People my age might find Tibetan pop music especially interesting--there’s an odd retro eighties feel to a lot if it. Tibetans, like other Asians, have a love for sublimely bad synth-pop. However, there’s a traditional Tibetan instrument that finds its way into many contemporary songs: it’s a banjo-like instrument played in a strange galloping tempo and a twang that sounds uncannily like "Love Vigilantes"-era New Order. Combine this banjo with a synth and drum kit, add some quirky rhythms and quasi-Asian melodies, and you have songs that seem to variously conjure up New Order, The Fall, Gang of Four, Modern English... I swear I even heard a song that sounds like Dexy’s Midnite Runners.
I don’t know where to even begin tracking any of this stuff down (the language barrier makes it difficult to research), but if I ever come across any good examples, I’ll try to post them.
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2 comments:
Wa - Wa - Wee - Wa, friends!
Great chronicle, nice cadence, nourishing prose, good rhythm and sustained, gripping adventure. I loved the interspersal of photos between postings. U 2 are lucky to be alive and unimprisoned, not to mention in possession of toes.
Where are you now? Where are you posting from? -p & h
GUNG YEEE PHAT CHOY!
Thanks-!
I just posted that last Tibetan batch when we got to Bombay; we had finally found a decent internet connection.
Just landed in Sydney a few hours a ago; I'm pretty ill and we're both in bad need of a nap. The past 3wks in India have been incredible but exhausting; maybe I can get caught up on posts and pictures during our "down-time" in Sydney.
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