Live and direct from the Beijing olympics: I’m posting this from the field of the Bird’s Nest, specifically between this morning’s javelin competition and the track. I’ve always thought javelin was a cool sport…

Some laid-back Chinese country-folk today by Liu Dongming. It’s off another MicroMu release.. yet another that I quite enjoy.

Ed Peto explains:

“Liu Dongming taught himself to play guitar while busking on the Beijing subways and has slowly grown to be one of the most feted folk singers in China. This song talks about how the old days were great, but you should also enjoy the times you spend together now, stop thinking only about the past: ‘everything will flow and I’m not sad anymore, those times we were destined to spend together, learn to enjoy, brother.’”

Nice theme. “Youthful Days” could easily apply to my time here in Beijing so far. I haven’t pulled all nighters and been out as much as this in a while. That’s not to say that where I normally live is dull - despite its surprisingly buzz, Beijing is no Paris - but it’s different when you’re visiting a place and not staying long-term. I’ve been in Beijing long enough to launch myself well into it, and short enough to go full throttle the whole time.

As usual with MicroMu releases you can download the whole album - free and legal - here: http://www.micromu.com/wp-content/uploads/MMDLLP002%5BMicroMu%5D.zip

Tomorrow it’s black Afrikaans South African hip-hop, live in Beijing (tonight). Say what? Exactly. Stay tuned…

刘东明 - 少年时光 (Liu Dongming - Youthful Days)

And now for something you might have heard of…

Hanggai are all the buzz right now. Pitchfork gave them an 8.0 which will guarantee a storm of downloads by the indie masses over at emusic. The BBC gave them a glowing review. Hey, even I can’t wait to see them at 2Kolegas on August 22nd.

It seems like everyone finally stopped writing about “China’s upcoming classical music dominance” (I’ll rant about that later) and found a Chinese group to write about during the Olympics. Luckily, they’re really good.

Hanggai’s first release for the international market, Introducing Hanggai on World Music Network, is lovely. You can hear it everywhere else.. so today I’ll bring you a great track off a live recording made last year at the 2 Kolegas in Beijing. You can find the studio version of this track on their latest release.

The first time I heard this track, before (and even after) I realized that Hanggai had become so hyped, it took my breath away. Great stuff.

Hanggai Band - Wuji (live)

I was wandering around Beijing’s 798 “art zone” this afternoon when I found a small record shop - a rarity in this city. Inside they were playing some nice-sounding Chinese rock, which turned out to be Wang Wen’s IV.

(Sidenote: from now I promise to always drop the post- from rock. Every Beijing rock band seems to be tagged with the unfortunate label post-rock.. I’m not quite sure what’s so post about their rock in the first place. It just sounds pretentious.)

To be fair I’d never heard of Wang Wen until I walked into this shop, but I like what I hear. Their laid-back, dreamy guitar sound is perfect for the night-shift I got stuck with today.

From their MySpace page,

“The band was formed in the city of Dalian, a busy seaport in northeast china, in the year of 1999. Wangwen was at first started by two awkward (at that time!) guitarists who were crazy about The Smashing Pumpkins and later joined by the drummer who also brought along the band name, representing the idea of an unknown band and insensibility to what others say. The band began to record their first demo- ‘the animal world’ on their own in the same year they formed. Since then the band members had been changing while continuous creation of new pieces of music and performing. ‘lingshuihe’(‘the IceWaterRiver’)was recorded on their own in 2000 and the third demo ‘the Tenebrous Yinyang Road’ was also completed two years later. During this period the music style of the band had been gradually changing from vocal to instrumental and started to draw broad attentions both from the reviews and the audience as well. It was considered as the one of the leading band from china in the fields of post-rock and acid rock. The band was influenced by: Mogwai, Red Red Meat, Mono, Explosion in the Sky, Polvo, Tortois–GYBE, etc.”

Pretty much sums it up.

Apparently they’re on a European tour this summer and seem to have some kind of a following in various countries outside of China, at least judging from their MySpace comments and some buzz on the web. The track on today’s post is from IV, their May, 2008, release on Fox Tail Records.

The young guy working in the record shop where I picked up this album was quite nice and offered up a bunch of tips, which resulted in me walking out with a bunch of albums. I felt nice actually buying music in China, though I’m not so sure that the artists will see any of the revenue from my buys… but in the very least they’ll help keep this little record shop in business, and the friendly guy working the store in a job.

Wang Wen - 污水塘 (Great Tactic)

Yet another MicroMu post. What a find..

Today we’ll hear some Mongolian-Chinese folk music sung by Gangzi, the sound man at Beijing’s only “metal” venue, 13 Club. When I first heard this I thought, hey, that’s Eddie Vedder in his youth, deep into some throat singing. Indeed, as Ed points out, you can hear a bit of that heavy rock in his singing but the Mongolian roots are evident. Give this one a long listen, as it doesn’t really kick in until the 3rd minute or so. It’s a beautiful one.

Did any of you ever see that great documentary film, Genghis Blues?

Here’s some info on MicroMu from Ed Peto:

“MicroMu is an experimental, sponsor-supported, free-to-user record label model. We focus on contemporary Chinese songwriters and naturally lean towards acoustic music as a result of this. We have set up a compact recording process both for live and studio/semi-live recordings which means that we can produce good quality music quickly and efficiently. We give this music away for free through our website, combining it with relevant editorial, videos, etc as a way of building context and community around the music. A vibrant, focused community is always of interest to a brand who shares the same audience, so we generate the lion’s share of revenue from a cash sponsorship deal with Beijing based Plastered T-Shirts. The label was self-sustaining from the day it launched.”

Interesting. I knew of at least one similarly noble effort started in Senegal while I was there, but there weren’t the listener audience to keep it afloat. With a massive population and a surprisingly vibrant contemporary youth music scene, not to mention a growing middle class who can afford to go out and see live music once and a while, it’s easy to see why projects like MicroMu are doing well.

As usual with these MicroMu releases you can download the whole EP - free and legal - on the MicroMu site here: http://www.micromu.com/wp-content/uploads/MMDLEP003%5BMicroMu%5D.zip.

I picked-up a couple recordings by another Chinese-Mongolian group, Hanggai, today. You’ll be hearing some music from those later this week, along with music from a few other albums I’ve managed to scrounge during my time-off here in Beijing.

刚子 - 日出

More music from the folks at MicroMu today. Remember that you can download all of the tracks I post plus the full EPs and LPs at the MicroMu site. If you have trouble reading the Chinese (as most of us will) I’ll provide direct download links in these posts.

Today we’ll be hearing a couple tracks by the young Zhao Guang. This first of the MicroMu EPs is, once again, a wonderful listen. Long-time Benn loxo listeners will know that I’m always a sucker for nice, simple, jangly acoustic guitar music from any country. Finding this kind of sound in China was a pleasant surprise.

This EP was recorded a couple months ago in June, 2008. You can download the whole EP here: http://www.micromu.com/wp-content/uploads/MMDSEP001%5BMicroMu%5D.zip.

The title of the first track translates to “Throwing Handkerchiefs”. As Ed Peto explains, “This is based on an old Chinese children’s game. In the song, Zhao Guang talks of throwing a handkerchief off a building and resolving to follow whoever picks it up.”

The second, 小苹果公主, means “Little Apple Princess”. It’s “about a shallow girl..’you change your hairstyle, cut off your long hair, smile at the cars as they pass by, and jump onto the back seat of a stranger’s bicycle’”.

Apologies in advance for this popular reference, but I immediately thought of Bob Dylan when I heard the first track. In a very good way..

赵光 - 丢手绢 (Zhao Guang - Throwing Handkerchiefs)
赵光 - 小苹果公主 (Zhao Guang - Little Apple Princess)

My first and favourite foray into the Beijing music scene was a MicroMu folk music night at the Jianjinjiu bar, a great little place between the Drum and Bell towers at Gulou. A friend of a friend, Mat, introduced me to Ed Peto of MicroMu, a record label run by his Beijing-based music consultancy, Red T Music. They host bi-monthly concerts at the Jianjinjiu - definitely worth checking out if you’re passing through Beijing.

Some of you may be thinking, as I did, “Beijing alt-folk music scene?” Yes - and it’s wonderful. The little I’ve heard and seen has been musically original and impressive. The gigs have been, for the most part, well-attended with enthusiastic crowds. Beijing Bohemian. Who knew.

That first night Ed was doing a live recording of Zhang Weiwei and Guo Long, two important musicians in the Beijing “alt-folk/ethnic” scene. Both were founding members of the group you heard the other day, IZ, and were also in the well-known bands Glorious Pharmacy and Wild Children. Apparently Zhang Weiwei is quite well-known, at least among Beijing musical circles, for his accordian work with Wan Xiao Li and increasingly for his own recordings.

The music you’ll hear today is from his first solo release, though it’s actually a new version of a song from a previous group, Wild Children. The title translates to “Stare at the northern sky”. It’s been stuck in my head for quite a few days now along with several other excellent tracks from the album. For this I am especially grateful since it finally released me from the musical clutches of that wildly irritating (but addictive) Beijing olympics theme song you hear on the radio every two minutes.

You can download Zhang Weiwei’s whole album - free and legal - on the MicroMu site. If you’re having a hard time finding the download links (the site is Chinese-only) try this: http://www.micromu.com/wp-content/uploads/MMDLLP004%5BMicroMu%5D.zip.

I’ll be posting music by another MicroMu artist tomorrow, and hopefully more in the future. They produce some really great sounds, and plus Ed is a good guy who has taught me much about the scene here.

A note from Ed,

“Here is a video of Gulou, Jiangjinjiu, Gangzi soundchecking and a massive firework going off. This was a practice for the Olympic opening ceremony fireworks a week later. You know the ones that went off in a row from Tiananmen Square through Gulou and on up to the Bird’s Nest…
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzgxNjc3OTY=.html
Really gives a good idea of atmosphere surrounding the whole MicroMu @ Jianjinjiu evenings.”

You can see another video of Zhang playing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpoTubJqGFs

I’ll tell you more about MicroMu in the coming days and post some more of their music. Great stuff.

张玮玮 - 眼望着北方 (Zhang Weiwei - Stare At The Northern Sky)

Apparently Mao means rock or rock’n'roll in Chinese, at least according to the people at Mao Live, one of Beijing’s best rock venues.

The rock scene here is fairly developed, especially considering that it emerged from pretty much nothing a decade or so ago. I’ve been to a couple gigs now and both were jam-packed with Beijinger fans, eager to rock it .. albeit still a little hesitantly.

A few days ago I checked-out the Re-tros at the Mao Live. Great show. This fun sampler-duo, Zig Zag, opened but unfortunately the crowd wasn’t so into dancing to their electro-pop.. a shame, since I’m a closet beep-and-pop dance fan.

The Re-tros - which stands for ReBuilding The Rights of Statues - got a warmer reception. My sources here tell me that they’re one of the better rock acts around the Beijing scene at the moment.. and I have to say that I was impressed. They had a good, original sound by any standard.

The first paragraph on their band page on their label’s site is classic:

“Born in the shadow of post-Tiananmen nihilism, the collapse of state run industry and a desert that will someday swallow the city whole, Beijing-based Rebuilding the Rights of Statues delivers explosive, danceable, unsettling post punk that leaves you unsure whether you want to take your clothes off and shake the spiders out, or go look for a rope, a closet and a copy of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot.”

Need I say more? A strange Joy Division/B52s fusion sprung to mind immediately after they played their first bar.

That night I got to meet Matt, the guy who runs Tag Team Records. Re-tros and a host of other good Beijing groups are signed with Tag Team so Matt’s a great contact to have here.

You can check-out music by the Re-tros and other bands signed with Tag Team on the label’s site. They also have an online store for those of you in the US. Keep an eye out for these bands abroad, too, since they’ve started touring abroad. Apparently the Re-tros were well-received at 2007’s SXSW festival.

Tomorrow you’ll get to hear music by that folk duo I wrote about long ago.. which reminds me: sorry for the slow posts. My access to Internet is limited and time is scarce. I’ll do what I can!

Re-tros - Boys In Cage

I mentioned in the last post that I’d be checking out the Beijing samba drumming group, Sambasia, at a bigger venue. True to my word I went to see them at the Mao Live last week - what a great night.

There weren’t many people at the show, but amidst the sparse crowd was a group of Brazilians in town for the games I’m assuming, or maybe just passing through. Ladies in short skirts ready to shake it, muscly dudes ready to pull-out some capoeria moves and big guys with fast hands ready to drum.

Sambasia themselves put on a good show, but things really got moving when the Brazilians joined them on the stage. The previously subdued Brazilian ladies suddenly sprung into action and the dancefloor lit-up with Rio-styled sex. Wonderful.

Sorry, no music to go with today’s post but the pictures sing volumes:

I had another great night-out in Beijing yesterday. After helping a friend bargain down a pair of knock-off Converse to 4 euros (they started at a ridiculous 75, which exceeds even Senegalese starting price to purchase ratios), a few of us went for some fantastic Beijing duck at a place referred to as “Dresden Duck” because of the crumbling hutongs all around it. We then hopped in a taxi and headed back to where I’ve already seen a couple shows, the Jiangjinjiu pub at Gulou. We had a few beers there as a group called Sambasia hammered out some Brazilian tunes that shook the whole neighbourhood. Again, how random to be seeing live Brazilian music as performed by a Chinese-Canadian-Israeli-Japanese drumming/singing troupe in Beijing. Sambasia would be fun to see in a bigger place so I might drop-by their gig at Mao Live this Tuesday.. give a shout if you’ll be there.

From there a couple of us headed up to the Lama Temple area to see a rock concert at Star Live, but I think we showed up too late. No worries, though, since the new Club P shares the same building. We slipped the queue and checked-out Beijing’s latest Shanghai-esque lounge/club. Club P is the kind of place I would usually shy away from in Paris, but in Beijing I’m all over it. Like most everything else in the Chinese capital, even the “posh” clubs are still quite rough around the edges. By this I mean a guest list and doormen, but ones that are easily talked around by guys in shorts and running shoes. ..or Eastern European dancers in sequin bikinis dancing beside the DJ who smile to show missing teeth. ..or young ex-pat “new media”, finance and diplomatic types at the lounge ordering bottles of champagne for their entourage, but still looking slightly awkward as they do so. This posh-club-not-quite feel makes the place, well, cute.. and a fun spot to dance late.

That said, today’s post takes us far from the budding nightclubs of Beijing. A friend passed me a copy of an album by IZ, a five-piece band led by a Kazakh singer from Qitai, Xinjiang. Their music is rooted in Kazakh folk, but blends other elements from surrounding regions into the mix. What a wonderful album. I really hope I’ll get to see these guys live sometime. Who knew that music by the various people of the Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region would be so amazing…

For those interested in the Chinese music scene I suggest you have a look at my friend Mat’s project, R2G. He’s involved in the uphill battle to establish a legal digital distribution network for Chinese music, helping to combat music piracy while at the same time dragging labels and musicians into the 21st century. He just helped launch China’s biggest online music store - you can check it out at www.wa3.cn.

Tonight it’s looking like I’ll check-out at least one concert so stay posted tomorrow or Monday for more music and Beijing reports.

IZ - Akhen

After a couple weeks of finding my footing in Beijing I’ve managed to make some pretty interesting musical contacts and see some good live music. The Chinese government hasn’t yet blocked Benn loxo either so posting won’t be a hassle.. yet.

Before we get into the music let me first say that I’m really enjoying this city. Yes, I’m often surrounded by “young fascists”, constantly monitored by various kinds of authority or filmed on CCTV (though there’s probably more of this in London these days), and I’m frequently reminded that I’m in a strange, mono-cultural Han police state. But through the haze of Olympic crackdowns, partially hidden corruption and pseudo-communism I’ve found a wonderfully vibrant city, pulsing with a captivating energy and filled with witty, fun people.

Someone asked me the other day if the level of state control felt anything like Cuba. Not at all. Beijing couldn’t be more different than Havana. You’re free to do what you want here, provided you don’t rock the boat. In Cuba the vast majority can’t rock at all. Cuba felt like a very sad maximum security prison, whereas Beijing feels like… I was about to say a kind of minimum security facility where one might find Conrad Black or Martha Stewart, but that’s not right. Beijing is, well, not quite like any other city I’ve visited.

I’ll have to come back in a couple years, and I wish I’d been here ten years ago. For now, anyway, Olympic Beijing is mostly about, as we put it the other night, “hosting the shit out of you.” And for better or for worse, maybe more of the latter, they’re succeeding.

So. The music. A couple nights ago I went out for dinner with Ed Peto from MicroMu and David Mitchell, a professional guitarist who teaches and performs in Beijing. Through these two and a couple others I’ve managed to meet I hope to discover much about the Beijing music scene, or at least as much as can be gathered during a few weeks of culturally-stunted Olympic summer.

Today we’ll hear something by Panjir, David Mitchell’s Uyghur jazz group. I saw them perform last night at a very cool little bar, Jiangjinjiu (Folk Pub), at Gulou Guang Chang. Not all the members were there and a guest drummer was filling in, but the music was still wonderful. If I wasn’t so bad at string instruments (I’m more of a brass-piano-percussive guy) I would run out and buy a ghijek - what a beautiful instrument. The dutar, a long necked, metal-stringed guitar that looks incredibly difficult to play, also has a very cool sound.

Without pretending to know anything more than what I’ve read on the BBC these past few months, let me at least explain that the Uyghur people of China are mostly concentrated in the north-western Xinjiang province. If you’re like me, you probably already know a little about this Turkic Muslim people because the Chinese have been actively cracking down on them. Like most minorities in China, the Uyghurs suffer under the weight of the overwhelming cultural and political majority of the Han Chinese.

As they put it on their MySpace site (blocked here by the way - I had to use Tor to get to it), “A tradition with over 2000 years of history, Uyghur music has links with Arabic, Persian, Indian and Chinese music, and is at once complex, beautiful and emotional. Panjir adds an element of improvisation, taking the music beyond the strongly codified tradition, and creating forward motion in the music for the first time for many years. We are proud to present Panjir, the new sound of Central Asia.”

They then go on to say, quite tellingly, “NOTE: PANJIR is a musical group with no affiliation to any political or religious groups.” I was on the look-out for guys in sunglasses suspiciously reading the newspaper in the bar last night. Alas, I didn’t spot any.

I’ve said to a couple people today that it feels great to be musically lost again. I’m reminded of when I first moved to West Africa and discovered all these new instruments and sounds. Nothing is familiar.. I can only learn.

Tomorrow I’ll hopefully post some music by a great MicroMu duo who I saw at the same bar a few nights ago. In the coming days I’ll try to hit you up with some rock and hiphop I’ve been trying to explore as well…

ps- for those still wondering what I’m doing here, I work for the AP as an IT guy, not a writer. The last few weeks have seen me at the various Olympic venues and facilities, but covered in dust and carrying cables.. not a notepad. (Except at night, when I’m scouring the city for strange and wonderful - and hopefully musical - experiences.)

Panjir - Nazirkom

Beijing. I bought a hilarious bike yesterday that’s about two sizes too small but too cool not to buy. It gets me to work in style plus manages fairly well on late-night voyages from downtown back up to the 4th ring where we’re relegated.

Nothing much to report yet music-wise unless you count the live C-pop at almost every cheesy bar in the city.. with the possible exception of a large and fun feathered hacky-sack and ballroom dancing Sunday night gathering at the lakes - more on that later. I’ve been working fairly long days and time-off has been spent playing the tourist a bit before I get jaded. Fun nights exploring different districts, necessary stops at cities Forbidden, good food, iffy weather.

Most importantly, my first impression of the people of Beijing is great: friendly, sharp, informal, sarcastic and funny. Olympic crackdown, perhaps, but the people more than anything make me already really like this city more than I expected. Plus the Beijing accent is great, even for someone who only speaks about four words of Mandarin.

Patience, patience.. I’ll come back to you with music soon. I’m here until mid-September, afterall, and the last month has been more than busy. A few contacts have been made and I’ve started to scope out the city. Language is a problem, but hopefully some local contacts will help me work that side out. If you happen to be reading this in Beijing and have some tips to share - music or otherwise - get in touch. The beer, as always, is on Benn loxo.

It’s finally Friday. Man, what a long week. More Lebanese, some Ugandan, a little Irish and more is in the pipeline. Now I’ll just find the time… in the meantime another brief Nigeria interlude:

Shortly before I first moved to Africa I picked-up a copy of Strut’s 2001 release, Nigeria 70. I was into West African music a bit before this, but that compilation really knocked me out. It made me excited to move nearby.

A few months later I would visit Nigeria for the first time. Thanks in large part to Nigeria 70 and the crate digging that it inspired my ability to talk about groups like Ofo & The Black Company and The Funkees opened many musical doors with the locals.

Those trips to Lagos and the music I picked-up there, all in a way inspired by Nigeria 70, formed the base of what would eventually become this web site and a long-lasting passion for West African contemporary music.

Lagos Jump is Strut’s latest Nigerian offiering. It’s out this month, available everywhere. With good liner notes by John Collins and a solid line-up of tracks, Lagos Jump is definitely worth checking out.

That Immortals track is especially killer.. makes me want to go surfing at Badagari beach. I’ll leave it for you to discover, especially since the K7/Strut guys asked that I post only the first track.

Sir Shina Peters - Yabis

Remember when we used to just sit back and listen to good Nigerian music?

And on an unrelated note, I’m going to spend about 60 days in China starting next month. Any tips on where to find/see/hear the good parts of Beijing’s music scene?

This Decca courtesy of the tireless Colombian, Fabian.

Heavy Brothers Construction - Jehova

Syria is a delicious country, so it’s no wonder that eating is the Syrian national pastime. Restaurants usually open at noon and stay open until 1 or 2 in the morning, peaking at around 11pm. All day your taste buds face a barrage of sweet tea mixed with apple or melon nargile smoke, honey-drizzled sweets, freshly-baked, cheese-filled pastries, cardamom-spiced coffee, freshly-pressed juices, spicy street foods, varieties of fine dips, and slow-cooked lamb.

Syrians get an especially dreamy look in their eyes when they speak of Aleppan food. As the name implies it comes from Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo. Among other techniques, Aleppans take the myriad of Syrian kebab types and cover them with lightly spiced sauces of pomegranate, dark cherry and more. There’s a certain finesse to all the Aleppan dishes, too. Eating Aleppan baba ganoush for the first time, for example, is a bit like having your first French knife-cut steak tatare after only having known American ground beef.

While variety of food isn’t a Syrian strong point, I imagine most Syrians would wonder why you would ever want to eat anything else? Spend a night eating at Damascus’ rather upscale restaurant Naranj or Aleppo’s wonderful Bait Sissi and you just might agree.

Syria is self-sufficient in food, meaning that it produces enough food domestically to feed its populace with little or no imports. Except for the occasional meddling of the Evil Empire of Nestle, ingredients are almost always fresh and local. Orange, pomegranates, dates, cherries, blackberries, strawberries, olives, honey, an incredible variety of spices, strangely appetizing salty and sweet goat cheeses… and lots of lamb. Amazing.

Equally delicious is the voice of Lena Chamamyan. This young Armenian-Syrian Damascene singer has been recently released her second album, Shamat.

Chamamyan blends traditional Syrian and Armenian music with oriental jazz. She works with a variety of talented musicians who back-up her beautiful voice.. one that has been rightly compared to Souad Massi.

Once again this album comes to us thanks to the efforts of Incognito/Majal. It’s great to see local labels like this do such a good job promoting local musicians. Quality production, great musical picks. Thanks.

Lena Chamamyan - Seher

Syria is a PR disaster thanks to some of the world’s worst foreign policy. Years of meddling and aggressive action has landed it a permanent spot on the rogue nation list. Among other things it has contributed to the continuing decline of its neighbour, Lebanon, through occupation and later with assassinations and sabotage. Syria has also embarked on numerous poorly organized and ultimately unsuccessful military campaigns against another neighbour, Israel. It hypocritically carries out a proxy war against Israel through Hezbollah, an organization that it would never allow to flourish as a political force within its own borders. Plus it has almost undeniably been involved in the international black market for uranium production with such bright lights as North Korea. The list goes on and on…

Domestically, however, it’s another story. Yes, it’s still a dictatorship with little room for organized dissent. But Syria is no Cuba: people can do as they please provided they don’t threaten the Ba’ath, and compared to the majority of its neighbours the country is a model for religious and ethnic tolerance. Don’t believe me? Think for a second about Jordan and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and then go talk to a Syrian Palestinian about their better life there. Head over to Lebanon and see the inter-community violence that doesn’t exist a few dozen kilometres down the road in Syria. Check-out women’s rights in Iran and Saudi Arabia and then see scarf-free girls chatting with friends, both men and women, at Damascus cafés.. in public.

Yes, Syria is quite poor and its incredible ability to make enemies and spend so much on the military isn’t helping that, but in general people are doing ok. It is probably the safest place I’ve ever visited and people are noticeably more relaxed, friendly and open than those I’ve met in surrounding countries. While everyone is talking about rising food and oil prices, they’re certainly not alone in that complaint.. and all in all pretty much everyone we met seemed largely content, if not disappointed that their country has such a bad rep. There is none of that feeling of tension or misery that I’ve encountered in so many other, supposedly democratic and non-rogue states.

I’m not defending despotism here, but I am trying to shatter the common belief amongst Westerners that Syria must be a horrible place to live. It’s not. In fact, if I was a student again and studying Arabic I’d happily spend a year there studying.. as many others do. It’s a favourite destination for Arab tourists and, increasingly, bus loads of Italians, Germans and French pensioner adventure-seekers.

When I left Damascus to visit Beirut for a few days I was reminded of the first time I visited Abidjan from Dakar. Abidjan, with its skyscrapers, nice roads and fancy boutiques stands in marked contrast to dusty, poor Dakar, especially the Dakar I first knew six years ago. But underneath all the glitz there was a horrible tension, pure racism in some cases, that spoilt Abidjan for me forever. I couldn’t live there.. and I feel the same about Beirut. For all its gleam and fun and, quite frankly, more sophisticated feel, I’d take Damascus over Beirut any day.

Anyway, I’ve said enough. Go see for yourself and let me know if you disagree. On to some Syrian music..

It was hard at first to find good contemporary Syrian music. As one guy in Hamaa put it, “I won’t tell you because I know you won’t like it.” He went on to say that Syrians are very emotional so the music they like tends to be overly romantic and.. cheesy. (He later told me that his favourite musician was Avril Lavigne.) Another guy in a market in Aleppo told me that his favourite Canadian musician was K.D. Lang because he liked the fact that she was “kind of butch, you know.” Most people inevitably spoke of Egyptian pop stars, plus the ubiquitous Celine Dion and Phil Collins.

Things changed when we arrived in Damascus. Record stores are much more prevalent there and concert posters on the walls of the old city imply the existence of a music scene, however small. There’s even a local distribution network called Majal, a division of Lebanon’s Incognito, that promotes local musicians and sells unpirated copies of their albums in stores around the city.

I left Syria just a few days before the latest round of Majal albums were to arrive at the record stores, but I still picked up a few that I hadn’t seen before. We’ll start with some music from a Majal sampler, The new oriental sounds from Syria. It was released by Incognito in 2007 to promote the “alternative Arabic music scene” in Syria.

The first track is by Hewar, a Syrian jazz project co-founded by the talented clarinetist, Kinan Azmeh. You can find it on his 2006 full-length, 9 Days of Solitude. Hewar, by the way, means “dialogue”.

Next a lovely Syrian classical track by Dima Orsho and Gaswan Zerikly. It reminds me a lot of Dawn Upshaw’s White Moon.

More tomorrow.. when we must also discuss the wonders of Syrian food.

Hewar - Wedding
Gaswan Zerikly - Ma Ihtiyali

I was in Beirut a couple weeks ago just before the last flare-up. How strange to have just returned from this beautiful city with its great restaurants, fun bars, nice coast and true-to-name “Paris of the Middle East” neighbourhoods, only to hear that Hezbollah guerrillas were now occupying buildings around the hotel we were staying in.

That’s what makes this city unique: in the midst of all this tension construction continues at a feverish pace, nightclubs keep bumping, bars keep serving great cocktails, and pensioner joggers with their iPods bounce down the corniche.

That said, Beirut isn’t all fun and drink. The tension while we were there was real: the tanks were everywhere, people were maybe more reserved than usual, and roadblocks/sit-ins had all but closed large parts of downtown plus many other parts of the city. The drive from Damascus still offers views of the unfinished bridge that was blown up during the last round of fighting with Israel, and pock-marked buildings stand ominously beside new Starbucks, Lina’s and Virgin Megastores.

But the Beirut nightlife is no myth. I have this lasting memory of a group of four beautiful girls in a BMW convertible, hands in the air, dancing in their seats as they drive towards Monot street. Many of the bars we went to are definitely up to Paris standards. And while the scene is seemingly smaller than I had imagined, there’s no denying that this is a fun city. A classy city. My nights out there definitely reminded me of Tel Aviv bar hops a couple years back.

So we’ll hear one track today from an album that’s getting old but I still enjoy. Soapkills are a Lebanese trip-hop group featuring the lovely voice of Yasmine Hamdan over Zeid Hamdan’s beats.

The track you’ll hear is off their last release from way back in 2002, Cheftak. They should hopefully have some new stuff coming out soon. Check-out their MySpace page if you want to hear/learn more.

We can thank Mary Louise Congo for her wonderful eye on this and many other photos on this site.

Soapkills - Cheftak

Tomorrow I’m off to Syria for a couple weeks. I can’t wait. That means no Benn loxo posts for a while, but I’ll try my best to come home with some good Syrian tunes to share.

Before I go, let’s dive into my small collection of Syrian music. Think of this as a pre-Syria post.. armchair before experience.

First we’ll hear some music by Syrian-born musician, Abed Azrié. It’s perhaps not fair to call his music “Syrian” since he’s lived in France for most of his life and openly prefers it over here. At the same time it’s a good place to start since the Syrian and other Arabian influences are very obvious in his music. Also, his tunes are put together in such a way that it’s pleasing to your average Western ear. You can grab plenty of his albums over at Calabash.

The pseudo-documentarians at Wikipedia claim that Jeff Buckley was a big fan, and that the two once had lunch together. Maybe if Buckley hadn’t died so tragically young he and Azrié could have collaborated on some music. Now that’d be interesting.

(Sidenote: I was lucky enough to see Jeff Buckley live in Toronto shortly before he died. Needless to say, it was an amazing show.)

Anyway, back to Syria, or rather another Syrian expat with strong ties to home. Zein al-Jundi’s album, Traditional Songs From Syria, is beautiful. Originally from Damascus, she got her break when the Syrian government asked her to perform at the re-opening of Syria’s famous Roman amphitheatre in Bosra.. where I’ll hopefully be in a few days.

In recent years she’s been living in Austin, Texas, studying architecture and interior design. I know Austin’s a cool city and all, but it’s still strange to imagine a female Syrian expat architect going home after a Masters class to jam on some traditional Arabic music.. in Texas.

Next we’ll bring it down a notch with some Syrian sufi chants.

Let’s end on a dancing note. Lastly we’ll hear a couple tracks off the great Rough Guide compilation, Bellydance Café, by the Salatin el Tarab Orchestra and the Jalal Joubi Ensemble.

See you in a couple weeks.

Abed Azrié - Eau et vent
Abed Azrié - Abou - Saadiyah
Zein al-Jundi - Hayyamatni
Zein al-Jundi - Ya Ein Mulayyetein
Muhammad Hakim, Abdullah Rihawi, Abdulrahman Halak, Ahmad Machal, Muhannad Alwan, Ahmad Moslemani, Bakri Basal, Abdulhadi Kasara, Omar Shaban Hosayn, Ibrahim Karman - Khummari

Salatin el Tarab Orchestra - Helm
Jalal Joubi Ensemble - Marmar Zamani

Buenos Aires is shrouded in smoke these days. It’s sort of appropriate for today’s post since we’re going to ROCK OUT.

Sorry, I just wanted to write that. But really, if we’re going to “hear” Buenos Aires it’s certainly not by chilling out to some Martha Argerich piano music. While stunningly beautiful, Argerich isn’t exactly playing what the Argentinian kids are into these days.

Argentina is, after all, a rock nacion. A rock nacional nation.

I’m not going to attempt anything comprehensive here. We’ll just listen to bits and pieces of Argentinian rock, or rather rock-ish music that I like from over the years.

Let’s start back in the 1980s. After his buddy Ian Curtis of Joy Division-fame died, this Italian guy named Luca Prodan decided to kick his heroin habit by moving to Argentina. After a while he got some musicians together and formed the group Sumo.

The 80s weren’t exactly a hot cultural time for Argentina thanks to its military dictatorship, but Sumo managed to gain a large fan base and release a bunch of albums. Their music is heavy on the reggae and ska.. no surprise since Prodan was coming from 1980s London and Manchester.

Next we’ll hear something from a band you probably already know: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. They rose to fame in Buenos Aires in the mid-80s and hit their peak around the mid-90s with the release of Matador, which you’ll hear today. You can see the video here.

Up next is music by Argentina’s hardest to pronounce rock band, Bersuit Vergarabat. These guys are big-time in the Spanish-speaking world, having cleaned-up numerous times at MTV América Latina Awards and VMAs. The album that today’s track is from, Hijos del Culo, went double-platinum. Great cover.

Now we go rocking into the now with some “garange punk” from Los Peyotes. These guys definitely have a great look, and I find myself charmed by their music. ..much in the same way I love The Monks. You can see some of their videos on YouTube.

I see that Los Peyotes are playing with the New York Dolls in Buenos Aires today, April 18th. That’d be fun.. bit of a long flight for me, though. If you go, tell us how it is!

Next you’ll hear something a little different: some country/folk rock by Los Alamos. I don’t know much about these guys except that I read about them on Argentinian “indie rock” web sites. I like their sound.

Same goes for Rosario Bléfari. She’s a Buenos Aires musician who appears to be really into jumping around in bathing suits.. I guess I like that in a woman. Her music is great, too. Today’s track comes off her 2004 release, Estaciones.

Before we leave Argentina it’s only fair that I slip in one, just one, contemporary tango track. I know, I know. Rock fans probably would hate the mix, but I’m over it, and La Chicana’s track is appropriately named Dolor Wolof.

Hasta la próxima.

Sumo - Kaya
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Matador
Bersuit Vergarabat - El gordo motoneta
Los Peyotes - Cry Baby
Los Alamos - Cola de cascabel
Rosario Bléfari - Cartas
La Chicana - Dolor wolof

Wait.. just.. one.. more.. or maybe two. These two covers are too funny to skip:

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Strawberry Fields Forever
Los Peyotes - Fuego

It’s the middle of the week and our ears and minds are tired; it’s time for some music that’s a little more delicate than usual.

The first time I visited Buenos Aires I randomly met a group of people at some hostel who were big into the Argentinian contemporary dance scene. Not exactly your average hostel crowd. I tagged along with them for a night on the town in my one change of clothes, during which we saw a beautiful dance performance followed by a classic Buenos Aires pub crawl. It was a wonderfully unpretentious approach to “high culture”.. the kind of evenings I aspire to.

Anyway, I was/am researching a post on Argentinian pop when I remembered this night and tried to recall the name of the dance production. This led to sites about Buenos Aires’ classical music scene where eventually I learnt that Martha Argerich, one of the greatest modern-day pianists, was born in Buenos Aires. She got her musical start there, studying and performing her first concerts before leaving for Europe at the age of 14.

Argerich: perfect for today’s post. We’ll put aside tango and rock nacional for a second and have a close listen to a truly gifted pianist while thinking of one of my favourite cities in the world, Buenos Aires.

I saw Martha Argerich perform in Paris last year at the Salle Pleyel. She seemed indifferent to the crowd (what I’ve since learned is her trademark) and appeared to be coming down with a head cold, but the music was beautiful. She’s famous for hating to play solo and occasionally cancels her own concerts at the last minute. This night, however, she showed up, wowed the crowd, and even played on her own for a bit.

For those of you who don’t know Martha Argerich don’t worry since she goes to great lengths not to be known. Though she’s a tireless promoter of young classical musicians, Argerich herself rarely does interviews and plays few (public) concerts. When she does perform it’s rarely alone since she says that she gets “lonely” on stage. Regardless of these idiosyncrasies you’ll often hear her name mentioned in the same breath as the likes of ‘Vladimir Horowitz’ and other great modern pianists.

The piece we’ll hear today is a 1980 composition by Alexandre Rabinovitch, performed by himself and Argerich, recorded at the Radiostudio Bern on November 24, 1993. It’s quite different from the regular batch of Chopin, Bach and Prokofiev usually associated with Martha Argerich, but it’s beautiful.. I love it.. and it’s probably more suited to this site than most of her recordings. Amazingly, you can now buy it at Emusic.

Scholars with a good ear will hear that “the emphatic assertion of the motif in D major from Brahms’s lied, Es liebt sich so lieblich in Lenze, is counterbalanced by the insistent sadness of the Serenade in D minor by Schubert.”

The rest of us will just hear a beautiful, flowing work for two pianos.

Now.. if Rob would only start his classical music audioblog, then we’d all be set.

Martha Argerich & Alexandre Rabinovitch - Liebliches Lied

I’ve been to Istanbul a couple times now. I love it.

I was there a few weeks ago working on the Asian bank at Samanyolu TV, one of the stations in the Gülen media empire. It made for an interesting contrast since I’d spend most of the day at a moderate Islamic television station on the, generally speaking, more conservative Asian shore of Istanbul, then at night I’d return home to the bars, restaurants and nightlife in Beyoğlu, Taksim.

Indeed, the clichés you read about in guidebook intros are spot-on: the city is wedged between Europe and Asia/Middle East, between secularism and Islam, and between older traditions and contemporary Western culture. The politics, geography and even the hip-hop all reflect this.

A lot of Turkish hip-hop musicians are actually based in Germany where the movement got its start. With over two million Turks in Germany, it’s no surprise that the music started there as an outlet for disenfranchised Turkish youth struggling to fit-in to German society.

It’d be hard to be a rapper in Turkey itself. You couldn’t be too fuck-the-man since that might land you in jail for “insulting Turkishness” under the infamous penal code 301, and generally speaking Turkey is quite a polite society with courts that aren’t too tolerant of defamation.

Regardless of its Turko-German roots, Turkish hip-hop at home or abroad remains very Turkish and many rappers are increasingly now based in Turkey. Almost all major Turkish MCs in Germany or Turkey rap in Turkish rather than German or English, and since it’s early days Turkish DJs have mixed traditional Turkish instruments, melodies and rhythms with 808 beats and that American hip-hop sound. You’ll hear some examples of that today: traditional instruments like the bağlama, kemençe and davul are often playing in the background.

We should start our tour with the Germany-based Turkish hip-hop supergroup, Cartel. They are generally credited with starting the Turkish hip-hop movement in the mid-1990s after the release of their self-titled debut on Polygram. Not only did they rap in Turkish and use Turkish melodies in their mixes, but their music was very popular in both Germany and Turkey.

After almost killing each other in a fight in 1996 the members of Cartel went their separate ways and several of them were jailed. This plus some controversial lyrics got their debut album banned in Turkey. It wasn’t re-released until 2004. As a result, hip-hop in Turkey in the late 90s went underground for a while.. but the flame had been lit.

A few years later two rappers, Ceza and Dr. Fuchs, started a rap group called Nefret. The group was immediately popular and Ceza would soon become Turkey’s most famous rapper, and arguably one of its most influential Turkish musicians in any genre.

When Ceza released his album Rapstar in 2004 hip-hop was firmly established on the Turkish musical scene. Even the hugely popular Turkish pop star, Tarkan, suggested that he’d start incorporating some hip-hop into his music. Check-out some of Ceza’s videos on YouTube, including his most popular release to date, Holocaust.

Following Ceza’s success several new rappers came to the forefront, among them Sagopa Kajmer. He’s probably one of the best/most popular Turkish rappers around these days. Listen carefully to the second track by Kajmer that I’ll post today; the references are golden. You can see his videos on YouTube. Check-out how many views he’s getting and it’ll give you an idea of his popularity. (I might even have to add him as a friend on Facebook..)

Next, for those who still might associate Istanbul with veiled women we’ll hear some tracks by two female MCs, Sultana and Kolera. Kolera has worked closely with Sagopa Kajmer over the years. She has plenty of videos on YouTube and a MySpace page if you want to learn more. Sultana has some videos on YouTube, too.

Lastly some music by Fuat Ergin. I include this because he raps in Turkish but was born in Germany and has lived there most of his life… and yet still feels a very strong connection to Turkey. Fuat Ergin and many others like him reflect the strong ties that remain between the Turkish diaspora and Turk