Swedes On Sunday

We finish off this week's whistle-stop world tour in Sweden, with something ancient and modern. DJ Embee of the Loop Troop Rockers - not an ensemble whose work I am familiar with, I'm afraid - has teamed up with folk singer Esmeralda Moberg to perform poems written by his Dad, Roger Bergkvist, in a folk-tinged trip hop style. The resulting album is called Skuggpoeten, and it is out now.

The combination is occasionally a little soporific, but when it works it works extremely well. As these two examples demonstrate.

"Stad Vriden At Soder" - Skuggpoeten

"Kvarnforsen" - Skuggpoeten

Can anyone think of other Swedish groups that have successfully combined beats with more ethnic sounds? Oh yes...

Merengue!!!

Here at 27 Leggies we started the week in India before moving on to South Africa. So let's keep heading west, to the Caribbean. Specifically, the Dominican Republic, home of that master of the merengue, Wilfrido Vargas. Here are a few of his choice selections to get you in the mood for the weekend.

"Me Duele El Corazon" - Wilfrido Vargas

"Chevere-Anti-Chevere" - Wilfrido Vargas

"El Extraterrestre" - Wilfrido Vargas

I assume that last one is about aliens. So's this.

Freddie Gwala

Here are some South African sounds from the 1990s for you. Not Tsonga Disco, for a change, but not too far off in style.

Freddie Gwala served eight years for car theft way back when. On his release he begun to make his name in the music business, initially as a writer/producer for gospel group Pure Gold and then Platform 1, specialists in wedding songs. He kick-started his solo career with a massive hit in the form of "Amadamara". Here it is, together with a track from his later "Amadamara 4" album, which according to the ever-reliable Max Mojapelo went gold in either 1996 or 1997. "Amadamara 4" is available for download on Amazon, and probably elsewhere.

"Amadamara" - Freddie Gwala

"Guma Faya" - Freddie Gwala

Here is old Freddie in action:



And as a special bonus, here is an even older Freddie in action:

Punjabi Pop

Here are a couple of tracks I first featured way back in the early days of this blog, when visitors were few and far between and passers-by generally just kept passing. I have dusted them off because I think they deserve a larger audience.

Jasbir Jassi is a leading purveyor of Punjabi pop. You can find out more about him in the Profile section of his website where, if you are so inclined, you can also take innocent pleasure in the slightly wonky English. I particularly like the reference to him being the most "dotted-on" member of his family, which makes it sound like someone got carried away when applying the tilaka.

These two songs are from the late 1990s, but he is still going strong.

"Kudi Kudi" - Jasbir Jassi

"Dil Le Gayee" - Jasbir Jassi

And here he is in action.

Singles Club

This is the latest in our irregular series of highlights from my singles collection. These selections come from the period 1975 to 1983, which gives you a pretty good idea of when I stopped buying singles on a regular basis.

There is something for everyone here. As long as everyone likes either post-punk, post-punk-funk, pop-jazz, overhyped but underrated glam rock, disco versions of songs by the Animals or reggae versions of songs by Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme.

"I Just Want To Stay Here (And Love You)" - Derrick & Paulette (1975)

"House Of The Rising Sun/ Quasimodo Suite" - Santa Esmeralda (1977)

"Danger Signs" - Penetration (1979)

"The Devil Lives In My Husband's Body" - Pulsallama (1982)

"Passion Killer" - One The Juggler (1983)

"Native Boy" - Animal Nightlife (1983)

Santa Esmeralda were attempting to repeat a trick, having previously scored a major hit with another Animals cover version. This one.

Lots Of Bots

A few months ago Mr F and I went on a very pleasant jaunt from Antwerp to Cologne, picking up assorted bits of vinyl along the way. I finally got round to converting them to mp3 format over the weekend. To be honest, none of them are what I would call long-lost classics, but some of them are quite entertaining.

One such is "Aufstehn", the 1980 album by bots - they insisted on using lower case, no doubt for deeply symbolic reasons. That one cost me €1 in an Oxfam shop in Cologne, and was worth every cent.

What little I know about bots has been gleaned from a German language Wikipedia page, as massacred by Google Translate. They were a Dutch band who released their first album in 1975. At some point towards the end of that decade they became popular in Germany and began to release albums in German. It is not clear from the translation whether the albums were released simultaneously in both Dutch and German or exclusively in German.

The main man in bots was Hans Sanders, the singer and guitarist who also wrote the tunes and the original Dutch lyrics (the German lyrics were provided by assorted songwriters, authors and journalists and are apparently very socially aware). He died in Eindhoven in 2007. Special mention must also go to the wonderfully named Bonkie Bongaerts on piano. His current whereabouts are unknown. Are you out there, Bonkie?

Anyway, here is the title track (which translates as "Get Up") and the opener (which I guess translates as "The Man"). Apologies for the slightly ropey quality.

"Der Mann" - bots

"Aufstehn" - bots

One of those responsible for the German lyrics was Wolf Biermann, an East German singer-songwriter who had defected to the West in the mid 1970s bringing with him his step-daughter, one Nina Hagen.

Rose/Thorn Interface

Here are a few songs on the tricky subject of roses and thorns and whether they go together. The first two take a conventional view, before our old friends Jesus Couldn't Drum provide a twist in the tail.

These songs are dedicated to all the English roses of my acquaintance (apart from Jesus Couldn't Drum - none of them are nutters in the garden who sing to the concrete gnomes, at least not as far as I am aware).

"Cactus And A Rose" - Gary Stewart

"The Bramble And The Rose" - Mary McCaslin & Jim Ringer

"Even Roses Have Thorns" - Jesus Couldn't Drum

Here is some more rose-related fun.