December 27, 2006
The 2006 Macaca Music Poll: The Results Are In!Music
YES YES YALL, and you dont stop! Its the moment youve been waiting for. I am happy to bring you the results of the 2006 Inaugural Sepia Mutiny Macaca Music Poll. It took me some time to compile the results, a task made both necessary and pleasant by the high quality and fabulous diversity of your submissions. The best part of all, for me, was that you forced me to listen to a whole lot of music Id never heard of, or not gotten around to hear. Dhanyawad, bahut dhanyawad, for expanding my ears.
After weeding out submissions of music that came out earlier than 2006, and disregarding entries of a trollish or spamlike nature, we were left with 56 valid ballots. They seem to divide evenly among men and women, confirming that music geekery is a democratic and universal condition. Regulars and lurkers are evenly represented as well. The full list of voters is at the end of this post.
And now…drumroll please…the results:
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
Your favorite music of 2006 came from Gnarls Barkley, the dynamic duo project of Atlanta hip-hop mavericks Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse. Their song Crazy was a ubiquitous hit of 2006, the years best song according to Rolling Stone, and the album, St. Elsewhere made numerous critics lists. It seems like the Sepia crowd agrees.
Tied for second place were Ali Farka Touré, for his beautiful final album Savane, and and this one surprised me the Russian-raised, New York-based antifolk singer Regina Spektor, for her album Begin to Hope and the song Fidelity.
Fourth place went to the Omkara soundtrack featuring the song Beedi. This was the highest ranked desi entry, rounding out a very cool top foursome of alt-hip-hop, African, alt-folk, and filmi.
The cluster of acts tied for fifth place only underscore the diversity: Arctic Monkeys, Decemberists, Ghostface Killah, the Guru soundtrack, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, John Legend, Kailash Kher, Lily Allen, Nelly Furtado, The Roots, and TV on the Radio.
DESI-FROM-DESH DIVISION
Lots of music direct from the desh. The filmi mavens loved the music from Omkara, Guru, and Rang de Basanti. Several other Hindi and Tamil films earned isolated mentions.
The top individual artist from desh was Kailash Kher for his album Kailasa as well as specific song contributions to films. Jai Singh, Msichana and Sonia Kaur all enthusiastically recommended this brother, and Im thrilled they did. I didnt know of him, and I love what Ive now heard.
Again a whole bunch of individual artists earned single mentions, and you can be sure well be tracking their work and writing posts about them when the time is right!
WHO YOU CALLIN’ MACACA??? DIVISION
Your fellow macacas diasporic desis were all up in this piece. Among the four favorites were two who do desi-infused music, Karsh Kale and Susheela Raman, one in a folk band, Nicky Mehta of the Wailin’ Jennys and one who leads a good ol rock and roll band, Ramesh Srivastava and his band Voxtrot.
Also getting their propers were, among others, MC Kabir, Prasanna, and our own Srirams Duology Band. From across the water, Red Snapper tips us to Britons Vijay Kishore and the band Bat for Lashes, featuring Natasha Khan.
BEST OF THE REST
Acts earning multiple mentions that I havent listed yet included DeVotchKa, Hot Chip, Justin Timberlake (dont hate!), Lady Sovereign, Lupe Fiasco, Osvaldo Golijov, Strokes, Tom Waits, The Weepies, and Yo La Tengo.
In all, you recommended 161 different artists, groups or soundtracks, from genres including rock, hip-hop, R&B, electronica, jazz, opera, folk, filmi, African, Latin, Sufi and more.
BEST COMMENT
Some of you took the time to write comments alongside your submissions. Theres some really good music criticism out there in Sepia-land. But the comment that really struck me the most wasnt to do with a specific song or artist. It was about the way people experience music in real life: spontaneous, disorganized, and free of the curatorial biases of critics, labels, genres, tastemakers, and year-end lists. From the real world of Virginia where she does the Lords work edumaca(ca)tin the youth, Coach Diesel reports:
My kids are mixing Punjabi MC/ Bhangra mixes with live snare samba rhythms on the playing field. The bandleader sets up turntables, a DVD player/burner and then they mix it up with the marching band. So we got samba (Brazilian), Bhangra (Indian) and Southern American Hip-Hop when the Bandleader starts rhyming along with the steppers, who add percussion.
AND FINALLY… THE IST AWARD
You KNOW folks were late submitting their ballots, and you KNOW they played the IST card to excuse their procrastination. But the IST prize goes to Terence, whose entry arrived this morning. Sorry, man, Im done with my spreadsheet. But your choices matched up nicely with the final list!
A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE VOTERS
Maximum respect to: Abhi, AC, Ali, Amelie-Freak, Ankur, Arti, Arun, Ashvin, AT, Brimful, Camille, Cicatrix, Coach Diesel, Daniel, Deepa, Deepak, DesiDancer, Dhaavak, DJ Drrrty Poonjabi, Drac, DTK, Hemant, Hemu, Himali, Jai Singh, Jeet, Kenyandesi, Kurma, Milind, Msichana, Neal S., Neale, Neha, Nik, Nikhil, PG, Pied Piper, Pooja, Rano, Red Snapper, Rekha, Saheli, Sarosh, Shireen, Shodan, Shree, Shruti, Sonia Kaur, Sriram, Suneer, Talia, Tamasha, Tapti, Taz, Tony, Ylrsings.
If anyone would like to help make this post more interactive, please suggest links or web pages for the various artists in the comment thread.
Peace to James Brown! Well play again next year!
siddhartha on December 27, 2006 11:30 AM in Music · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Brilliant! Another evening planned for youtube music surfing. Thanks for doing this Siddhartha.
Yay, new music to listen to! Thanks for putting this together Siddhartha =)
Wow! I'm surprised too. I thought my lesbian friends and I were the only ones who had ever heard of her :)
Thanks for pulling all this together, Siddhartha!
Too good.
You're the man, sniffles or not.
Lawwwd!
I feel honored. Truly.
Thanks Siddhartha, for the props, the posts and the peeps.
Besos,
Coach
crap! i was just about to email my picks in...;-) i was surprised there was no mention of cat power's "the greatest".
regardless, thanks for all the work it took to put this together, siddhartha.
She received just one mention, that's why I didn't list her name. This thread is the place to dissect the results and lobby for your under-appreciated faves! And - thanks for the props y'all. This is fun!
Thanks, Siddhartha! I with Sonia, so much new music to listen to.
Really? Regina Spektor? :)
Solid selections...The Godfather and Gerry Ford pass just days apart: I dedicate 'You Can Have Watergate, Just Gimme Some Bucks & I'll Be Straight' to both as I pour my Kingfisher to the ground!
whohoooo!
ATL representing #1...
fantastic...
the peach is fuzzier and mightier than one may think ;)...
oh hell, I totally forgot about Lady Sovereign!
Thanks, Siddartha, for taking the time to put together a great post!
Great selection! Since there is no mention of any Tamil songs I thought I would add 4 songs from A.R.Rahman's Sillunnu Oru Kadhal in the order I like them. Enjoy the clips below from youtube.
Movie: Sillunu Oru Kaadhal - 2006
Music: A.R.Rahman
Munbe Vaa
Singers: Shreya Ghoshal and Naresh Iyer
NewYork Nagaram
Singer: A.R.Rahman
Machakaari
Singers: Vasundhara Das, Shankar Mahadevan
Maja Maja
Singers: Shreya Ghoshal, SPB.Charan
and 5 more
Movie: Vettaiyadu Villaiyaadu - 2006
Music: Harris Jeyaraj
Uyirile
Singers: Mahalakshmi, Srinivas
Paartha Mudhal
Singers: Bombay Jayasri, Unni Menon
Manjal Veiyil
Singers: Hariharan, Nakul, Vijay
Karka Karka
Singers: Andrea, Devan, Nakul, Tippu
Loosu Penne
Movie: Vallavan - 2006
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Singer: Simbu
Thanks Fantam! Tamil Filmi Represent!
more Tamil
A remix of an old great
Rockin' post, Siddhartha. Though, I'm a bit miffed because the post reveals my inherent lack of coolness. Lady Sov's album was the only one on my list that received any mention, :(. Still, there's some great music on the lists and it's going to be fun checking it all out.
--Kurt Vonnegut
Not sure if that first link worked! Here's what I was trying to get at...
Yogi B n Nachathira Feat Lock Up - Madai Thiranthu
nice work my man
keep on rockin!
I urge everyone to check out Sangam by Charles Lloyd. There's some great interplay between Ustad Zakir Hussein and Eric Harland. It's the best interaction between eastern and western percussion I've ever heard. Also, show some love for The Roots' album, Game Theory. I don't listen to much hip hop, but this could be the best hip hop record I've ever heard (by contrast, Lady Sov was on my list as a guilty pleasure).
Great stuff, Siddhartha :)
John Legend ! I can't believe I forgot to vote for that supersmooth guy. As a hardcore soul afficionado in my younger days, Mr Legend gets two thumbs-up from me too.
RIP James Brown. What a great influence he was on Prince in particular -- especially his on-stage dancing with his microphone.
OK check out this lady whose album my girlfriend hasnt stopped playing for the last month -- produced by Mark Ronson I think....
Amy Winehouse
Reality is ugly,
Art is fancy,
And Kurt is ballsy.
That Kailash Kher video was shot in Hyderabad...sigh...
Youtube music surfing takes you to great places. Here is one of the wonders I alighted on. A blind jazz musician who plays TWO SAXOPHONES AT THE SAME TIME! Yes you read that right, he plays TWO saxophones at the same time. And he plays a version of Aretha Franklin's 'Say a Little Prayer'
Rashaan Roland Kirk
Please post any similar mind-blowing and horizon-expanding musical clips from the treasure trove that is youtube here if you know of them -- don't be selfish, share the love. I have hours to waste.
#13
No, Thank YOU Siddhartha for a great thread and the opportunity to share. A couple of the songs in #12 are set in New York. So hope you get to see New York through Tamil Film Music.
I heard that the song White and Nerdy was voted for too
More Voxtrot, because I love them:
Soft & Warm
Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives
The Start of Something (my favorite song!)
Long Haul
Enjoy!
It's not the best hip hop record ever made, but it's HELLA good, and it made my top 5 for 2006. I debated whether to put Hip Hop is Dead by Nas on my list, as I had heard the album only a few days before I sent in my list. It probably won't mean much to you if you're not already a head, but it's a SOLID album fo sho. And I can't believe Pick A Bigger Weapon by The Coup didn't get any honorable mentions! How can you resist once you've seen the cover? And it's totally danceable, even if you don't dig the lyrics.
Teeri Deewani by Kher was my #5 pick (I realized to late I sent in 4 entries, not 5 ;P
Fantastic job on this...I can't wait to find/listen to this amazing collection of music :)
what happened to zerobridge ?
www.myspace.com/zerobridge
damn sid...why you got to call out my IST like that? well, i'll take solace in the fact that 3/5 of my pics made the cut.
shruti - i had the same thoughts about nas. verdict still out, but the use of incredible bongo band's "apache" on hip hop is dead is AWESOME.
one of mine that didn't make the list, and i think is worth people checking out (even if you don't listen to hip hop) is j dilla's donuts. one of hip hop's most influential producers (he passed away this year and did stuff for tribe, common, the roots, de la soul, janet jackson, busta, erkyah badu, d'angelo, etc) put out a great instrumental-type album. definitely worth a listen
and yeah, thanks sid...this was a great idea. i've got plenty of new music to listen to now
finally...RIP james brown...the godfather of soul...and what i'll call the grandfather of hip hop (check out this section of the-breaks.com, scroll down to james brown, and see how MANY hip hop songs sampled james brown...incredible!!)
Thanks Siddarth for putting the list together.
Two questions:
1.I have never bought music form iTunes and suchlike. With all the fantastic suggestions here I am going to take the plunge. How does having music on your laptop/iPOD compare to owning the actual CDs?
2.What is the best site to buy the desi albums? Or the Tamil ones?
And, my 2006 music-makes-the-world-a-better-place moment was hearing a bunch of Spanish backpackers churning out Radiohead on their guitars at a snowed out Frankfurt Main. I am sure you guys have yours too....
and this one surprised me the Russian-raised, New York-based antifolk singer Regina Spektor, for her album Begin to Hope and the song Fidelity.
Shruti-- I thought the exact same thing when I voted for her. Now try being a straight male explaining to his friends why he likes Ani Difranco...
-- Hemant
In terms of sound quality, there is no difference. I was a naysayer for a long time, but I'm a convert to the "digital music revolution." And while there will be some obscure music you can't find on iTunes, and even some not obscure music (e.g., The Beatles), there's plenty on there that you will like. Plus, there's the convenience factor, which can be a bad thing of you tend to buy music impulsively (raising hand).
Shruti the Coup have been the TRUTH for years and tears...when will boots get his due? NAS though.....NAS..what happened to the PRIMO collabo? 'Hip Hop is Dead'...lyrically is on point...the music though...not feeling...NAS could never pick beats...he needs Large Pro and Pete Rock.
Neale, there's no Radiohead on iTunes either, but there's a million other things. Kudos to them for ease of use, and depth of catalogue. Suprising depths in terms of Indian classical and carnatic stuff. Somewhat less comprehensive on the filmi tip. But what I find annoying is the format, which really works best for Apple
cultistsenthusiasts. AAC when the rest of the world's on mp3? WTF? It's a pain in the butt if you're using an actual mp3 player instead of an iPod. I'm thinking of jumping ship and going to Napster.Speaking of Radiohead and Spaniards, you're going to want to make time for this. One of the finest pieces of music journalism I've ever read.
It's great. It's far less traumatic a changeover than that from vinyl to CDs. What you don't get on a regular basis with MP3s is the cover and booklet info, and sometimes that's a real lack, especially when the lyrics are interesting and printed in the booklet. But slowly but surely this stuff is getting electronic too. Album cover art is now loaded up on iTunes and surely more will follow.
But in terms of sound quality, it's great -- unless you are a hyper-audiophile, but in that case you should really be dealing with one of those $8,000 turntables with the external motor and the layer of oil that absorbs any shocks, etc etc... For the rest of us, MP3s are terrific.
The real advantage of course is convenience, capacity, and ease of archiving and sorting. The important thing to bear in mind is that files are large and your hard drive will get filled up pretty fast once you get the addiction. Especially if you have a laptop, you need to invest in an external hard drive ($150-200 or so) where you can store your music safely and in large quantities. It also protects you from disaster should your computer have a meltdown.
As for iPods, everyone has their own approach. I keep an iPod Nano which I load up only with the most recent stuff that I need to listen to for professional reasons. In general I don't like listening to music when I'm going about the city - I like the sounds of the city. But on the subway and whatnot, it's a good use of the time.
A great question! Ideas and recommendations out there?
OH and a third for DONUTS...J Dilla true legend!
And what does one do with all the free time, what with reduced opportunities to re-arrange, re-box, look under the car seat, call up suspicious borrowers, linger over liner notes, and revel in the jewel box mayhem around oneself :-)
Haha, I think I am in the Sriram boat for most of this. Like Jai, I have to give big ups for John Legend - that man is amazing, and his second album is soooo sweet. I'm also The Weepies girl, which is good for those who love vocal melodies and simple folk/wuss-rock. And for anyone who watched Little Miss Sunshine and loved the score, you have to check out Devotchka. The first time I heard them was Winter 2005, and I thought they were amazing. I am a sucker for bands with cellos, though.
Shruti, I really like the new Nas also, but hadn't taken a good listen before the poll :( I am so surprised that Three 6 Mafia didn't get a head nod!
Neale, I have a lot of iTunes singles, which I think are awesome (and that is what iTunes is awesome for - that and getting music that costs an arm and a leg to ship from some random group), but as a music collector I really like having my CDs for full albums, not only because I like the liner art and holding the CD in my hands, but also because I worry less about backing up my music and because the sound quality is better, which is pretty inevitable with .wav vs. .mp3 or mp4 or whatever the iTunes files are labelled.
Damn!!! I pulled an allnighter Monday organizing/adding to/prioritizing my music wishlists. Some of what I have on deck meshes with the lists above. Talk about a neverending task!
Shameless emphatic plug: Nina Simone Remixed & Reimagined; Aterciopelados Oye and Two Ton Boa Parisiticide !
You DC folks MUST get on 9:30 Club's waiting list...they book all genres and all acts. This is my home away from home. If it weren't for work I'd be there at least once a week.
Good job Siddartha, perhaps you could do a mini-version quarterly???
Oh, but the smaller storage capability is awesome. Especially if you are still at a place in life where you are moving all the time and packing up your CDs alone causes injury :)
Try Music India Online.
Kobayashi my brother, say wha??? Everything I've ever purchased from the iTunes store is MP3 and successor/compatible formats (currently M4P).
m4p aint mp3. And that sheez don't convert easy.
Come out of the cult, my brother, come into the light.
itunes and other downloads are good and all --- in fact they are perfect. Simple and convenient. Download and then put on your Mp3 player. All that. But, I already missed vinyl, and now I'm even missing CD --- about actually buying the thing over the counter, in a shop, reading the sleeve notes, when music was an object and a physical thing.
Call me luddite, but I don't care, there's something missing with this new-fangled space age load-down malarkey. Now let me look through my LP collection. I have an original edition of The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead', you know.
What kind of ghetto MP3 player are you using? I'm going to have to have a word with Mrs Kobayashi about a birthday present for you.
Thanks K for the Alex Ross link.
And here is one of the most vicious articles in music journalism i have ever read.
Thanks for the input on iTunes, iPod, CDs,....
Neale that's not vicious, alot of truth in that piece.
Oh, sure, Snapper, sure. But I tell you, you have it easy. I have the first Solti Ring. You don't know what it is to live in dread of an accidental scratch.
And don't get me started on my wax cylinders. I've got Caruso doing Vesti la giubba in 1903. Mind you I can only play it at night, in case the subway makes the floor rumble. And only once every three years, so as not to wear out the grooves.
The kind that plays mp3s. Now, sir, I refuse to discuss religion further with you.
There are these thingies called iPods you might check out. Or if you prefer to dance with the devil, Zune.
Talking of religion. Here's a miracle.
I have a iPod shuffle that emerged unscathed through a complete wash cycle with my gym clothes.
I love the way conversations with Mac cultists always end up with them saying you should by an Apple product. Oh if everyone just bought iStuff, the world would solve itself. As I said, I'm an atheist, and your religion bores me.
Baas! Back to music!
ha! i like all this faux siddhartha-kobayashi banter, because as we all know, you two are the same person! ;-)
The Guillemots got no mention but from me?? More people should be listening to them.
Mr Kobayashi
Check out your parents or uncle and aunties collections of Hindi film vinyl from the 1960's and 1970's for brown retro chic. Sexy as hell.
You only have the first Solti Ring? That's nothing. I used mine as a frisbee. I actually have the stuffed body of the original HMV dog.
And not a single mention of lossless audio formats, compression algorithms, intercompatibility (well, you almost went there), or any real geek-talk from either of you? For shame! I was expecting more.
FYI, Siddartha, expect my absentee ballot from rural North Carolina any minute. Confound this stupid Wilkesboro place! Confound it, I say! Oh wait, I think it's been confounded for some time.
Since Mr. K. is being all polite and shit, let me just add that most iTunes files do not transfer easily, thanks to the annoying idiot child that is DRM. And don't even mention the goddamn Zune...or hey, how come Bluetooth has been out for years now, and there are ZERO mp3 players with bluetooth headphones? Stupid paranoid companies; they think they can prevent us from sharing music, but really all they can do is prevent you from having fun with their product.
So with sharing music in mind, thanks for writing up this list, guy. Great stuff! I can't wait to go download a bunch of it illegally, decide how much I like it, and subsequently purchase or neglect the album. :-)
Anytamil is a great place to get Tamil and other Indian CDs, DVDs of all genres. Check it out.
A nice list of songs for 2006. Good job. Was pleasantly surprised to find Beedi in there.
I love the way conversations with Mac cultists always end up with them saying you should by an Apple product. Oh if everyone just bought iStuff, the world would solve itself. As I said, I'm an atheist, and your religion bores me.
Oh Mr K. If you only knew... You better sit down for this.
http://www.churchofsatan.com/home.html
For anyone interested, here were my picks:
Terry Poison - Buzz on the Bell
Corporate Soundtrack - O Sikander
The Knife - We Share Our Mother's Health
Psapp - Cosy in the Rocket
Marit Bergman vs. Justus Kohncke - Rentcode
Really?? No Nirag Chag??
People!!!! Start listening!!
I admit the video is a bit over dramatic....but the music...Oooooo to DIE FOR!! TO D.I.E F.O.R!!!
Neither of these two are 06 artists but what the hey...
Indian Classical Music seems under-represented.
Sanjeev Abhyankar. Pandit Jasraj's chela. Amazing voice and skills. Check out Megh.
Brother Ali is still getting slept on :( Ant is still a janitor :(
26: Tamasha
Bassist Jason Chronis demo is very in unVoxtrotlike but worth checking out. If diligent websurfing doesnt unearth it, I can help offline.
30: terence
Did you get a chance to check Ghostface / Fishscale / Whip You With A Strap? It has a lovely J Dilla beat.
Free JAYLIB VS. J ROCC here.
31 · Neale
Give eMusic a shot. SaReGaMas song credits suck, but its a good place to buy old desi tunes. Bad audio quality and all.
:'( None of my top five made the list. I'll definitely check out the bands listed here.
Keep on rockin' in the free world macacas! Use this guy for inspiration:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XcxhB_-6DSA
Fantastic! Thank you for pulling this together Siddhartha.
Estrella Morente's Mujeres didn't garner more than a single mention? Well here she is performing Zambra live.
Or you can watch her perform live in NYC in 2007.
Siddartha,
Thanks for the you tube clip of James Brown. I'm from GA, so this put a tear in my eye. I was playing JB CDs all day long after Christmas Day, at work. My co-workers didn't seem to mind, since they were big JB fans also.
You made my day!
my 4 others...surprisingly, my list matches up rather well to the BBC world music award nominees...
Cheb I Sabbah: Toura Toura
Kamini: Maly-Gomont
Daby Toure: Iris
Emmanuel Jal - Gua
Gua live on youtube
Siddartha: thanks for putting this together...good fun..
Gatamala: Brilliant call with Atericopilados' "Oye"...great great album.
Arti: Niraj Chag - thanks for the the link..totally forgot about him. Used to love his Outcaste works. Just realized that Karsh Kale sampled that the same vocals in the DnB "Destroy the Icon - Bone Cruise Mix" (which I wish I could post-share with you) off of the 2002 remix album: "Redesign" That track "Bangle".
MP4/WAV: An audiophile's anecdote: Earlier this year, I finally got a big pay check after one my clients signed to an indie and I spent a nice portion of this payout (with the wife's blessing of course) on Part 1 of my dream audio system: A British-made integrated amp (Exposure) and two hand made speakers by (Brooklyn's Devore Fidelity) connected by Oval 8 cables all from In Living Stereo in the City (www.inlivingstereo.com). Albums that I have been listening to all my life suddenly came back to life. It is nothing less than stunning. My ears never get tired.
At first I assumed I would never have to go through the nearly 4000 CD's again since I had uploaded most onto a couple external HD's - most of them in AAC format/160kpbs compression. The moment I played a CD from my average cd player and compared it to the same track playing from the Ipod, I noticed a world of a difference. Compression of the data from WAV to MP4/AAC/MP3 squashes the signal. That's why a really well-mixed album that has not been mastered can often sound better than a "par" mastered album..(mastering compresses the signal, filters out the highs and lows of the bandwith..badly done can muddle an album). Now when I am casually listening to music, I throw on the Ipod. When I want to really "listen"..I use the CD. Listening to CD's also reigns in my ADD: forcing me to listen to an album the way the artist intended it - from beginning to end. Part 2 of my dream system will have to wait until a client of mine signs to a Major: a Shindo Lab Tub Amp and a high end turntable rig..nothing sounds like vinyl.
You're welcome! In that spirit, here are images from this afternoon on 125...
...ok, it wasn't me that brought down iTunes .
Last year I read a lot about Beirut and Istanbul being big party places. And I am a sucker for club/dance/electronica music that incorporates Arabic and Middle Eastern influences. Any recommendations anyone?
I swear this blew me away!
How did this genre come about? Jaffna? Toronto? Chennai? I am intrigued.
More on Nirag Chag. I sent the link out to this post to several friends, and my friend Vishal K. reminded me that Nirag Chag was the man behind Dum Dum Project. I sat around Vishal's place with Shanti from DDP a few nights, I think, after watching them play. Great show, that kid can rock it out! Arti, good call. It's a small brown world, man.
Having heard Niraj Chag's recommended rendition, I'm honestly not convinced about such numbers hitting it big. The problem with the song is that it reduces the human voice to a mere "sound effect". The Punjabi lyric is nearly mauled by the sound arrangement and remains largely incomprehensible. Likewise, the voice of the singer is sadly drowned within a ceremonial of "sounding good" - which is more a matter of arranging things than anything else. If one were to compare this to the James Brown number at the top, one would know how intense the human voice could get following even a very predictable lyric. I love the energy of the singer even as he repeated the opening phrase thrice. The material core of music instantly came alive.
It's here at last ! --- the post that I'm frantically scrolling down, looking for, after a few days of forced isolation from these internets. The only one of my 5 picks that didn't make a mention is Sufjan Stevens. Call me superficial, but I like you all a little more because you like the music I like.
I look forward to exploring all the suggestions on this page as soon as I get back to the comfort of my home broadband connection.
Thanks Siddhartha !
"How did this genre come about? Jaffna? Toronto? Chennai? I am intrigued."
Malaysia
siddhartha and huey:
i just got back from the public funeral for mr james brown in augusta, ga.. THE godfather of soul..it was amazing... seriously...one of the most fantastic afternoons i've ever experienced..music, movement, laughter, and cheers...from michael jackson to rev al sharpton and jesse jackson..it was an african american who's who... the pics are here...i think i was the only macaca in the entire 9000 person audience..representing the brown... ;)
RIP mr godfather... you were 'it'...the sex machine, the one that felt good, and the one that made the black (brown) man (woman) proud.
Awwwww, thanks Chick Pea. Rest in peace, James Brown.
chick pea!
amazing work! you represented for everyone! so glad you did it!
mr siddharata and miss shruti:
how could i not?
this man taught me how to dance.
memories of a lifetime...
simply amazing...
yours,
the bean
Neale #75
.I too was surprised to see a hip-hop version from Malaysia of Madai Thiranthu, which was a classic Ilaiyaraja tune from the movie 'Nizhalgal' - 1980. Interesting! I searched a little and found this thread on them at the tfmpage.
Neale, here's some more interesting Tamil rap.
great post! i'm a youtubeaholic and looking forward to checking out new music!
tamil movie songs have been covered fairly well so i thought i should contribute with some telugu, the other huge industry.
a personal favorite is one siddharth from RDB actually sang himself called 'appudo ippudo'.
the other good song from that film - 'bommani geeste'.
pilinchina ranantava
devuda
muvvula navvakala
uppongole godavari
other songs from the films are good too. check them out on raaga or musicindiaonline.
Dude, what do you do for a living and can I have a job like yours?
I know i'm a very late - but i've just returned to the US from the motherland...and i immediately went to scour the SM postings to learn of the results of the macaca music poll...i like/love most of the pics, and am glad to see my pics (even if it is in an honorable-mention-and-more capacity) made the cut - reaffirms my faith in the SM crew. I'm a lurker, but find solidarity in those who can appreciate and like both lady sovereign and the game theory (i specifically mention this album because it brought the roots BACK to why we "fell in love with hip hop") in one go.
great great great idea, siddhartha - a thousand times over. what fun.
sounds like you're a fan of "brown sugar" huh Mys. T. so...when did you first fall in love with hip hop??