Music Discoveries Month June-Aug 2023 #26

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I’ve been going through a marathon listening session for Siti Nurhaliza. Also starting August I’ve bought an emusic value pack, so I can report some emusic purchases (although I’m probably down to the bottom of the barrel).

Articles and Interviews

I’ve been thrilled to find this English language Latin American music review site called Club Fonogram. It was started by one American guy named Carlos Reyes who died a year or so ago, but several people wrote reviews, and during the 2000s and especially the 2010s it was covering a lot of interesting stuff from South and Central America. Here’s the complete list of reviews (I think). Here’s his list of best albums from every year — and to my amazement a list of compilations he put together of his favorite artists (with their consents) which are hosted mostly on Archive.org. Unfortunately the direct downloads work very slowly, but the archive torrents still work lightning fast. Here’s the trick: copy the name of the compilation and paste it into the archive.org search engine. (Here’s Vol 3 and Vol 4 Some more are here even though there’s repetition). Here’s a list of interviews he did with Latin American performers when they showed up on SXSW. This is really outstanding stuff.

Emusic Purchases

1. Elements by Louise Burns. 3.99. Wonderful FM-radio pop songs that are more mellow/downboat, yet still have a nice rhythm. Her Portraits album is also terrific.
2. Hôtel Costes A Decade. 6.49 for 2 1/2 hours. Stéphane Pompougnac makes these Hotel Costes mixes. They are terrific, but this double album compilation kind of bites. Too much spoken word, not enough melody.
3. Two albums by Moonsoup: Archipelago Vol 4 (1.99)and Do what you want (1.49).
4. Acustico San Jose by Camila Moreno (17 minutes, 1.49). Apparently I’ve already downloaded 3 albums by this Chilean singer, but there’s a few others on another label.
5. Auto Radio by Benjamin. 5.49, 45 minutes. Apparently according to RYM this Portugese singer is also known as Walter Benjamin.
6. Ah ce-mi place! by Bogdan Ioniță. 4.99, 49 minutes. Fast Upbeat Dance Europop by the ancient Electrecord Romanian state label. Some of his compositions seem to be on Soundcloud.
7. Strada sperantei by Vasile Veselovschi. Famed Romanian songwriter. 4.99 for 70 minutes.
8. Time by Sara Tindley. 40 minutes, 6.49. Australian country singer who died a month or two ago.
9. Nightengale of Bucharest volume 2 by Maria Tanase. Classic Romanian singer. These recordings from the 1950s are still better than Volume 1 (which is terrible), but the playback levels are terrible.
10. Romante by Iona Radu. 3.99, 10 songs. Not her best stuff, but still great songs by the immortal Romanian singer.
11. Prietenii mei dumanii by Victoria Pene. 4.99, 10 tracks. Lovely easy listening Romanian ballads with an acoustic pop sound. Recorded in the early 2000s but the spirit feels older than that — in the best sense.
12. Hai Acasea, Puisor by Bianca Ionescu Ball. (also known as Bianca Ionescu). 4.99 , 50 minutes. Romanian female singer with a lovely operatic voice who sings mostly ballads here.
13. Celeste by Soundcarriers. 53 minutes for 5.49. Great, sunny/psychedelic band from UK. Very pleasant sound though it might get monotonous after a while. PS multiple albums on emusic, horray!
14. Several albums by Congelador. s/t by Congelador. 4.49 Brilliant post-rock meditations with lots of hazy guitars, gentle vocals, strange progressive effects. Also Persona, Abrigo, Cajon, All these are very interesting and different from one another. Like Pink Floyd, The Clean, Sonic Youth, Collective soul, etc. The two brother behind this group also run the Chilean music label Quemasucabeza which I’m really loving.
15. 3 albums by Simon Campusano: Brillo 4.49 for 36 minutes. and Este Debe Ser el Lugar (99 cents for 20 minutes) and Sesiones 050: Simón Campusano (0.99 for 30 minutes!)
16. Maiferland (Acto de Amor) by Maifersoni. 5.49 fr 55 minutes
17. Lance by Ninos del Cerro
18. Wed 21 by Juana Molina. 11 tracks
19. Viva! Los Punsetes. 4,99 for 11 tracks. Groovy Spanish pop sensation.
20. 2 by Denver: Fuera de Campo and Sangre Cita. (both about 40 minutes for 99 cents each).
21. Somos by Quiero Club. 10 tracks,
22. Tormenta Solar by Fakuta. Low-key downbeat electropop/dreampop from female Chilean composer/singer.  alias of Pamela Sepúlveda, a Chilean composer and songwriter. Her music has been described as “delicate indie space pop”, having an ethereal sound that is normally only accompanied by her voice.
23. Various low-cost EPs by Planeta No: Raro, Matacuna, Traducciones,
24. Live albums by the Monterrey Mexico rock band album: Live at SXSW 2005, Live at Clickaporte 2007. Live albums are all that emusic has, yes they’re pretty amazing; they growl, they storm, they amaze.
25. 2 dance pop albums by Chilean singer Teleradio Donoso: – Bailar y llorar and Gran Santiago
26. That’s your wife on the back of my horse by Johnny Dowd.
27. Swinger 500 by Chris and Carla.
28. Cheers by Steiner and Madlaina.
29. Nights to Forget by Martha Ffion. 4.49 for 10 tracks, 36 minutes.

Bandcamp Purchases

1. Begin

Youtubey Things

Mullholland Drive soundtrack on YT.

I’ve always been a big fan of Prokoviev‘s Cinderella Ballet, especially the Waltz and Midnight Music. Here’s a recording of those two movements.

Here’s colorized and restored footage of the Glen Miller Modernaires. (cue to the 2:28). Sound isn’t terrific, but who could not fall in love with the beautiful Paula Kelley? Here’s another music clip from the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade singing Chattanooga Choo Choo — followed by a dance number sung by Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers

This may look like an ordinary performance, but it’s actually 2002 Eurovision winner (Marija Naumova from Latvia) singing a classic song by prolific Latvian composer Raimonds Pauls a decade later. Hey, that’s Raimonds Pauls playing the piano! I love this performance…. Here is that 2003 Eurovision-winning performance.  I’ll be delving into the music of 87 year old Raimonds Pauls some more over the next few weeks.

Freegal and Library CDs

1. Raimonds Paul. Classic 1970s Soviet-era pop songs by this Latvian composer.
2. Marija Naumova — After winning Eurovision with an upbeat pop song, she has been singing all kinds of easy listening ballads, mostly Latvian.
3. Bette Lemme. Young Canadian singer who did a great duet with Sofi Tukker in the song Awoo (one of my favorite songs and vids).
4. Lady Wray. Really amazing
5. Albums by Low (Trust and Things We Lost in the Fire.

Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)

See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.

Podcasty Things

start