sedona, Arizona. There he built a following for his “Teachings of the Ageless Wisdom” and also recorded a lot of music. Most of this music consists of solo piano work with an introspective, eastern quality, and there are numerous […]
The Key Boys were a very successful Korean rock group that got their start by playing to American GIs stationed in Korea. Often called the Korean Yardbirds, their music ranged from tepid covers of American songs to fuzzy psych freakouts. Note, this isn’t the same group as the Key Brothers, however some of the members […]
From what I can Google, Graciela Susana is an Argentinian singer who had a fair bit of success singing in Japanese for the Japan market in the 70s. This LP mixes more traditional pop fare with sparse latin/folk stylings. It’s a mixture of traditional songs and tracks written by Japanese writers which is pretty listenable […]
If you, like me, habitually check out Indonesian krontjong pop records, you know many of them look promising and some might have a good sounding backing band. But in the end, the songs are for the bigger part pretty formulaic. I was very happy to find this one though. The excellent backing group De Galaxies add […]
Usha Uthup’s crazy record Blast-Off (1984) is somewhat of an oddity in her otherwise impressive discography. The Indian jazz singer did cool solo records like Scotch and Soda and Live in Nairobi and did many Bollywood and Tamil film songs whenever there were English lyrics or a need for a singer skilled in the jazz […]
One side of this 10″ record by Yao Lee has Chinese folk tunes, the other side has western songs. I rather like the sound and the arrangements on this. Yao Lee became famous in China in the 30’s and 40’s but fled to Hong Kong in 1949. She then got inspired by imported western records. […]
“Stage Show” is a great funk album by the well known Thai band The Impossibles who recorded the classic “Hot Pepper” album in Sweden. This album includes various interpretations of classic American funk tunes done in a Thai style. The recording is super low budget and the sound quality might remind you of your last […]
I’m not sure if this record was made in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia. What makes it noteworthy is the funk track Rukun Islam. I can’t understand the language but it’s dealing with Allah and Muhammad. The chorus is cool, the refrain is lush. The male la la la chorus makes it somewhat trippy. There’s more good […]
This cool record was made in Indonesia, 1966. All tracks are composed by Puspa herself. There are some indigenous sounding songs, some soft r&b and a couple of jazz songs. I particularly like the track Lagu Untukmu a lot. It sounds like an exotic version of Nina Simone, sung with a deep voice and with […]
The Exotic is one of my favorite finds I ever made in Asia. Except one track it’s mainly a Thai pop album with some obscure and even psychedelic moments that unlike many other Thai albums you can listen to all the way through. The stand out track though is a raw funk track with Thai […]
Fuesun was a well known turkish pop star back in the seventies. Most of her music might not appeal to many nowadays but this album has the great funk track “Ayyy Kacma” on it. While digging in Turkey ain’t that easy unless you want to spend serious money i found this LP for cheap in […]
I found this two years ago in Bangkok and bought it because of the cover and the name of the band. I was positively suprised when I first listened to it at home. While the two songs on side a of the 7″ are quite cheesy side b offers 2 great interpretations of well known […]
I have been freaking out the last couple weeks trying to find this, er, “gem” in time to post for Xmas. I tore through box after box, knowing that I’d set it aside just for this occasion, but it was nowhere to be found! I gave up a few days ago. Of course, today I […]
Here’s a good synth-bass, tabla, rhythm box, banjo, sax, accordion and female vocals combination from India. Music is composed by Charanjit Ahuja and this stuff was released in 1980. It sounds like it could have been from anything between 1958 to 2020. Certainly not something you hear every day. There are four songs on the […]
Who are these tribesmen the cover speaks of? A record that raises many what, why and when questions.The confusing juxtaposing of Taiwanese villagers and the African savanah is smoothly continued on the record itself. Taiwanese melodies have been given the Daktari treatment with exotic electronic melodies backed by wah wah and cool percussion. “African” grunts […]
With its use of delayed percussion, eastern scales and jazzy ney (flute), this folk pop album manages to create a nice psychedelic mood, despite the release date (1984). The 10 songs featured on it are very contemplative, sung with a dark brooding voice, but still there’s a drive to the music, not in the least […]
It took me a while before I noticed the pink female torso holding a gun underneith Sean Connery’s posterized face. The lack of priorities and absence of focus on this cover is somehow exemplary for the record itself. Some cool and some uncool tunes have been treated by the strange combo of drums, flute, oboe, […]
The idea for this record occured when Baligh Hamdi, famous Egyptian composer, heard the excellent sitar player Magid Khan when Khan visited Cairo. Hamdi had been expanding the horizons of Egyptian music by incorporating organs, electric guitar and saxes since the late fifties and this proved to be a new challenge. The resulting album, with […]
Many consider Happy End the first true rock band from Japan. This is due to the fact that they were the first to make rock albums sung entirely in their native Japanese. They are very well known in Japan, however I’m not sure of their popularity in the Western World so I hope this mini-review […]
Tibet II – a musical anthology of the orient. Another in the great UNESCO collection, nice gatefold with loads of info, they never disappoint. Spoken word, chanting, instrumentials & all together, you are in the temple here is the “Invitation To The Deity Shugden”
From what i’ve read, the BAYAN MONGOL VARIETY GROUP were one of the very first bands in Mongolia doing modern westernized music, all this in the late 60s judging by what this lp sounds like. This record was released in 1981 — bet they did some top class music back then. Found this at a […]
Here’s an Indonesian psychedelic record with lots of fuzz grooves, some sound effects, borderline psychotic vocals and a totally whacked out use of the English language. The band consists of drums, bass, guitar, organ and vocals and it is one of those records that make you realize how endless the sound possibilities are for a […]
File this one under ‘Japanese Easy Listening Steel Guitar Exotica’. All the text on this record is in Japanese except for ‘Made In Japan’ on the back cover and ‘Stereo Steal Guitar Mood’ (with the typo) on the record label. Maybe a Japanese reader can tell me the name of the artist or what the […]
Okay, the music on this Indonesian reggae record might not be all that good, but hey, how often do you stumble into Indonesian reggae? The accompanying track, called Reggae Beat, is actually quite charming. Especially the flute parts are rather exotic, with a gamelan scale that blends in nicely. The organ sounds pretty spaced out […]