I love languages and I love music. So I found an amazing site which combines them both!
Huge thanks go to my friend J.M. (you know who you are!) for posting the link in FB! I was seriously stuck with this awesome radio site for some hours afterwards.
I used to listen quite some radio already as a kid. And my dad had this super cool radio that you could listen to all different radio channels around the world. How awesome that you can "sail" trough the world, countries, languages and cultures just by turning the radio button! Nowadays I feel that the radio has lost so much and mostly all channels are playing the same songs on a never ending loop. I tend to open the radio, but then closing it after 30 minutes because I can't take it anymore.
This awesome alternative I'm talking about is: Radio.garden It gives you a pretty amazing chance to browse trough many radio channels (mostly internet radios) in "Google Earth" -style environment. So you can just turn the globe and browse endlessly from a country to another.
First of all this page is awesome if you want to learn new languages or keep up with languages which you have already learned but don't hear that often. And sometimes it's just super cool and quite relaxing to listen to music while not understanding the language at all. So you can totally zone out with this page!
So far I've been listening only to a tiny fraction of the stations. Stations in Russia, Greece, Turkey, random Arabic speaking countries, Italy, Finland....
And of course I wanted to try out if I could find any stations in China, but the last time I was maybe able to find five or six stations. North-Korea is totally empty! Last year (2016) in December I was still able to listen to radios in Aleppo, Syria but now there's nothing. But you can still tune in in Damascus.
Here's a small article about the guy, Jonathan Puckey, behind this project:
The 2016 went by! Some good things happened and some horrible ones too, especially in the music scene. But as an eternal optimist I'm sure 2017 will be a great year!
I skipped NYE's parties in Berlin, they are overpriced and too crowded. And anyhows you have all the other 364 days to go to nice techno parties which are bit more decently priced! Meanwhile I have found some cool new songs and this post will be again mix of everything (nice!). So bare with me and I hope you like these songs!
I seem to have taught my Spotify pretty well because in the past time I've found quite some cool songs via it. This one is also from my Spotify recommendations. The artist is BeGun and the song is called "Nari" it's a chill and nice afternoon song.
According to SoundCloud Begun comes from Spain. He has released an album called "Amma" on 2016, in a quick browse trough the album sounds pretty cool. Relaxed music with some African vibes. Totally recommend it if you like a mix of electronic and African music.
You can also check the video story of the album Amma on Begun's homepage: http://begun-music.com/
The next artist comes from....Finland!! Even though crazily enough her music hasn't been played yet that much in Finland. I'm talking now about the most awesome Alma ! She's a young artist who has kinda hit trough already, but we are still waiting for a longer album from her. She released "Dye my hair" -album in 2016. If you have heard some songs from her it must be either "Karma" or the song from Felix Jaehn"Bonfire ft. Alma". I still personally don't get why she is not that popular in Finland, because she has really a phenomenal voice! But as so often bigger artists who sing in English are either talked over to change their "singing language" into Finnish or otherwise they can create careers abroad, which is totally ridiculous. This must change!
Here the kick ass songs from Alma! And those superrr beats! Pa pa pa paaa!
Alma - "Karma"
And the already 7 million views gathered song... "I'm the bonfire, you make me stronger...."
Felix Jaehn - "Bonfire ft. Alma"
Okay, still one more...a great video too!
Alma - "Dye my hair"
We will for sure hear more from this fantastically talented young artist!
The next artist come from Spain.. Marcos Cruz I know only this song from him, but it's a nice one!
The next one is from a tv series "Stranger things", it's a sci-fi series which is pretty great! "Stranger things" got lot of praise from its soundtrack which is done by a group called Survive from USA, Texas, Austin. If you like synth music, you should definitely check the sound track. It's ridiculous how catchy the main theme is, I think I could watch this 10 minute version of it in one sit:
This next band comes from The Netherlands!! And they are awesome! And they are called Crying boys cafe. Here's a live performance from them from the popular talk show De Wereld draait door (The world turn around) in The Netherlands.
Crying boys cafe - "I was a singer"
They have released an album "The keys not the people" in 2016 which is definitely worth of checking out! I especially liked the song "Be so".
Tragedy. The fall and the rise. Loosing and finding and letting go. These are pretty common themes in the music videos all over the world. Sometimes it's over the top but sometimes it's very well done and if so the video will stay in your mind for the rest of the week like a good movie you have just seen.
Within the last two weeks I somehow ended up watching these two music videos couple of times and I would say that they are pretty tragic ones, but still great.
The first is from Mykki Blanco. I saw the name at the gig list of Gretchen (a club here) and thought that I had seen the name somewhere, anyhow I didn't end up going to the gig but then last week finally looked up better who is this artist. Mykki Blanco is an artist from USA, he released his debut album "Mykki" this year (2016). I haven't yet listened the album trough but it seems to be more electronic/hiphop. Some people got to know Mykki Blanco from this video about the USA president election 2016 where he recites a poem by Zoe Leonard"I want a dyke for president" which has a pretty strong message:
Mykki Blanco performs poem "I want a dyke for president" by Zoe Leonard
The actual music video which I watched was for the song "Highschool never ends" it tells a story of a black trans woman falling in love with a white neo nazi.
Mykki Blanco ft. Woodkid - "High school never ends"
The other video is a older one. Just somehow stumbled upon it again and watched it. She's one of my favorite artists: Lykke Li and the music video of "Never gonna love again" She's having this "for ever continuing struggle and pain" -theme pretty often in her music videos, sometimes I get also super annoyed by it, but this video just stays in your head. The song hits hard especially if you listen the song (the youtube video version) without watching the video with your headphones on. You will notice if you try.
Lykke Li - "Never gonna love again"
And then some not so tragic videos but visually really cool ones. Solange Knowles has released a new album "A seat at the table" in September 2016 and I really liked her old music videos and the new ones are also great!
Solange - "Don't touch my hair"
Check also "Cranes in the sky" from her
One other for ever my favorite artists of mine is Roisin Murphy. She has always really cool music videos for her songs. This video "Whatever" is from her new album "Take her up to Monto" which was released in July 2016. Brilliant as ever!
Roisin Murphy - "Whatever"
And as we are in the smart phone theme and the emojis, likes and apps it's good to continue with the really stunning music video of Moby and the void pacific choir for the song "Are you lost in the world like me?" from the new album "These systems are failing". (And finally GEMA isn't blocking anymore the youtube videos because they got into an agreement with Youtube (Finally!) Great for everybody living in Germany) The animation for this video is made by Steve Cutts and it's amazing!
Moby and the Void pacific choir - "Are you lost in the world like me?"
I had the chance to go and see the "Berliner philharmoniker open air 2016" event in the end of August. I don't go often to classical music concerts so thought this would be a nice chance to enjoy some classical music outdoors without this "stiffness" what you sometimes have in the classical music concerts. The "backyard" of Berlin Philharmonic was packed with people when the concert started.
The opening act was The Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO, later using the shortening). The group consists of Syrians refugees who had to flee their own war torn country to EU countries and elsewhere. I was really impressed about the passion and the joy the Syrians had in their music, while knowing how horrendous things are happening in Syria at the same time. You could sense the sorrow and sadness from some of the songs, but still the whole set of SEPO was more vivid than the set of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. The whole audience of some 5.000 people (guess) were applauding after every song and shouting "Bravo, bravo."
I haven't listened that much Middle-Eastern music and was very impressed about the happiness and livelihood of the music. There were lot of quick changes, the music stayed the whole time interesting and evolving, it didn't have the "typical" ending of the classical pieces which build up into a huge "bombastic" end but it surprised you just when you though you would know what comes next.
After SEPO had finished and the Berlin philharmonic orchestra started it felt like the whole playfulness was gone and the "serious classical music" -mode was on. I felt almost falling half asleep while the orchestra was playing Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák.
It was anyhow good to stay till the end of the concert because I got to hear the announcement that SEPO would be giving a concert in September at the Konzerthaus Berlin. After some weeks I booked my ticket and was very happy that I did!
Konzerthaus Berlin
Waiting for SEPO
Konzerthaus Berlin is a massive, massive building at Gendarmenmarkt at Berlin. It was my very first visit to this venue. The whole hall was packed with people. I think many of people had done the same as me, after seeing and hearing SEPO at the open air booking their tickets for this concert.
Here's shortly the program and the solists.
Conductor: Ghassan Alaboud
Solo clarinet: Kinan Azmeh
Solo violin: MAias Alyamani
Solo nay (sort of a flute): Mohamad Fityan
Solo violin: Jehad Jazbeh
Solo oud (sort of a lute): Maher Mahmoud
Solo percussion: George Oro
Solo soprano: Rasha Rizk
I wished I would/could have done notes from all of the songs. But here are the songs which were played:
1. Tomorrow
2. My beautiful homeland
3. (song name only in Arabic)
4. Oh birds
5. Oh! My homeland
6. Rose
7. One way ticket to Damascus
- Break -
8. Passion
9. Sea waves
10. Damascus - one more aspect
11. The silk road
12. November 22nd
13. Wedding
14. Longa Nahawand
SEPO
I truly loved the whole concert! It was so great to see so much commitment, strength and passion in the orchestra playing. I was very astonished by the vividness of the music. Some songs reminded me bit of the Greek music. The Middle-Eastern music has such a different rhythm than the western music. It was refreshing to hear something totally new. And knowing what these people had to go trough made the concert extra special. I think many from the audience felt quite moved after the concert. The whole hall was standing and clapping till the orchestra went off from the stage. It was also my first time hearing a soprano singing in Arabic. I would have loved to hear more songs with the oud played by Maher Mahmoud, really loved the sound of it. But I have to admit that all the soloistst were amazing!
Standing ovation
Unfortunately SEPO doesn't have yet any albums out, I would surely want to buy the album of this concert.
The second part of the notes is purely from the Bleep newsletters I get. You can also order them via bleep.com. They have often quite interesting picks. I went trough some of the older emails I had and picked my own favorites from there and there were many. There's going to be some classical music, techno, drumm n' bass, oldskool and some African music!
Jherek Bischoff is an American musician, composer, well, a multitalent. I haven't heard before about this artist but I'm considering buying the new album "Cistern" from him. His soundscapes remind me bit of Nils Frahm. Here's a short discription of his new album from the Soundcloud page: "Cistern is an album inspired by time Bischoff spent improvising in an empty, two-million-gallon, underground water tank, with a 45-second reverb decay. The unique acoustics of the space forced Bischoff to slow down and adapt his compositional approach - something which, unexpectedly, brought him back to his childhood, and the slow-pace of life he experienced growing up on a sailboat." I haven't yet listened trough the album but for sure it will be interesting to listen! You can find the full album already from Spotify.
This next one is just hautingly beautiful and a touching song.
Here's the link to Bischoff's Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jherek-bischoff And just now noticed that of course the record label where Bischoff is, is Leaf where's also artists like Colleen, Caribou, Efterklang and Vladislav Delay and here you can find the rest http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/artists I'm an optimist but sometimes I have to listen music from a Pessimist ha ha haaa...I know a lame joke but I had to. Pessimist aka. Kristian Jabs comes from the UK and makes drumm & bass music. Even though I haven't been a big fan of drumm & bass (well Burial..) I really enjoy Pessimist's work and sounds.
Volte-Face is a totally new UK artist for me, but oh he makes great techno! I really really love his sound! Just listen this stream trough and you'll love it! Even though the last song is named "Dead cat on the dinner table" it's an amazing song! Put your techno shoes on!
One other artist I found from Hard wax (I should take time and go them all trough) is Emiel Zwart who comes from The Netherlands, Rotterdam. (A great place of techno in the The Netherlands). Should buy also his stuff!
And one more via Hard wax: Abayomi who's a Berlin resident.
Ok some more easy going music now.... The Avalanches sounds groovy! The next would happen most likely if you watch "The wizard of Oz" on drugs..
Konx-Om-Pax comes from Scotland but resides in Berlin. They have a new album called "Caramel" out from the label Planet Mu. I really think I will end up buying it!
I couldn't find my favorite "Perc rave" anywhere else than the Bleep page:
My Nu Leng are from Bristol. Great club music. This song is from a cool collaboration, which My Nu Leng participated too, between musicians and Malawi. "Beating Heart is an exciting music project 65 years in the making and featuring 21 artists including: RUDIMENTAL, MACHINEDRUM, LUKE VIBERT, THROWING SHADE and many more. They have taken the recordings of man called Hugh Tracey who wanted to share African music with the world and remixed them for tracks to feature on a brand new album with a brand new sound. Release 3rd June 2016."
Definitely worth of buying this collection "Burning heart - Malawi". (Though I think I will have to get some other ones too, too much great new music out!) Hope you enjoyed the music tips of this post! Until the next one!
You know the moment you start to have too many notes on tiny pieces of papers lying around on the floor, on the table and some are already lost. I usually write all the new nice songs which I hear down so I decided to go trough some of my notes and emails and found some nice new music. Lets start with something legendary...After laughter comes tears...
The song "After laughter" is originally done by Wendy Rene (1947-2014) written together with her brother in the 1964. Maaany artists have done covers from this song.
Wendy Rene - "After laughter"
Nicolas Jaar has made a quite cool remix of the original song:
Wendy Rene - "After laughter comes tears Nicolas Jaar edit"
Should actually write a post about Nicolas Jaar because he has done a lot good music!
Even though the Eurovision song contest was competed already a while ago, (see, my notes are bit old), there were some great artists that even didn't get to compete to Sweden. One I really liked was Mick Pedaja from Estonia with the song "Seis" (Stop). I really love the magical atmosphere of the song. I would definitely love to see this artist live or to buy an album of his!
I heard also the first time Beck, (well at least knowing it was Beck) now even though I've heard the name before, but I totally love the new single which is out just now!
Beck - "Wow"
We are not happy with GEMA.
here's just the link because GEMA wants to be annoying:
Finally I got the chance to see the one of the most controversial bands from South-Africa; Die Antwoord. They were playing at Zitadelle at Spandau, Berlin 4.6.2016. The event was sold out already for a long time before and I was expecting that there will be lots of people, but not really that much what it actually was. According to Berlin Morgenpost there were aprox. 10.000 people at the gig!
Romano
Romano was the warming up act for Die Antwoord, He's a pretty well known German hiphop/rap artist. He is known from hits like "Köpenick" (it's a city district next to Berlin) and "Klaps auf den Po" (Claps on the ass). I like his style and sound, was just bit surprised when watching the music video of "Köpenick": it was shot in L.A. Compton. I was looking forward to see something cool from Köpenick itself, maybe next time then when he would write a song about "Königs Wusterhausen"! Romano mixes his rap with dance electronic sounds like in "Klaps auf den Po". Romano's music made everybody dance (even though I didn't still understand all the lyrics, but the beat and sound was good enough on its own). And as a non hiphop/rap person I was convinced and danced along, this guy has a good sound and attitude!
After Romano had played it started to rain quite a lot, and there was still waiting before Die Antwoord would go on stage. DJ Craft (K.I.Z) was playing still in between, but it was pretty boring to be honest (mixing just some big hits until the point the public was getting tired with it and wanted to see Die Antwoord).
Finally after some hours (about two including the both warming up acts) Die Antwoord came on stage! They had literally an insane show and the public was with them. I was pretty much forced to go bit back in the crowd because everyone, meaning this huge sea of about 8.000-10.000 people, was starting to jump and push around "crowd moshing or mosh pit". But as a bit smaller person this was seriously not fun, being stuck and trying to keep other people on jumping on me I kinda lost the first parts of the gig totally trying to just concentrate on not getting mad and punching other people.
Die Antwoord had just released a new album "Donker mag" a day before the gig (3.6.2016) but they played maybe like 2/3 new songs. It was great the hear all the huge hits like "I fink u freaky", "Enter the Ninja" etc. The stage show was good and hyper energetic as you could expect from Die Antwoord. Great backup dancers and lots of Die Antwoord clothing (crazy sweaters, neon colours and red). Saw also one dedicated fan who was looking exactly like Yolandi Vi$$er, props for her!
I've now listened couple times the new album "Donker Mag" through and sort of liked the sound, but the "angst" is just still too much in the album, can't help it. My favorites were "Ugly boy", "Cookie thumper", "Donker mag" (with beautiful organs) and "Girl I want 2 eat U" which had bit the sounds from reggaeton (at least remotely).
But I have to admit I've developed now sort of a like/dislike relationship with this band since the first time I heard about them. I do get that they want to give this "crazy wacky" image. It's anyhow quite hard to become a huge name/artist from the South-Africa and so quickly. In that they have succeeded. I'm anyhow still bit disgusted/disliking/"done" with some of their music videos, like the "Pitbull terrier". I have just seen too often this super angst what they have in their videos and all the violence, and I'm not now talking about just someone shooting someone or so, but about Ninja dressed in rubber "pitbull terrier" mask eating other people's necks while the blood is bursting all out. (wrong for all the nice pitbull terriers out there!) Here you can see for yourself if you want!
Die Antwoord - "Pitbull terrier"
And here you have real pitbull terriers:
The "Ugly boy" is bit less in a good way but again the blood is flying...
Die Antwoord - "Ugly boy"
After a while you just kinda get tired of it... I still like the music from them but I hope they would just some time soon(!!) take the next step from this "hate/violence/angst/666" stuff...I started to feel that the band is solely based on this "shock effect"and that would be sad...very sad.
I was anyhow happy that I went to see the band live but would NOT recommed Zitadelle for such big events, was just too many people in too small space.
Here you can listen trough the new album "Donker mag":
