The last post of the day, provided by The Basiani Ensemble. A peaceful and quiet Christmas to all.
Music
[Music] Harry Simeone Chorale – The Little Drummer Boy
I grew up with this song by the Harry Simeone Chorale playing in my home for Christmas. ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ is my favorite secular Christmas song.
[Music] Bel Canto Choir Vilnius – Shchedryk [Щедрик] (Carol of the Bells)
What a wonderful chorus! The Bel Canto Choir of Vilnius, Lithuania, do a standout performance of the Christmas classic written by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych.
[Music] Ivan Kozlovskiy – Ukrainian Christmas Carols (rec.1947)
We drift gently into the Nativity with a few Ukrainian Christmas Carols performed by tenor Ivan Kozlovskiy and orchestra.
[Music] Various Artists – The Lost 45s of Sudan (ShellacHead Annual 2015)
I feel like I struck solid gold today! Thanks to the brilliant lads over at Shellac Head, a fine reissue label one should explore deeply, I’m able to dig into a pile of fine Sudanese music. Only the most committed bin divers know about these tracks. At $5, it’s a steal!
[Music] Shellac – Dude Incredible
Amazing. Post-punk with a brutal prog influence, courtesy of Steve Albini’s Shellac, which rose from the ashes of Big Black, and actually bettered that legacy.
[Music] Imandra Lake – Külm
For my taste, at least in this song, Imandra Lake sound like a post-rock band getting produced by Phil Spector’s tidal wave of sound. A really impressive new band from Estonia who deserve a large audience.
[Music] Romowe Rikoito – El Desdichado
Russian/Prussian neofolk act Romowe Rikoito interpret a famous work by French poet Gérard de Nerval.
[Music] Dúkkulísur – Pamela
As if Iceland didn’t have a wealth of great and well-known bands, here’s yet another to add to the collection. Dúkkulísur (Paper Dolls) were/are (?) a new wave band who seem to still be around. This track was from 1984. For a bit more info, read on or look at the video over at Youtube:
From their self-titled 1984 EP.
Grapevine:
Dúkkulísurnar (“The Paper Dolls”) from Egilsstaðir took their cue from Grýlurnar, an all-girl group that appeared in ‘Með allt á hreinu’ alongside Stuðmenn. However, Dúkkulísurnar never sounded like Grýlurnar and leaned more towards The Pretenders in style. In 1982, the first Músíktilraunir was organised, a “battle of the bands”-competition that still remains a springboard for young bands. The first band to win, DRON, faded away quickly, but for Dúkkulísurnar, who won in 1983, everything “happened very fast afterwards,” as guitarist and main songwriter Gréta would later remark. Dúkkulísurnar got signed to Skífan, at the time one of two big “major” labels in Iceland, and in the summer of 1984 the first six-track EP came out. It included ‘Pamela,’ a hit song about a pregnant 15-year old who sings: “This baby was an accident, in my stomach like flares, I wish I were Pamela in Dallas.”
Dúkkulísurnar’s LP came in 1986 (‘Í léttum leik’ (“A Light Game”)—the girls always hated the title) and included the band’s second hit, ‘Svarthvíta hetjan mín’ (“My Black And White Hero”). Being in an all-girl group was nothing to build one’s future on in 1986, so everybody “got serious” and enrolled into higher education. Dúkkulísurnar were laid to rest, but of course, like most other bands, the girls would play together again decades later.
[Music] Hans Otte – Das Buch der Klange (The Book of Sounds) / III – IV – V
Beautiful minimalism courtesy of Hans Otte, a new name for me from the ECM Records label.