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jason on 03/07/2011 at 09:30AM
March On FMA & WFMU (Mix) // Favorite FMA MP3?
What is your favorite mp3 on the FMA? I realize that's not an easy question -- I like pretty much every track I've heard here among the 33,000. But this mix includes a freeform dozen of my 450+ "Favorites": MWE's 'Turkish Metal / Balkan Brass', Raleigh Moncrief, Thick Business, Zoë Keating, FMA hero Lucky Dragons, Karl Blau the super Northwesterner and member of Earth, Dustin Wong formerly of Ponytail, Rafter, Bay Of Pigs, and The Paparazzi...
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The road songs by Kenneth Higney and U Can Unlearn Guitar are also available on the premium I've compiled as a thank you gift for people who donate to WFMU during my marathon show this Thursday. The premium's titled ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP, and it comes in three MP3 volumes. The first volume is the Ultimate Road Trip, and it gets mailed to you as a CD with my own handmade artwork. The second is for 'Alternate Routes,' and the third is for 'Off-Road Trips'. The rest of the tracks on this mix will be included in WFMU's USB drive full of mp3's from the Free Music Archive, one of many cool station-wide swag items. For some reason it says there'll be 100 mp3's on the jump drive. Well, we did the math and it turns out we can fit closer to 150 mp3s on a 2GB drive, so if you have any suggestions, we're all ears! Leave a comment here or in the forum to let us know about your favorite FMA find! You can read more about the fundraising drive happening over at WFMU, the station that birthed the FMA, over at Marathon HQ. It runs thru March 13th. When pledging by phone or online or (especially during my show Thurs 9am-12n ET), tell 'em the FMA sent ya! |
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jason on 02/18/2011 at 09:29AM
MWE: Balkan Brass / Turkish Metal from Oakland CA
MWE's set of entrancing, eclectic Balkan brass (or "Turkish Metal", as @kentsandvik described) was a highlight of the 2011 Golden Festival. NYC's 26th-annual music & dance bachanal, organized by the scene's pioneers & ringleaders Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, showcased a greater range of "border crossing" music from the Balkans and beyond than ever before. Its elegant new location -- Brooklyn's Grand Prospect Hall -- was more elegant than the previous setting (a school in Inwood, where one of the stages was a gym). The new venue allowed for more stages and more performers (well over 50!), so naturally the WFMU Transpacific Sound Paradise broadcast team got a little more ambitious and set out to record on three stages where in previous years we had only documented one. The stage we missed was primary focused on choral/multi-vocal acts like WFMU favorites Black Sea Hotel, and fortunately there is video (via David Byrne's blog).
MWE's set took place on the 4th floor "Grand View Room," presenting "Sounds of the Middle East and Much More" (everything is "more" at Golden Festival!). I wasn't able to witness MWE's Golden Festival set live, but a big thanks to engineers Dave Mambach and Mark Koch who produced a great live document. MWE's live tracks really grabbed my attention with their four wind instruments (3-clarinets + 1 Zurna) creating a darkly festive drone beneath traditional Turkish percussion: dumbek (hand drum), riqq (tambourine), and the Davul (large double-headed bass drum). Their bio describes the Oakland, CA-based 6-piece's sound as "about the closest to heavy metal you can get without amplification."
MWE have also offered five tracks from their new demo to share, which Davul player Sean Tergis describes below:
Varshaver: Varshaver is fully named "Varshaver Freilakhs," which is Yiddish for "happy dance from Warsaw." It's a klezmer piece. We learned it from an early 20th century recording of violinist Abe Schwartz.
Sirtos (from Yiannitsa): The name speaks for itself but it should be noted that Yiannitsa is in northern Greece and this tune is in 7/8.
Süleyman Ağa: This song is a Turkish Roman traditional. This 9/8 karsilama rhythm is probably the most popular rhythm among Turkish Roma.
Los Bilbilicos: This is a traditional sephardic tune that has spread in popularity all over the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Halay: Halay is actually the name of a line dance from Turkey. It is driven by a relentless 2/4 beat, and usually features zurna and davul.
We have only just begun adding 2011 Golden Festival performances to the FMA collection, since there are so many incredible performances to go through -- keep an ear out for more and subscribe to the RSS!