Definition:
My Asian genre tag is admittedly vague, ignoring sub-genres and covering a great many different styles from many countries. As always, I'm looking for the overwhelming sense of Asian instrumentation or vocal style to dominate the track. If, for example, a Hip Hop track heavily sampled Asian records it would almost certainly be tagged as Hip Hop / Rap and not Asian, and the same apply to Asian flavoured Reggae, Club or whatever. Key points to note are that Arabic music has it's own tag (Middle Eastern) as does much of the music of South Asia (Desi) and East Asia (Oriental).
The Jukebox Pick (of 126):
Beezhinden (Coming Back From Beijing)
Shu-De
From their album “Voices From The Distant Steppe” (Real World Records CDRW-41) released in 1994. Hark, the wondrous traditional sounds of the Tuvans – once heard, never forgotten. Throat-singing, at least as old as the 8th century, is practiced by very few cultures - Mongolia and Tibet providing the only other strong examples - and Tuvans are arguably the finest exponents. The practice was not encouraged by the Soviet authorities, but continues to thrive nonetheless, appearing in many contemporary genres. Shu-De is a word a rider uses to shout to their horse, like “gee-up!”, but it can also mean “good” or “excellent” in appreciation of a musical performance. The group recorded the first of their two albums whilst visiting the UK in 1992. Over the course of these, they offer a great many different styles to fill up your senses, and the highlights are plentiful. The cheerful “Beezhinden” is my favourite although the pressing plant did their very best to fool the world into thinking that this one was titled “Aian Dudal” on the CD. On the plus side, at least they made me concentrate and sharpen up on my Tuvan!
Some favourite artists:
Huun-Huur-Tu, Shu-De, Sainkho
The Jukebox pick:
Video problem? Please do let me know