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Fausto Bordalo Dias Now that I’ve shared the brilliance of Carlos Paredes and Zeca Afonso with y’all I have to tie the influence those two artists together had right? If ever there was a musical masterpiece that just screams with the unique sound and influence of Portugal its Vila Franca das Naves-native Fausto’s Por Este…
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Zeca – 1971 Today’s track of the day, “Coro da Primavera” (Springtime Chorus), comes from the supremely important Portuguese artist Jose “Zeca” Afonso. Born in 1929 in the port city of Aveiro, Portugal this fairly inconspicuous man would be the last person you’d think who would grown up and write such songs like “Grandola, Vila…
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Carlos Paredes – 1971 Imagine launching a revolution without even saying one word. That’s the revolution in sound and in history that Carlos Paredes from Coimbra, Portugal was able to achieve. Fado, the blues music of Portugal, has melodies and sentiment informed from hundreds of years of colonial rule. The further the naval empire stretched,…
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Arsen Dedić – 1973 Raise of hands, when was the last time you actually heard music from Croatia or Serbia? When was the last time you actually cared enough to look for some? If, you didn’t raise your hand, well today I’ve got something special for you. Hailing from the Dalmatia region from what was…
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Camarón de la Isla – 1979 Flamenco music, oh what bane you have been dealt with. If, you ever encounter flamenco music in popular culture its usually as a type of dead language music. Seeing billowy dressed people stomp their feet, sing with overdramatic melisma, and pointless guitar flourishes you wouldn’t be wrong to have…
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Joan Manuel Serrat – 1971 The track of the day, Joan Manuel Serrat’s “Mediterraneo” is quite the unique rebel song. Its one thing to rise up against the oppressor, and its another thing to rebel against dug in beliefs and traditions that threaten to replace one for another. You can uprise and dispose places/people but…
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The Outsiders Years before the MC5 or the Stooges planted the seeds of American proto-punk, and a couple of years after the Sonics and the Monks helped create garage rock, a couple of Dutch boys had already created music that went beyond proto-anything and issued a heavy statement defying any type of categorization. Helmed by…
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Parson Sound – 1968 You know, there’s one thing I refuse to do. Outside of work and a very little bit at home, I refuse to put on headphones and shut myself from the sounds of the world around me. Its the uncontrolled sound of hums, rumbles, breezes, pling, plongs, foreign audio soundtracks, and every…
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Walter Wegmuller There’s a lot of envisioning in my pick of the day. Walter Wegmüller, a Swiss-born renaissance man; part poet, painter, musician, and mystic, joined up in 1973 with some then little known Krautrock musicians like Manuel Göttsching (from Ash Ra Tempel) and Klaus Schulze…who later became giants in the scene, and some lesser known…
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Steaua de Mare Fast forwarding to the present, its always interesting to see how that spirit of ingenuity and experimentation applies for current bands. In Romania there are bands like the one I’ll highlight today, Steaua de Mare (Big Star), that recognize the importance of looking into one’s own lineage to pull up different directions and…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic