🎧 What Are You Listening To? (Part 3)

Smoker's Lounge
1886
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1887
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1888
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1889
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1891

I was a drummer in a few African Ensembles (Guinean, Haitian, and Ghanian) in my younger years and although I grew up listening to Metal, Punk and the classics (Zeppelin, Floyd) and later got into the Dead, this is the album that I wake up to in the morning: Taj Mahal Kulanjan

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1892

Awesome choice, if I say so myself! Such a beautiful album. I completely understand how it would be music to wake up to!

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1893
1894

Such a great album.

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1895
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1898

It truly is. There is so much fantastic music out there. Songs from the entities experiencing a brief lifetime on the surface of a speck of dust that is falling into an enormous fireball hurtling through the vast emptiness of space.

It seems a shame that all our combined experiences will one-day cease exist.

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1899
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1900
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1902

Now that I am awake and starting my work day, I have put on my favorite band of all time: Sonic Youth

I love this album

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1903

Thank you @mota. It is a true gem.

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1904

This is one of the most amazing “site” recordings I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. This record was my introduction to gamelan probably 50 years ago and I still love it today.

Gamelan is music originally from Indonesia and surrounding areas. (You can learn more about gamelan here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan.) It spread as far as North Africa/Sudan. It has become inculcated into many cultures and societies, and it can present in a wide variety of styles and sounds. I believe the instrumentation remains essentially the same throughout its range.

As I recall (I lost my copy of this record years ago), this is Balinese gamelan. It is primarily a bunch of folks, I believe mostly men, sitting cross legged in concentric circles and chanting. I suspect it sounds a lot like the local monkeys/wildlife. There is at least one lead vocalist who shows up now and then. Mostly it’s the group, or perhaps it’s two groups chanting back and forth or doing some kind of call and response. I don’t know.

The entire record is just about 36 1/2 minutes, and you likely have never heard anything quite like it.

This is a traditional monkey chant. To my simple mind, this recording is as stunningly beautiful as it is amazing. I fucking love it. I hope you like it too.

Edit - I should have mentioned that the vocals/chanting, which I feel is the most exciting and propulsive part of the recording, begins about half way through the recording.

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1905

Very nice! An old buddy of mine, the only guy in the video with the beard, started playing with the ensemble Gamelan Sekar Jaya back in ~1996. He is still a primary member of the group. Gamelan drums are amazing.

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