Fiddle, accordion, and a singing drummer. Seven minutes and fifty seven seconds of Gypsy music from Ukraine, live in Budapest. The real thing. Totally wailing. Kickass.
Técső Banda at Kertem.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Oct 10, 2009 -
23 comments
Stan Hugill, often known as "
The Last Shantyman," authored a
book called
Shanties From the Seven Seas, based on his own work experiences in the last days of sail. Influential in the folk revival, the book is one of the most important written sources for music sung aboard ships in the 19th and early 20th century,
the "Bible" of sea music. Decades of chanteying in pubs and at festivals have kept many of the songs alive, but in most cases they've strayed stylistically from the verses and versions Hugill collected, or dropped out of popularity entirely. Now,
one musician is returning to the source and creating a new audio archive for the original versions of the songs as written, by
singing through the more than 400 songs in the book, one song each week, and posting the songs on YouTube, with commentary.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Jun 15, 2009 -
28 comments
The
Vocaloids,
1 anime-like characters created for the singing synthasizer program by the Yamaha Corporation, have been capturing the imaginations of Japanese fans for more than a year. They've inspired and starred in a large body of fan-produced songs and animated videos,
2 ranging from macabre to sorrowful to dramatic to humorous. [Massive MLYTP]
[more inside]
posted by anthy
on Jan 28, 2009 -
7 comments
In Mongolia, overtone singing (or hoomei, as it's known locally) is mainly a guy thing, but there are exceptions to the rule, for example, the
Hoomei Women's Group. More commonly though, women who want to sing do so in an exquisite, soaring style like
this and
this. Sometimes the men do the hoomei thing while the women do that
soaring thing. Then there are those lovely
choral arrangements. And then there are those rare moments when the YouTube poster's description of a clip just hits the nail square on the head, as with this one:
amazing.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Feb 29, 2008 -
23 comments
UCLA's Awaken A Capella does some strange, beautiful things with the power of combined human voices. From
Ave Maria to
Mr Roboto, their oeuvre spans the spectrum. More clips, including Like a Prayer and Walk Like an Egyptian, available on their
MySpace page. Their version of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek," available through KCRW's daily
podcast, is sublime.
posted by gottabefunky
on Sep 14, 2006 -
42 comments
"The extraordinary radiance of the voice. I still remember that. The extraordinary, enveloping, overwhelming beauty of Ferrier's voice."
When
Kathleen Ferrier died at 41 in October 1953, she was as famous as the newly crowned Queen.
A working class girl from Blackpool who had to quit school at 14 to work as a telephone operator, a young woman who lacked formal musical training and whose husband bet that she would never win a music contest, Ferrier -- under the guidance of the great conductor
Bruno Walter -- went on to become an international superstar. An "
ordinary diva" who humbly
worshipped "
Herr Doktor Bruno Walter", gave very few newspaper interviews, never appeared on television or in cinema newsreels. Her speaking voice can be heard only briefly and only twice, on a tape made at a post-concert New York party, and in a short speech she made for the BBC at an Edinburgh Festival. Her extraordinary career lasted only less than 12 years.
Half a century later, although her legacy lives on through her music,
Ferrier herself -- "Klever Kaff" -- remains elusive. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Dec 3, 2005 -
11 comments
Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol. Gap-toothed and described by judges as "with the looks of a hobbit," the Norwegian plumber with the voice of an angel proves that there's hope for all of us to become popstars. True talent triumphs!
posted by dagny
on Jan 1, 2004 -
20 comments
Computer generated singer, $200. Vocaloid software, which is due to be released to consumers in January, allows users to cast their own (or anyone else's) songs in a disembodied but exceedingly life-like concert-quality voice.
Vocaloid will be able to "sing" whatever combination of notes and words a user feeds it. The first generation of the software will be available for $200. [NYTimes link]
posted by Outlawyr
on Nov 24, 2003 -
23 comments
Sing, Wing! This is so good:
"Hi, I am Wing! I immigrated to New Zealand with my family about ten years ago from Hong Kong. I have been learning singing in New Zealand and I do performances in Rest Homes and Hospitals.
Don't miss her, eh, "treatment" of the Carpenters, and
Summertime.
posted by sparky
on Jun 7, 2003 -
20 comments
Does anyone care that nobody needs to sing well anymore? Spot-on piece about the way that digital music tools aren't just making rotten singers sound OK (with software that shifts their pitch upwards), but good singers lazy ("hey that's fine, just copy'n'paste it into the next chorus").
And removing the excitement from studio performance. Is the only honest response to this electro-fakery to go all
Daft Punk? Or am I just an old Stevie'n'Retha'n'Marvin nostalgist?
posted by theplayethic
on Feb 14, 2002 -
53 comments
I hope ASCAP is proud. I don't know about you, but I'll be sure to notify all Girl Scouts I know, that singing copyrighted material (you know like "Happy Birthday and "God Bless America") at camp might just land there camp directors behind bars.
posted by Qambient
on May 2, 2001 -
25 comments
Ashcroft sings! Actually, seems like it was 4 or 5 years ago, but hey, it's still catchy. MP3 contained at link to TheSmokingGun.com
posted by daver
on Jan 23, 2001 -
5 comments
