Introduce some music

[Wuff-Wuff]

  Hello everyone. I thought it'd be a cool idea to start a topic in which we introduce music to eachother  and give it some back story (e.g. the history of it, what it means to you, how you stumbled across it, etc.)

To kick things off I figured I'd do a more historical approach!

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Zamrock

During a game of Categories in which I had to name a music genre starting with the letter "z" I had to throw in the towel as I knew no answer. After this humiliation I checked Wikipedia in order to have an answer for the next time around. What I found was Zamrock.

Back in 1964 Zambia gained independancy from British colonial rule. Wanting to strengthen their national identity, the then-president Kenneth Kaunda declared that 95% of music played on radio stations had to be Zambian in origin.


Kenneth Kaunda famously introduced the slogan "One Zambia, one nation"

It was a time of newly gained wealth (Zambia was one of the largest copper producers at the time, and once they gained independance they were able to keep the profits made), urbanisation and national pride. The new opportunities must've been incredibly exciting, especially for musicians who were now heavily supported by the new government. But these up and coming artists didn't want to be mere simple folk musicians, no, they wanted to be on the cutting edge of the music at the time; they wanted to rock! So they bought themselves electric guitars and amplifiers and set out to make a genre inspired by the rock groups of the time (early 70's), mixed with Zambian folk melodies and poetries. Here are just a select few from this era.


Witch
https://youtu.be/sGq19DBmbxI?feature=shared


Rikki Ililonga from the band Musi-O-Tunya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Y1AqoTHo8


Ngozi Family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8t0FH1U7hA


Crossbones ft. Violet Kafula
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s48omkp4yDw

Sadly this movement wouldn't last: copper prices fell and the economy crashed. Zambia found itself surrounded by political turmoil in neighbouring states and after taking in some refugees power stations were bombed. This lead to concert ticket prices being unaffordable for most and forced the bands to play unstable sets during the daytime. As if this wasn't enough an AIDS epidemic hit the country, which hit musicians especially hard since, .... well... you know the lifestyle.

Despite all of the hardships the music has never quite died out. People like me still spread the word  and Jagari from WITCH is even still performing to this day.

So there you have it  Zamrock, now you can show off in the next game of categories!   

[anoni]

Wow I've never heard of this Genre before! Thanks for introducing it to us.

I don't have the history but if we're going by genre can I introduce you to Nordic Folk

This genre is basically traditional viking music, it uses traditional instruments and gives a very raw feel that I don't think anything captures, I've noticed it's really increased in popularity ever since the TV show Vikings has dropped.

Probably the best band that does this is Heilung, they put in absolutely spectacular performances and really take you for a ride, if you're gonna listen to of this music, listen to this one.

Heilung - Krigsgaldr

The most well known person who dabbles into Nordic Folk is Danheim who, imo, is not the best, but you've definitely heard his music in things like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, he is actually an Australian who got interested in Viking music, and he makes good music but to me it lacks the impact that Heilung's music gives, still if you found Heilung's music a bit too boring and slow, give Danheim a shot!

Danheim - Berserkir

Now vikings I see as more warlike, so if you want more warlike I've always found Zerganada to be up my alley, the songs are always pretty epic:

Zerganada - Warsongs

There's a bunch more but that's probably enough to introduce to the genre.

[Wuff-Wuff]

Woah that's really cool! The first song reminded me a bit of the inscription soundtrack with the tinkering of metal in the background  and I like the use of a bowed instrument in the second 

It makes me wonder how close these artists have actually gotten to the actual music the vikings made. I could imagine, since they were northern europeans and pagans, that they didn't have a musical notation system (well not until they became Christian at least, but are they truly still Vikings at that point?). Recreating their instruments could shed some light into how it might've sounded like. Need to research a bit more. One description I've kept on finding after a short search was a quote from an arabic traveller  “one hum, that was reminiscent of a dog’s howl, only even more bestial”, which would fit the singing style of the latter two links you shared.

Thanks Anoni  also interesting to see how the TV show brought with it so much interest with it.

[ZaraRa]

Super awesome, everybody! Now, I ... -sigh- I bring the riffraff in.

I call on Crunkcore, one of my favourite genres, but an absolute nightmare for any normal folks to listen to  yes, long have I terrorised the 'what music are you listening to?' thread with my supreme ear-bleeding nonsense 

Crunkcore, also known as Scrunk, is the love-child of Crunk, and Screamo - but, just so you know, it's super rude to scene kids everywhere to call any of our music 'Screamo'  (Because we have been snobs about our music since 2008, LOLOL. NO MUUUM, IT'S -NOT- SCREAMO, IT'S EMOTIONALLY DEEPER THAN THAT! ER MA GERD, SHUT URPPPPPP!!)
One of the Scrunk & Skranz kings is Dot Dot Curve, who uses a lot of discordant beats; one of my favourites, fer sure eh. Fer sure bomb. WAIT, wrong song--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZJTX9UeopQ

Fer Sure?! Get Medic Droid in here! OH MA GAWD I HEART F*CKING MAKEUP OH MY GAWD I LOVE YOUR HAIR, IS THAT A NEW TATTOO, DID THAT PIERCING F*CKING HURT?!?! NO JKJKJK LOLOLOL
WE'RE NOT FALLING IN LOVE, WE'RE JUST FALLING APART-- Ahem. Classic Scrunk track 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDCAy2CUCJs

And I'd be remissed to forget the OG, BrokeNCYDE, who really started the whole genre on MySpace with their tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa6qpgLvH30

... People outside of the scene don't tend to ever find these, because they're not most people's cup of tea... But to me, it's always been like audio ecstacy 

[Wuff-Wuff]

  oh gosh Zara-Ra, that does bring back memories. I was more into the screamo stuff like Bring me the Horizon  there was something about those types of vocals that was heavy but never heavy enough! I needed more and more heavier back then!

The "clean" vocals (I'm not sure if the effect makes them unclean~ but I mean the unshouted vocals) like the ones on the song "Fer Sure" also were the way to go back then  sooooooo emotional~!

As for listening to it nowerdays, I must say Zara-Ra, you're a better man than I  the more time passes the more I long for more accoustic music. Though I'm still a bitch for Electric Guitar 


I'll see if I can think of more obscure things to share next week 

[ZaraRa]

Aah, you're a real one 
I never grew out of the old stuff~ but ooh, I do enjoy some good acoustic. Aah, I'm out of ideas for obscure music, but I can't wait to see what everybody else has got! I'll go do some more pondering... I mostly these days listen to Eurodance, which is in no way, shape, or form an obscure kind of music

[Wuff-Wuff]

  Thank you!

Ah fear not Zara-Ra! The idea was also to just post recommendations that had a certain meaning to you~ give us some insight into why this song, artist, band, album, etc. meant something to you

[Wuff-Wuff]

  alright, I hope you all might find something out of this next entry that's enthralling to you.

In 1979 an experimental band called "Sun City Girls" was formed in Pheonix, Arizona. The story of this band could honestly be it's own entry (but I'd need to do more personal research first).


Trust me on this one guys, Sun City Girls are weird

Long story short, in 2007 their drummer Charles Gocher passed away  marking the end of the band. One of the two remaining members, Alan Bishop, would later start his own record company called "Sublime Frequencies".


Alan Bishop

The record label's mission statement is:
"Sublime Frequencies is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. Sublime Frequencies is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research."



As you can imagine  this provides listeners with a wide range of musical worlds to dive into. I've only listened to the tip of the ice berg sofar, but here are a few of my favourites:


https://youtu.be/Hy5SThZC19A?feature=shared

Saigon Rock & Soul shows the musical impact the US had on Vietnam during the war. Some of the coolest funkiest rock music I've ever heard  if you're only going to listen to one song, I would recommend track 3 (Cai Tram em Cai) the mix of funky, heavy psych-rock together with the singers alluring mystical, yet so so cool voice gets me every time. 


https://youtu.be/7vxPfmJ6GV0?feature=shared

Group Inerane was my first introduction to what some call "Desert Blues"  and thus opened my eyes to how unique the guitar still can be played to this day. I love the genre and man, the background singers really make it something special.


https://youtu.be/J0S4yyazggk?feature=shared

This one's just a treat 

So if you fancy yourself a dive into unknown "oddities" then you're in luck! Because there are so many albums to choose from!
https://www.sublimefrequencies.com/