Walter Aziz & Jermain Tamraz - Our Destiny

This tape from 1985 is a collaboration between two of the biggest names in Assyrian popular music. 

Jermain Tamraz who became known to me via a post about her record Memory Lane (which is itself a compilation from two earlier albums of her I believe) on ghostcapital which contained all around good and moving songs about The Assyrian nation. Walter Aziz who's record Agha Petros i'll be uploading in a while is the male counterpart of the album and a famous Assyrian musician in his own right also makes solemn yet moving pop music. 

Walter Aziz & Jermain Tamraz - Our Destiny

Sample:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRKPBzdFSq0

Mari Griffith - Welsh Folk

Here's a record that I own by Welsh singer Mari Griffith. I've always been a big fan of Welsh music, specifically the early releases by the SAIN label and will upload some of those throughout the run of this blog. This release is from a label called Rediffusion of which i'm not very knowledgeable, but it is a great collection of lullabies and folk songs in Welsh. The pictures included are not of my particular copy but from http://www.retrobloke.com/ who also have a copy for sale. 

Mari Griffith - Welsh Folk

John Edmond - Troopiesongs Complete

John Edmond is a Rhodesian singer currently based in South Africa  and this is a compilation of his released in 1999 based off his three Troopiesongs albums which contained patriotic Rhodesian songs from the period of the Rhodesian Bush War. It's 49 songs so it's a bit to listen to but if you enjoy the history of Africa and or 70s folk rock it will be an interesting listen.

John Edmond - Troopiesongs Complete

Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vZ6sFNOFDU

Emanuela - S/T

Emanuela's 2013 self titled album is a good example of modern chalga music now that we've had two examples from the early 2000's. Tracks like Стой далече show a bigger influence of western pop music and electronic beats while the album still primarily is situated in traditional Bulgarian music. It's a great album overall and one of the best in recent times, the lead single Rom-Pom-Pom is a fun energetic song with a good music to accompany it. 

Emanuela / Емануела

Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_dAp0_Z-MU

Desi Slava - Ezi-Tura

Desi Slava is one of the biggest names in Bulgarian Folk Pop and this is one of her earlier albums from 1999.  Ezi-Tura which translates into Head - Tails was the most popular album the year it came out and received a golden record making it a Chalga classic. Desi Slava over all other Chalga artists displays a staggering amount of variety, especially in her early years.

Desi Slava - Ezi-Tura / Деси Слава - Ези-тура

Sample:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIpytQFETH8

Mira - Stuardesa

Mira's album Stuardesa from 2000 is from the beginning of Chalga evolving into it's current form, there was more emphasis on the traditional instruments and feel to the song whereas today you hear a larger influence from western pop than before. 

I don't happen to know a lot about the artist Mira herself as information in English is somewhat sparse. She was in the scene throughout the early to mid 2000s and had a few collaboration albums with Milko Kalaidijev who's an influental musician and discovered many chalga stars. 

It's a good entry album to listen to in any case, I plan on posting a few more albums from this period as well.

Mira - Stuardesa / Мира - Стюардеса



Sample:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3xgoy_mira-stuardesa_music

B-Pop

The first few posts I'll devote to a genre of music i'm a big fan of despite not speaking the language

nor visiting it's place of origin.

Chalga or Bulgarian Folk Pop is for me one of the most interesting Pop phenomena in the world.

There's something about the blend of modern beats and traditional folk music, especially the extreme

use of horns in many tracks.

The personalities in the Bulgarian pop world themselves are very interesting, the most visible

and well known of them of course being azis, but even the female singers are very striking.

A typical Folk Pop singer seems to always have an obscene amount of plastic surgery done to her if it is a woman and more recently always a raunchy video which sometimes end up to be quite comical unintentionally.

Here's a quick selection of videos to give you a first impression.

Hello Hi.

I've always been into strange and exotic music for as long as I can remember
and during the past few years a lot has been gathering on my hard drives, many
of those albums or singles have come from blogs like that the one I have started today
and others from a large amount of vinyl, CD rips and dodgy download websites in languages
I can't read.

The goal of this blog isn't really to push a specific theme but rather to share music i've come
to love and explain what I know about it (in the cases that I have information on it)

If you want to contribute or when i've posted something that is incorrect feel free to leave a comment

J.