ONE TRACK ONE FLAG

Exploring music from all over the globe one track at a time. This blog is maintained and updated by Joshua Ng, a freelance journalist based in Malmoe, Sweden. Find out more here: http://www.misterjoshuang.com

[onetrackoneflag-blog]

Haiti: Pa Bliye Makaya by John Steve Brunache

Haiti is a nation ravaged by tough circumstances and a harsh history.  From colonization by the French and slavery to a tyrannical dictator and the recent earthquake that left the little amount of infrastructure that existed in ruins. It is from the hardships and realities of history that folk music inherits individuality and an exclusive sound. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

In the case of Haitian Folk Music, the influences are vast: slavery; Vodou ceremonial traditions; Merengue from neighbouring Dominican Republic. There's also the triangle of African, French and Spanish cultural influence. Musically, Haiti has rich substance. In fact, Haiti is an all-out musical country. However, Wyclef Jean aside, artists and musicians from Haiti do not tend to skyrocket on the international level. Instead of asking why, we'll let our ears decide.

Pa Bliye Makaya by John Steven Brunache is an outstanding introduction to a powerful album. Sung in Haitian Creole, the track boasts an enticing chant-like choral entrance. Unlike our accustomed verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge generic noise, Brunaches music follows more of a flexible and unpredictable sequence of events. This foreign structure of song is known as Merengue, more precisely a Haitian ancestor of Merengue known as Compas.  Compas, like Merengue, keeps a time signature of 2/4 and therefore provides more of an open space for transposes and tempo change. This may be why we see a change in melody halfway through the song, right after the pan-flute solo. This is pretty new to me too. One thing I'm sure of, however, is that constant throughout the song, in different forms, is the chant-like choral. This track is particularly impressive because of how equally balanced Brunaches vocals are against the backdrop of the choir--you're not too sure who has the lead, or rather, the lead is shared.

P.S. Keep your eyes open for the photo around 1:40, showing the border between the jungles of the Dominican Republic and deforested, barren Haiti.

[onetrackoneflag-blog]

Lesotho: Kea Tsamaea by Macecilia A St. Paul

Macecilia A St. Paul captures the sound of a picture. That picture is of a unison 60 voices strong swaying with a unique rhythmic cappella. It is of dresses blowing in the wind with a progressive bass beat. Deemed a "gospel phenomenon", they were born in Lesotho in the 90s amidst political instability.  Lesotho is a nation that is landlocked inside of another nation--South Africa.  With a predominately mountainous landscape and a humble 2 million population, it has gone through its' fair share of troubles like many Sub-Saharan nations. What Kea Tsamaea (above video) provides us with is a hopeful remedy away from the toils and snares of life; a chance to dance unashamedly to a tribe of fine tuned voices accompanied by nothing more than a tambourine and a modest, thrifty drum made out of an old car tube.  This is your new alarm tone. This is what you want to wake up to every morning.  

[onetrackoneflag-blog]

Mongolia: Setgeliin Egshig by Engschligen

Mongolia, for such a large piece of land, is scarcely populated. It is in fact the most scarcely populated nation in the world. What does that mean? It means that there is a lot of untouched nature, a lot of open space and a lot of naked inspiration.  On top of this, roughly half of Mongolia's population maintains a nomadic lifestyle.  It is in this fusion of nomadism,  open plains and a form of Tibetan Buddhism that a special kind of music is crafted.  It is music that involves a resonating constant tone--one that you can imagine resounding across the Gobi desert in the south or echoing through the mountains in the north and west.  It is a powerful kind of sound, almost on the verge of overwhelming at times. Remember, this was the birthplace of Genghis Khan and home to one of the worlds greatest empires.

Egschiglen, born in 1991 in the capital Ulaanbaatar, is a traditional folk band that captures the sensation of Mongolian traditional music.  The band is made up of an arrangement of traditional, local stringed instruments--the joochin, tobshuur, and morin khuur--alongside the bass, percussion and occasional throat singing. Egschiglen has often acted as the facade of Mongolian music to the Western world.

Listen to Setgeliin Egshig with your eyes closed. Does it entice you? Does it guide your hand into your pocket to pull out your credit card and purchase a ticket to Mongolia?

[onetrackoneflag-blog]

Hungary: Csárdás by 100 Violins (aka Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra)

Today marks the first day of the Hungarian revolution in 1848--it's Hungary's National Day.  To commemorate, we will be blown away by Csárdás.

Csárdás is a traditional Hungarian folk dance made famous by the Roma people: the gypsies of Hungary. The Roma make up the largest minority in Hungary, and like many other places, social and ethnic tensions exist. In an effort to remain apolitical, let's celebrate this music.

Csárdás starts off slow, but ends fast.  The 100 Violins orchestra is actually composed of 60 violins, 9 violas, 6 cellos, 10 double basses, 9 clarinets and 6 cymbaloms(an ancestor of the piano). The group was evidently born at a funeral.  It was the funeral of Hungarian Romani conductor and guru Sándor Járóka that the group played a farewell serenade--their first song together.

In the video above, the orchestra plays this lightning-fast song with ease and swagger.  The primary violin and cymbalom build up what seems to be a gloomy song taken from an old Disney, but wait till the drop at 03:15.

[onetrackoneflag-blog]

Algeria: Abdel Kader by Khaled, Faudel and Rachid Taha

This is classic: Khaled with his luscious moustache and cheeky grin alongside Rachid Taha and Faudel in this energetic and upbeat pop remake of the Algerian traditional song. The catchy melodic marriage of the orchestra, tabla(s), Oud (the pear shaped guitar that kicks off the intro riffs) and 90s-pop-band-instruments—it just gets you grooving.  

Oh, and maybe you recognize that moustache from somewhere? Perhaps. That moustache belongs to Khaled, formerly Cheb Khaled (“Cheb” is the Arabic equivalent of “Lil”, i.e. Lil Bow Wow) who wrote Aicha. Aicha was famously remade by Danish boy-band Outllandish, becoming a #1 hit in Germany and reaching radios worldwide. 

 So, who is Abdel Kader? And why are the boys so cheerful when they sing about him?  The English translation of the song is written down below.

The video above, however, is taken from a show at the POPB in 1998 in which the trio skyrocketed the popularity of the song with their smooth performance.  Look at them, they’re just having a good time.

  “Abdel Kader, my master, my guide  Ease my pain, make me strong  Help me through the dark night of my soul  O sweet girl of my homeland  Why is my heart so troubled  While yours is at peace?  In spite of love’s many pleasures  She’s turned away and left me  After a night of bliss  Abdel Kader, keeper of the keys  Keeper of my soul  I have left heaven and come back to earth  Away from her arms  I pray life is long enough to let me start over  Heal me and turn me away from my pain”