Asian music recommendations

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Chilton
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Asian music recommendations

Post by Chilton »

Hi everyone, the Asian Olympics started yesterday (unbeknowst to practically everyone outside Asia) and since I am "stuck" fulfilling my journalistic duties covering the event for the next two weeks, I thought I might as well explore the music of Asia in the meantime, as I usually draw a complete blank on the subject. Unfortunately, AM offers only an introduction to Asian music as only 8 songs and 7 albums from that continent make the list, with Japan covering resp. 6 and 4 (there are a handful of bubbles too of course, cf. below). I didn't include Israel, Russia or Turkey.


Songs
#657 Mitski - Your Best American Girl (Japan, 2016)
#1630 Yoko Ono - Walking on Thin Ice (Japan, 1981)
#2618 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt (Lost in His Work) (Pakistan, 1990)
#4162 John & Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir - Happy XMas (War Is Over) (Japan, 1971)
#4706 David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Forbidden Colours (Japan, 1983)
#6284 Pizzicato Five - Twiggy Twiggy (Japan, 1991)
#6327 Kyu Sakamoto - Ue o muite arukou/Sukiyaki (Japan, 1961)
#9046 Psy - Gangnam Style (South Korea, 2012)

Bubblers
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Woman Is the Nigger of the World (Japan, 1972)
Cornelius - Star Fruits Surf Rider (Japan, 1997)
Omar Souleyman - Warni Warni (Syria, 2013)
Omar Souleyman - Wenu Wenu (Syria, 2013)


Albums
#1271 John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy (Japan, 1980)
#1335 Mitski - Puberty 2 (Japan, 2016)
#1427 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt (Pakistan, 1990)
#2168 Shivkumar Sharma, Brijbushan Kabra & Hariprasad Chaurasia - Call of the Valley (India, 1968)
#2343 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Devotional Songs/Devotional & Love Songs (Pakistan, 1992)
#2479 Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (Japan, 1999)
#2535 Boredoms - Super AE (Japan, 1998)

Bubblers
Ravi Shankar - Music of India: Three Classical Ragas/Three Ragas(India, 1956)
Ravi Shankar - The Sounds of India (India, 1958)
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - s/t (Japan, 1970)
John Handy & Ali Akbar Khan - Karuna Supreme (India, 1975)
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor (Japan, 1979)
Boredoms - Soul Discharge/Soul Discharge 99 (Japan, 1989)
Ali Akbar Khan - Legacy (India, 1996)
Cornelius - Fantasma (Japan, 1997)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - En concert à Paris (Pakistan, 1997)
Boris - Pink (Japan, 2005)
OOIOO - Taiga (Japan, 2006)
Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar (Japan, 2006)
Shugo Tokumaru - Exit (Japan, 2008)
Bedouine - s/t (Syria, 2017)
Ryuichi Sakamoto - async (Japan, 2017)[/s]



Could anyone offer some more recommendations from the Asian continent? What are your favorites?



P.S. I intend to add YouTube and Spotify links to the list above, as I make my way through it. Maybe we can turn this thread into an archive of all good Asian music. :music-listening:
Last edited by Chilton on Wed Aug 22, 2018 12:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
luvulongTIM
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by luvulongTIM »

-Love So Pure by Puffy AmiYumi is one of my favorite songs.
-Is Shonen Knife too obvious? Let’s Knife is a more pop oriented remake of some of their early classics. Happy Hour has some of my faves from them especially the peppy Cookie Day :)
-The Routes are from Japan and have a garagey snarl to them. I rather enjoy many of their songs.
-Taffy from Japan is really cute too. They have some really fun records.
-Dengue Fever from Cambodia also have a sizable following
Last edited by luvulongTIM on Mon Aug 20, 2018 9:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Dexter
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Dexter »

:text-goodpost:

I'll be visiting this thread from time to time.

To add to the thread: Ofra Haza from Israel (considered an Asian country) with the song "Im nin'alu" at # 6080.
Her album 'Shiri Teyman/Yemenite Songs (aka Fifty Gates of Wisdom)' is worth listening.

As to unacclaimed Asian songs, I recommend "Anak" (Child) a 1977 folk song sung by Filipino singer Freddie Aguilar.
Nick
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Nick »

Most Asian music I know is from anime or YouTube recommendations. But here's what I've got...

Yellow Magic Orchestra- Firecracker
Ryo Fukui- Early Summer
Shonen Knife- When You Sleep (My Bloody Valentine cover)
Tomoyasu Hotei- Battle Without Honor or Humanity
Mariya Takeuchi- Plastic Love
Mitski- Nobody
Gardinelia- Ambiguous
Yoko Takahashi- A Cruel Angel's Thesis
Seatbelts- Tank!

Most of the songs from K-On! were pretty great too.
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Henrik
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Henrik »

Awesome topic!

Asian music in my top 1000 songs list:

Ananda Shankar - Dancing Drums
Bappi Lahiri/Parvati Khan - Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja
The Bombay Royale - Sote sote adhi raat
The Bulgarian Voices & Huun-Huur-Tu - Legend
Chaweewan Dumnern - Lam toey Chaweewan
Frances Yip - Green Is the Mountain
Girls' Generation - Gee
Meiko Kaji - The Flower of Carnage
Orange Caramel - Catallena
Panjabi MC - Mundian To Bach Ke
Shigeru Umebayashi - Yumeji's Theme

Could also count as Asian artists maybe:
Dengue Fever - Genjer genjer
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
M.I.A. - Pull Up the People
M.I.A. - Sexodus
Yaeji - raingurl

Edit: Now I'm drifting away, but Nick Drake was born in Burma, so...
Nick Drake - Northern Sky
Nick Drake - River Man
Nick Drake - Things Behind the Sun
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Romain
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Romain »

More traditional but when I paint, I love listening to the shakuhachi flute. It's perfect and the "melodies" can be bewitching.

Flûte shakuhachi – Gorô Yamaguchi for example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zMK21T_XhY
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StevieFan13
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by StevieFan13 »

Israel's technically in Asia - look up The Sound of Israeli Rock and The Sound of Israeli Indie on Spotify.
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Live in Phoenix
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Live in Phoenix »

Maybe not that valuable if you already know your way around Japanese pop music -- except I don't think we really do, so...

Prepare to be outraged: Japan votes for its “100 Best World Class Songs” [2015]

The long-running Japanese music program Music Station recently held a nation-wide survey polling 10,000 people on what they thought were Japan’s most world-class songs. Respondents told the TV show which songs they felt best represented Japan, throwing up popular artists such as Arashi and Mr. Children, and the results were aired on 23 September.

https://soranews24.com/2015/09/29/prepa ... gs-【videos】/
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Honorio
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Honorio »

Just saw an excellent documentary on TV, "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda" (2017). A fascinating insight on the music creative process.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6578572/
Chilton
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by Chilton »

Dexter wrote: To add to the thread: Ofra Haza from Israel (considered an Asian country) with the song "Im nin'alu" at # 6080.
Her album 'Shiri Teyman/Yemenite Songs (aka Fifty Gates of Wisdom)' is worth listening.
I didn't know whether or not to include Israel. I know geographically it's Asia, but culturally it's more European plus they're not present at the Asian Games, so I decided to skip them. Of course if anyone knows some Israeli gems, they're more than welcome to let us know here :D


Very happy with recs so far, even plenty of stuff not from Japan or Korea, and I completely forgot about M.I.A. and Yaeji! I think they deserve a place here and in the same vein I think we can mention Japanese Breakfast as well. Some more unacclaimed Asian music that hasn't been mentioned yet, most of which I got to know through movies and this forum:
Babymetal - Karate and Gimme Chocolate (kawaii metal which might be the best name for a genre ever)
X Japan - Kurenai (hard rock)
Ayumi Ishida - Blue Light Yokohama (1960s Japan)
LOONA/yyxy ft. Grimes - love4eva and the wonderfully catchy Heart Attack by LOONA/Chuu (yes, some KPop)
MAMAMOO - Starry Night (more KPop)
No Joe Hisaishi mentioned yet? He did the soundtrack for plenty of Studio Ghibli movies, here's Spirited Away's The Name of Life.


Edit: Forgot some!
Sheena Ringo (of course) with Soretsu (Funeral) or basically that whole album
The Japanese weirdness of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Invader Invader
and Khruangbin, not really Asian I think, but often described as Thai funk.
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bonnielaurel
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by bonnielaurel »

Ravi Shankar - Three Classical Ragas (India, 1956)
Gamelan Gong Kebyar - Gamelan Music from Bali (Indonesia, 1972)
Kim Jung Mi - Now (South Korea, 1973)
Giora Feidman - The Magic of the Klezmer (Israel, 1986)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt (Pakistan, 1990)
Noa - Noa (Israel, 1994)
Noa - Blue Touches Blue (Israel, 2000)
Sheena Ringo - Shoso Strip (Japan, 2000)
Yasmin Levy - La Judería (Israel, 2005)
Ilham Al Madfai - The Voice of Iraq (Iraq, 2005)
Azam Ali - Elysium for the Brave (Iran, 2006)
Mercan Dede - Nefes (Turkey, 2006)
M.I.A. - Kala (Sri Lanka, 2007)
Sevda Alekperzadeh - Gül Açdi: A Flower in Bloom (Azerbaijan, 2007)
Mor Karbasi - The Beauty and the Sea (Israel, 2008)
Sevda Alekperzadeh - Worlds of Love (Azerbaijan, 2009)
Anoushka Shankar - Traces of You (UK, 2013)
Mor Karbasi - La Tsadika (Israel, 2013)
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BeckJohn21
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Re: Asian music recommendations

Post by BeckJohn21 »

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will check them out!
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