Recommendations

[Coon]

This is a thread for us to recommend not-so-well-known albums to each others. I'll start:

Zippo - The Road To Knowledge: This is one of the "strangest" releases I heard in a time, with a great variety of styles in the band's sound. From 70's Rock to Stoner, with a huge charge of Progressive Rock and Psychodelic influences. It's an italian band and this is their second release. Sure most of you will enjoy 'em.

 

[Postmodernist]

Estatic Fear "A Sombre Dance" - magical miracle of European atmospheric medieval doom-metal.

This album is such an obsession of mine since 2004 so I'm running and promoting this petition:
http://4estaticfear.petitionhost.com/

NB: In the petition you can see fans from Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, Austria, Turkey etc.

However, what I found surprising there are also Estatic Fear fans in South Africa, Syria, Labanon, Faroe Islands, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, India, Viet Nam, Jordan, Tunisia etc. - even rare doom metal bands have global fan networks.

 

[Chanakya]

Coke Studio - Collabration between many of Pakistan's famous rock musicians, incorporating sounds from across that region, embracing the use of traditional instruments and famous non-rock musicians. This includes pop singers, Qawwali singers, etc etc. The Punjab region of Pakistan is incredible. It has a very very vibrant culture [Lahore - FYI], atleast from what I've figured/read, I hope the whole fundamentalist thing doesn't take over. Also, there are two amazing sisters who are from the North Western Frontier Province [NWFP], where it is getting quite violent these days with the Pakistani Taliban gaining a strong foothold [the place with lots of drone attacks]. Anyway, screw violence. These guys embrace the ways of the Sufi, the muslim mystics or Dervish. I guess this culture began in Turkey [A reason why I want to visit that place] and got really popular in South Asia, or the erstwhile North-West India. Around the Punjab [Both Pakistan and India's portion] Sindh region of Pakistan and Rajasthan in India especially.





EDIT : I dunno why, but whenever I see the drummer, I see some resemblance with Matan and vice versa


EDIT 2 : I forgot to mention, those two girls not only sing well, but also look GORGEOUS!

 

[Postmodernist]

Ah, that's great music Ananth. Strongly reminds me world fusion by Zakir Hussain & Co.

PS: Burn in h3ll Coke, however I'm glad to know they are sponsoring such a great musical project.

 

[Chanakya]

^

I personally loved 'A Sombre's Dance'. I just read your petition and I'm going to sign it in matter of a few minutes. It really sucks seeing musicians like Matthias suffering financially. I'm surprised that he has such a wide fanbase though.

By Zakir Hussain & Co do you mean his personal work or Shakti ?

Sufi music has been moving me greatly lately. Mukhtiar Ali, an eminent folk/sufi singer from Rajasthan visited my school for a performance on monday evening. My school is located in the middle of a forest so the setting for music itself was kinda ethereal as it began around twilight. The music moved me beyond words, it just cannot be described. You know one of those things that lifts you to another realm, gives a sense of purpose in life? This was one of that. I tried finding a video of him on the net, but I haven't succeeded so far.

 

[Postmodernist]

Thank you brother. Hm, the point about Matthias is that the previous releases were not a success commercially. No profits, only expenses. Additionally, he lacks time working full-time as a manager.

Hm, Zakir Hussains projects are endless:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakir_Hussain_(musician)

I like his recordings with drummer Steve Smith, and with John McLaughin, and with Ustad Allarakha and others are cool as well.

 

[Zuzuz0r]

There's a band I liked a lot which I discovered some time ago, it is Kauan, they play something that I would call Ambient Doom Metal, they are russian, but they sing in both finnish and russian, I guess fans of bands like Agalloch, Shape of Despair, Empyrium, etc... would like them.