Announcement...

Dearest all,

I just wanted to write this to let you know that I won’t be updating this blog anymore. Lately I have been dreadfully busy, and it’s very unlikely that things will change in the following months; I will be working all summer, and then next year I will have to devote all of my time to my studies. I simply wouldn’t be able to update as frequently as I’d like to, and probably the quality of my posts would also suffer because of all this. That’s why I’ve decided to stop… (OK, it’s also because I’m a lazy bastard and actually having to do more than what's strictly necessary makes me weep like a baby, but let's not go there! :-D)

HOWEVER, if there is anyone interested in continuing with it, please, I more than gladly invite you to take over, as I’d like this blog to go on. If not, never mind! I will leave everything as it is so that everyone can enjoy this music as much as I do.

Finally, I'd like to thank you all for coming, putting up with my nasty and incessant raping of the English grammar, my embarrassing typographic errors, my senseless rambling and my attempts at 'humour' ;-P. Sorry about that, guys! (the leaving and all the other crazy stuff)

Hope to see you around… If I can make enough time to get online! (the laziness creeping back again! Will I ever change?!?!?! ;-D )

Lots of love and my best wishes to you all,

Rakkas

The Mexican golden girl - Paulina Rubio

It is impossible to talk about Thalía without mentioning her nemesis, Paulina Rubio. That's why I have written about her immediately after. Enjoy ;-). Allow me to begin by saying that, unlike Thalía, who is infinitely more popular but sells much less, Paulina Rubio is only second to Shakira in the Spanish speaking world when it comes down to sold units of her albums. Which has a lot of merit when you think that she is also one of the most widely disliked and ridiculed celebrities both in Spain and Latin America: someone whose fame is as sustained by her godawful 'singing' as it is by her relationships with washed up (and much older) pseudo-playboys, hitting paparazzi with anything at hand, keeping her fans waiting for hours before she feels in the mood to start singing and infuriating displays of overall imbecility - of which she is incredibly proud. In short, Paulina Rubio is the prototypical unprofessional, childish, rude, narcissistic, foul-mouthed and destructive rock star, but without the talent and no rock songs! Or else, she is a tabloid dream, and a train wreck waiting to happen.

Paulina was born into an extremely wealthy family in 1971. Her father is one of Mexico's most important television and cinema producers and her mother is well known telenovela 'actress', Susana Dosamantes. Educated in the Centro de Educación Artística, which has no prestige whatsoever, Paulina was selected at the age of ten to be part of the horrible group Timbiriche. She would rapidly become one of the group's most prominent members: in fact, she was the first creature out of it to land a stellar role in a massively successful telenovela. Soon enough, though, her alarming lack of talent was made apparent when her particularly atrocious acting was blamed for the debacle that was the soap opera Pobre Niña Rica/Poor Little Rich Girl. Something scary when you think that telenovela actors in general couldn't be any worse. Thus, Paulina received the distinction of being named the shittiest among the awfully bad. Wonderful start to a golden career!



Thus, Pau (as she likes to be called) saw that acting wasn't her thing, and decided to try her hand at (gulp!) croaking... No, I mean cracking... er, burping? Never mind. Unlike Thalía, whose producers and songwriters drew inspiration out of their arses in order to perpetrate her first horrible albums, Paulina did things properly: she hired renowned hit makers, actual producers (not her drug-addicted, 27-year-older boyfriend - that would come later) and shot nice videos. The results are quite nice, to be honest. Her first record La Chica Dorada/The Golden Girl (1992) was a massive success, as were her second and third, which have some really great songs. Sadly, Paulina became comfortable and produced a disastrous fourth album Planeta Paulina (1996), which is utter shit and could be single handedly responsible for the prohibition of house music.

During those years, Paulina had a relationship with the son of renowned architect Ricard Bofill (who is responsible for some of the most expensive hazard-ridden, crumbling buildings in history), and released nothing at all. A union made in drug and alcohol heaven, they provided endless hours of delightful entertainment with her increasingly bizarre displays of arrogance and his scary displays of unpredictable, psychotic behaviour (which gave Paulina a split forehead during a particularly nasty fight with a television crew - aaaawwww, the very stuff of romance!). After much ridicule and no work, Paulina was unceremoniously dumped by her record company, and started looking for a new music contract.



And that's when things began to look up! Becoming part of the Universal rooster, she hooked up with megastar producer Estéfano, who is mostly responsible for the massive success of her album Paulina (2000), which sold four million copies around the world and spawned seven massive hits. She wisely stayed with him, and even though her English language dull-a-thon début is mostly rubbish and her subsequent albums are very fun but have no substance whatsoever, she's kept being massively successful, constantly hitting the top spot of the Latin Billboard chart and every other Latin American country, as well as Spain, where she is massively popular.

Soon after becoming so successful, Paulina dumped Ricard Bofill Jr, started touring the world and made enemies everywhere thanks to her crazy antics (which include spending whole interviews refusing to talk to her interviewer, bopping up and down like a little girl while wiggling her bony behind and shouting incoherently whenever someone asks her something she doesn't like and, of course, publicly insulting Thalía and recalling how they used to punch each other on stage - classy). In fact, her behaviour is so freakingly weird that people have changed her official title, La Chica Dorada, for La Chica Drogada (The Drugged Up Girl), because the stupid cow is either crazy, mentally retarded or has a severe drug problem... If not all three things at once.

Finally, we come to the end of this heap of endless praise upon the great diva of our generation by doing the usual thing: go to buy her albums at Amazon and enjoy the selection, my dears!

Fire (Sexy Dance)

I love this song. In fact, it's my favourite from Paulina. It also happens to be one of the few decent tracks in her 2002 album Border Girl. Technically, this is a remix from a song from her previous album, but while the original had a more tropical feel to it (which didn't suit it at all) this is pure techno bliss. Whispery vocals that follow an almost inexistent melody are followed by distant echoes that delve into the lovely chorus, which is made out of endless layers of voices pressed together. The second chorus is particularly nice, with Paulina 'belting' a gorgeous melody. Wonderful song! Video.

Y Yo Sigo Aquí/And I'm Still Here

The second massive hit for her 2000 return to form, this very strange and cheerful song has one of the most unappealing melodies imaginable, and seems to have been put together from pieces of other far better songs. However, there's something completely irresistible about it. From the strange beginning, in which we hear a car engine along radio static sounds to the thumping beats and sing-along-ish chorus, this is a wonderful song that has nothing of wonderful about it. Maybe that's why it became so successful: it's like nothing anyone would expect. Video.

Ni Una Sola Palabra/Not Even A Single Word

This fast rocky ballad is simply lovely, and has been a huge hit for her latest album Ananda (2006). A delicate heartbreak song about a woman whose desperate efforts cannot rescue her failing relationship, it is simply great. The melody is gorgeous and the chorus is impossibly catchy - if you can avoid singing along to this, you're made of iron. Video.

Algo Tienes/You've Got Something

This infectious, bouncy song was the first single for Paulina's stupidly titled 2004 album Pau-Latina. A self-proclaimed incursion into pop/rock-folk, it is a rather enjoyable collection of pop confections that have as many pretensions of treascendence as they have hooks: many. It's a worthy album, for all the songs are extremely catchy and well-written (so much so, that Paulina can't ruin them in spite of trying very hard). With whispered, almost inexistent verses, a cheerful rise and explosive choruses, this is a summery that that will surely satisfy everyone. Video.

Nieva, Nieva/It's Snowing, It's Snowing

This is my favourite song from Paulina's first years. The first single and hit from her spectacular second album 24 Kilates/24 Karat Gold, this song is simply adorable, and even though it isn't exactly a ballad, it isn't a danceable either. Gracefully lying between both genres, it beautifully glides away with Paulina's croaky belting. Not strangely at for early Paulina, the lyrics are fantastic, and the melody gorgeous. There's not much more tosay about it, so I'll let you all enjoy it.

The mythical starlet of Mexico - Thalía

Thalía is, arguably, Latin America’s most popular female singer. She also happens to be the official queen of telenovelas, and thanks to this her popularity in many parts of the world has been steadily increasing over the years. Philippines and Eastern Europe in particular, have rapidly warmed up to her, so much so that, in 1997, she released a CD specifically for the Philippine market, the massively successful Nandito Ako, and her sales in Poland, Hungary and Russia are impressively high. Thalía has also contributed to maintain her prominent position in the pecking order of the Latin world by becoming involved with a string of influential (and increasingly powerful) men throughout her life. Thanks to her ever more sophisticated public image and an apparently innocent and carefree demeanour in spite of her wealth, her legions of adoring fans can only be happy and admired at Thalía’s slow, but steady, climb to the top of the Spanish-speaking music world… especially when one has in count that she only had a severely limited talent to begin with, and isn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Born into an affluent family on August 26, 1971, Thalía belongs to a short, but very successful tradition of entertainers: her much older sister has been a very popular soap opera actress for decades, and her mother fancied herself a proficient pianist during her youth. Thus it’s normal that, in such an environment, she would start working on television from an early age. In 1984, aged thirteen, Thalía participated in a stage production of Grease along a few members of Timbiriche, then a massively popular (and awfully bad) teenage-oriented band. Thanks to this, she would become a part of the group’s line up, eventually overshadowing most of the other members. I’d like to mention that the people behind Timbiriche ought to be tried for crimes against humanity, since not only was their music shit, but some of the worst Latin pop singers ever have come out of it. By all means, do not buy any of their albums (I bought their greatest hits, and am still regretting it).



However, where does Thalía’s appeal lie? From the very first moment she set foot on a scenario with Timbiriche and started proffering wavering whines (which were often mimicked by her eternal rival and overt enemy, the disastrous, yet much more commercially successful Paulina Rubio), the public became enthralled by the same childish smile, shrill voice and air of Lolita-esque sexuality that she preserves to this day. As her determination to be taken seriously as an artist strengthened more and more, Thalía was seen making concise efforts to improve her hideous voice, to the point when nowadays she can sing live without inspiring laughter. It is thus in that combination of infantile traits, discipline and a certain vulgarity that she carefully injects in her speech and manners that Thalía’s enormous appeal resides. Simply put, she just appears like a salacious, populace-oriented and harmless version of the ideally white next-door-girl that many would like to marry.

Anyway, in 1990 Thalía was popular and well-known enough as to be able to afford leaving the band, which she promptly did to pursue a career as both an actress and singer. While her participating in telenovelas is excusable up to a certain point (let’s face it, they aren’t exactly examples of sublime artistry), her first three albums are simply dismal: I never thought it was possible to find an album where all songs were rubbish, until I heard Thalía’s first ‘musical’ perpetrations. Still, they all became enormous hits. By 1992 she had already become the queen of soap operas (a crown that she hasn’t relinquished yet in spite of the fact that it’s been almost a decade since she last acted in a telenovela), and great changes took place. Her until then lover, producer and manager died (it is rumoured that he died of complications caused by his frequent overuse of drugs, but nothing has ever been clarified regarding this matter), and Thalía’s career took a turn for the better. She signed for EMI and started working with quasi-legendary producer Emilio Estefan, who gave her good material for a change!



From then onwards, Thalía has gone from strength to strength, releasing a string of increasingly good albums with even better singles, which came to an abrupt halt when she decided to cross over into the English-speaking market. Uneasy with the language and given the sort of lifeless songs that only a catatonic person would find exciting, Thalía gracelessly stumbled and fell flat on her face, not before making an embarrassment of herself in what has to be the tackiest and most pretentious wedding in history – from Tommy Mottola’s ridiculous overweight, washed up Il Padrino-styled looks to Thalía having to be held in place by her retinue due to the enormous weight of her absurdly large dress… with a 16 metre long veil (please, just please). Oh, and the wedding took place amidst a legion of screaming fans! That’s classy.

Well, I think that I’ve spoken enough about Thalía. However, I can’t finish this article without recommending you to buy her latest album El Sexto Sentido, which is a simply fabulous return to form, and feature’s Thalía’s best vocals ever. Well, here’s the selection I’ve made, which I hope you’ll like! Her albums are available almost everywhere, but Amazon is always the safest bet.

Mujer Latina/Latin Woman

This song was the biggest hit from Thalía's 1997 enormously successful album Amor A La Mexicana/Love Mexican Style. Far from the surprisingly dull rubbish that people like Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Thalía herself would release a few years later to try to break the American market (apparently, the concepts ‘good music’ and ‘crossover’ don’t go well together), this is a simply infectious song that shot to the top of the charts virtually everywhere, including the market which is most reluctant to warm up to Latin American artists, Spain. Evidently, this song did deserve the success it was given, and it is one of Thalía's few truly magical moments. Video.

Piel Morena/Dark Skin

This exceptionally beautiful cumbia is perfectly respectful of the canons set by the most traditional form of this glorious Colombian folk genre, which is surprisingly unpopular in its country of origin, but has found a new home in Central America and especially in Mexico, where it is loved by many. It is also Thalía's one and only classic, in spite of the fact that it has been one of her least successful singles in the Latin Billboard charts, only managing to reach the number 7 position. Still, all of her fans concur with the fact that it is her best effort ever, and it was voted 'best song ever' in a 2003 poll from vastly influential Spanish language channel Univision in the US. Video.

Tú Y Yo/You And Me

The first single for her eponymous 2001 Spanish language album (the second one with this title – be careful, do not buy the first one!!!!) this bouncy soft rock/pop song is one of Thalía’s most original tracks – combining cheerful, fast verses with a somewhat dark and repetitive piano-driven chorus. A truly interesting track (not to mention, incredibly fun to dance to) it’s my favourite from the album! It also happens to be one of Thalía’s most successful singles in the Latin Billboard charts. Video.

Reencarnación/Reincarnation

This spectacular dance song is one of the highlights of Thalía’s most successful album ever, the dramatically uneven Arrasando/Ravaging (2000). Full of spectacular dance numbers, it only contains two atrociously mediocre ballads, and the theme song from her last telenovela, 1999’s Rosalinda. This song in particular creates an oppressive, hazy atmosphere with distant chants and what sounds like whispery incantations, only to flood your speakers with a techno storm after a few seconds. From the booming brass section, the impossibly heavy and fast beat to the hook-saturated melody, everything about this song is perfect. It also has the originality of having two endings: a climatic explosion of trumpets and beats when the dance part of the song ends, and then distant tribal beats accompanying the echo of far away voices. Amazing song. Inexplicably, this wasn’t successful at all as a single. Could the atrocious video be to blame?

Un Sueño Para Dos/A Dream For Two

Finally, I’m offering you this impossibly catchy song from Thalía’s last album, the bizarre Kabbalah-meets-bubblegum-pop pastiche El Sexto Sentido/The Sixth Sense. In spite of the previous description, all I can say is that it is a WONDERFUL album full of impossibly catchy and fast pop-rock and dance songs, with the occasional ballad. This track in particular is a superb mid-tempo dance number with a sinuous melody that keeps playfully swirling around electronic bleeps, only to explode into a rock-tinged chorus. The end is lovely, with Thalía reaching her highest notes in years (although they are pushed to the background by a sea of harmonies). Excellent song.

Sezen Aksu remixes

While preparing an overview of Sezen Aksu's thirty-three year long career, I have come across some rather interesting remixes that both attest to her versatility as a composer, and the creativity of the people she works with. While most of these songs have a very strong folk flavour in their original form, they easily become rousing dance anthems when stripped of their percussive ornaments, soaring trumpets and melancholic oud solos. At the heart of the melody, Sezen's genius for fusing traditional and modern, the old with the new, becomes more apparent than ever.

As I've said in my previous post about her, Sezen has always been extremely careful at the moment of crafting songs, giving equal importance to both tradition and modernity, in fusion the old with the new. Her early to late nineties work is particularly interesting, as she travelled across the world several times with each new album! Thus, in amassing this impressive body of work (not to mention, the exceptional task that must have been the research to find each different folk genre), Sezen made Turkish pop one of the most sophisticated movements of the late 20th Century.

The first song I'm presenting you with was my favourite of Sezen's for many years, and is also become my user name! Rakkas is a trumpet, oboe, flutes, tambourines and cymbals whirlwind that enters your body through your ears, and doesn't stop shaking it until the very end of the song, which has one of the coolest instrumental breaks I've ever heard. Not happy with the spectacular original, Sezen comissioned three remixes - two appeared in her 1996 album Düş Bahçeleri/Gardens Of Dream. The first one is a disco-fied techno track that respects the folk roots of the song while giving a club friendly make over to it. The second remix is far more aggressive, combining thumping pre-programmed beats with ever changing tempos and cadences. The final and most recent remix is a mainly instrumental house track that distorts the song's original vocals and instrumentation to suit the frenzied rhythm.

Rakkas/Dancer

Rakkas (Düş Bahçeleri remix 1)

Rakkas (Düş Bahçeleri remix 2)

Rakkas (DJ Onur vs Mezdeke)



The second song and remix are far more recent, from the album Deliveren/Crazy Maker (2000). The original song version of Kahpe Kader starts as a sorroful ballad, only to rapidly morph into a fast, cheerful acoustic folk/rock number that creates a strong contrast with the song's very sad lyrics. The remix is AWESOME! Dressed in grieving chants, distorted vocals and an ever changing spiral of electronic effects set to an earth-shattering dance beat, it simply turns the song into a club jewel!

Kahpe Kader/Perfidious Fate

Kahpe Kader (Dance remix)

Next comes the very special remix of one of the most beautiful and comtemplative tracks fromt he album that made me discover Sezen - 2002's Şarkı Söylemek Lazım/The Songs Must be Sung. Dansöz Dünya is, in its original form, a very slow oud-driven ballad with a few fast spots, something that this remix respects. The beginning is relaxed, with Sezen almost speaking the lyrics. Then, all of a sudden, warbling sounds emerge from nowhere, and a dance beat that becomes increasingly aggressive kicks in. Great song!

Dansöz Dünya/Dancing World (Dance Mix)

Finally, I'd like to offer you a few songs from Sezen's latest proper studio album, 2005's Bahane/Excuse. The first remix is relatively faithful to the original song Şanıma İnanma, but instead of a vertiginously fast Summery pop song, it becomes an R&B-tinged tracks that keeps constantly changing - every single part of the song is different from the rest, yet it all merges into a cohesive unit. Quite special. The three remixes that follow are from the bossa nova and jazz fusion İkili Delilik, a huge hit in late 2005. I personally don't like the original that much, but I do love these remixes. The first one is just a myriad of electronic effects plastered over the song, but the second is far more effective, mainly because it actually merges with the melody.

Şanıma İnanma/Faith In My Own Glory (Kıvanç K Mix)

İkili Delilik/Double Madness (Dance remix)

İkili Delilik (DJ SeO vs Sezen Aksu - Club Mix)

As always, i have to remind you to buy Sezen's albums. Tulumba is a great choice, as is Amazon.

The Hungarian time travellers - Nox

Nox are one of Hungary’s most successful groups, and one of the brightest promises of the pop-folk genre – not to mention an extremely special musical venture that has turned the fusion of dance and music into a unique art. Even though their songs are truly excellent and can more than stand on their own without the need of props and distractions, the truly wonderful thing about Nox is that they create an entire spectacle around every single piece of music they make, the purpose of which is to illustrate and expand the message that each song conveys. Thus, everything they do becomes a spectacle in which the human body reflects and deepens the meaning of every spoken word through the exaggerate theatricality of dance. A musical mime show would be the best way to describe what Nox do, even though this definition isn’t complete enough; in fact, it’s quite inaccurate. Let’s just say that their very particular form of art comes from the desire of articulating two very different, rapidly evolving messages into a single body of movement.

The group only has two permanent members: dancer/choreographer Tamás Nagy and singer-cum-occasional dancer Szilvia Peter Szabó. The rest of the musicians and dancers change with relative frequency. However, Nox has a third member of sorts: producer László Rácz, who had the original idea for the group, and not only brought Tamás and Szilvia together, but created the very peculiar fusion of techno, rock and folk that has made them so successful. But let me give you a bit of background information. Tamás is a graduate from Magyar Táncmũvészeti Föiskolára, apparently the most prestigious performing arts school in Hungary. After he graduated, he went on to become a member of the renowned Duna Artist Group of the Ministry of Home Affairs – that is, until Rácz convinced him to leave his job in 2003, to become part of his project.



Szilvia’s case is different. A musical enthusiast, she has had an unconventional upbringing. As far as I’ve been able to understand, she went to a Montessori style school, where she avidly participated in everything that had to do with physical expression, and played handball (her favourite sport). She didn’t seriously contemplate the possibility of becoming a professional singer until she the age of sixteen, when she became the lead vocalist of a band in her native town, the millenary city of Szeged. After completing her baccalaureate studies, she went to Budapest to try her luck, where she was soon after selected to become the vocal part of Nox due to the fact that her voice was ‘pure’, in the sense that it hasn’t been tamed by any formal training. A few months after the group achieved massive success, rumours appeared that Szilvia and Laci Rácz had a relationship, something that they rapidly confirmed… And that’s about the most dramatic thing that can be said about it all! :-S

As you can see, the fact that the two faces of Nox come from such different environments only contributes to make their work more exciting, because it preserves the spontaneity required to inject enthusiasm into their music while maintaining a sense of discipline and calculated showmanship that makes their presentation visually striking. In short, Nox is an intelligently designed product that has commercial appeal and imagination in equal measure. This, however, didn’t help them much when they participated in Eurovision with the superb song Forogj, Világ!, which only achieved a miserable 12th position in the final.



And here’s where we finally reach today’s selection, which I’m sure you will indubitably like. Before anything, though, I have to remind you to buy Nox’s albums! As usual, you can find them in eBay . By the way, as usual, I can’t provide translation for the songs’ titles. Sorry! Any assistance will be appreciated, as always!

Csák Jatssz!

This is one of the best songs from Nox’s fourth album Ragyogás. Driven by a fast, jumping beat and beautiful traditional violin instrumentation, it springs out from a cloud of hushed noises into a catchy, delicate pop song that preserves its energy thanks to aggressive electric guitar touches and an anthemic chorus, the power of which is magnified by the contrast between Szilvia’s very peculiar voice with deep, heavy male voice harmonies. It particularly like the addition of flutes in the middle of the song. Video.

Ébredj Fel!

This aggressive dance track constantly bounces back and forth between styles – it’s almost like a homage to the táncház roots revival movement, set to a stomping dance beat. Running through a maze of instruments that keep popping up again and again once you through that the song had no use for them, the song explodes into a choral type-chorus that’s more reminiscent of an old town ball orchestra than a proper pop song. This lends an enormous freshness to the song, which is simply delightful and oozes cheer! The video is quite interesting, too. It comes from Nox’s second (and most successful album so far) 2003’s Bũvölet.

Túl A Varázshegyen

This extremely sweet and melancholic ballad only has very light touches of folk, which is positive – the light flute instrumentation that appears from time to time, only heightens the beauty of the song as a whole. Conversely, everything is concentrated on creating an ominous atmosphere thanks to the contrast between the heavy, airless rock instrumentation and the light, soft melody, which is sublimated into an ethereal chorus that seems to have difficulty dispersing through the air; so heavy with sadness it seems to be. It’s simply lovely – if you really can’t feel sad with this song, you really, really need to check whether you have a heart at all. Video.

Szállhatsz A Dallal

This is the opening track for Nox’s latest album Örömvölgy (2006). I don’t particularly like it, as it focuses far too much on rock and leaves the electronic overflows that made the group so successful in the past for only a couple of tracks, which aren’t that memorable, really. However, this track is quite interesting, as it seems to have a very strong Irish folk flavour (which came out of fashion at least ten years ago, I know). It is more like something that you would hear in one of the first albums by The Corrs, only far removed from that group’s particular type of bittersweet blandness. It is certainly an interesting track, especially because Szilvia doesn’t rely on harmonies to carry on the choruses, but demonstrates that she can hold her own without being drowned by the orchestra. By the way, it has a very long introduction – the song is just a recording of the falling rain until 30 seconds into it. Then it morphs into a solid rocker. Enjoy!

Hej, Dunárol… (DJ Yano Euro Mix)

This was Nox’s first single, and big hit, from their début album Örökség (2003). As far as I’ve been able to understand, it is a traditional Hungarian song that’s just been set to a dance beat. Which would be nice, were it not for the fact that the melody (which is, indubitably, very beautiful) is always the same, and they just repeat it over and over again. You can listen to the original version in the video, which has, byt he way, a spectacular choreography. I personally prefer this remix, which is simply delightful and extends the song with plenty of instrumental breaks! Great!

Forogj, Világ! (Original Version)

This is the longer original version of the song with which Nox wasted their time and talent in the Eurovision Dumpster Farce. As I’ve already said, they only achieved a laughable twelfth place, which is so outrageous when you think that it was one of that year’s few decent songs along Shiri Maimon’s Ha-Sheket She Nisha’ar (who was robbed of the first place she deserved, without a single doubt). Well, I’ve ranted enough. It is just a fabulous dance/rock song that just explodes with energy and enthusiasm. I particularly like the beginning, which seems to be directly taken from a Mediaeval troubadour’s songbook, only to soar a few moments later thanks to aggressive percussions that overlap in a rapidly changing landscape. Video.

The Portuguese musical alchemist - Dulce Pontes

Dulce Pontes is Portugal’s most popular singer, and its most promising star. Comfortably sat in the plush throne that lies at the top of the country’s neo-folk/classical hierarchy, Dulce has sparkled, dazzled, shone and charmed her way into the hearts of thousands of people around the world with her crystal-shattering voice and alluring presence. Either modestly clad in flowing tunics or elaborately wrapped in corsets, veils and panniers like a gigantic gift, La Pontes travels across the world by jumping from scenario to scenario, where she wails about lost loves, fallen empires and the boundless pain of existence with both delicate vulnerability and unstoppable conviction. Dulce Pontes is one hell of a terrific musician, to be clearer.

Born in 1969 to a pharmacist and a homemaker, Dulce lived all her childhood in the tiny town of Montijo, just a few kilometres away from Lisbon. The fact that her town is so close to the capital meant that there were no restrictions to what she could have access to, so at five she was enrolled at the Academia de Música de Santa Cecília, an extremely prestigious school known for the excellency of its integrated educational programme, which makes music an integral part of the students’ lives. There she obviously became a star pupil, noted for her outstanding abilities as a pianist. However, Dulce wasn’t all that happy with piano and, after finishing school, she refused to continue her musical studies. Instead, she became a dancer and actress, often appearing on television series in very secondary roles.

Things changed in 1991, when a 22-year-old Dulce earned the ’honour’ of representing Portugal in Eurovision with the soporific ballad Lusitana Paixão/Lusitanian Passion. Even though she came out eighth (the Eurovision public was VERY generous that day), the song became a huge hit in Portugal for some inexplicable reason, and her musical career started. She first released the album Lusitana, which shouldn’t be included in her discography because it’s simply shit – they couldn’t have gotten so many unbelievably bad and impossibly boring songs even if they had actually gone to hell to find them.



Understandably dissatisfied with the way her career was going, she decided to take matters in her own hands and, after a very successful tour, she released the super album Lágrimas/Tears in 1993. Oh Lord, is it GREAT! If you’re like me and like grandiloquent techno and folk/pop fusions with far too many pretensions of seriousness, you’re gonna love it. If you just happen to like impossibly beautiful music, you’re gonna be crazy about it! The first single to be taken from the album, Canção Do Mar, became a huge World Music hit and was even included in the soundtrack of the blah Richard Gere thriller 'Primal Fear'.

Instead of keeping things as they were, Dulce decided to continue challenging her public by releasing modernized versions of fado classics, going on a trip all around Portugal with a tape recorder to register the many musical traditions within the country and draw inspiration for her 1999 work of art O Primeiro Canto/The First Chant (her best album, without a single doubt), and then going on to become über-musical genius Ennio Morricone’s muse – her latest studio album, 2003’s Focus, was entirely composed of songs written by Ennio, especially adapted to suit her style! Needless to say, everything that Dulce has ever done is simply awesome and ought to be massively popular. Thanks to the quality of her music and voice, she is revered in Portugal and has a very devoted following both in Spain and many European countries.



Finally, after I ask you to go to Amazon and buy her albums, I’d like to talk a little about the comparisons that have been drawn between Dulce and the immortal goddess, the perfect Amália Rodrígues. Dulce has an amazing voice and is incredibly good at what she does. She triumphs gloriously with anything she touches, especially when she sings semi-classical music. HOWEVER, there’s no one, not a single person in the whole world, who can even dream about daring to try and compare themselves to the one, the only, the unique Amália. She was the voice of fado and nobody can ever try to come close to what she was. Not a soul. After this little rant, let’s go with the selection for today, shall we?

Canção Do Mar/Song Of The Sea

The song that turned Dulce into a superstar, this World Music classic marked her first incursion into techno-fied folk. It’s nothing danceable, however. Everything is assembled in such a way that, even though it’s impossible not to notice a touch of technology in the song (there’s not a single live instrument), somehow it all manages to still feel very much traditional; like some sort of sorrowful chant for the electronic era. Which is positive – the song creates a cold, stormy atmosphere that suggests raging waves and freezing mornings under a grey sky. Something interesting is that this is, in reality, a very famous fado called Solidão/Loneliness, which was rescued from oblivion by Amália Rodrígues in the fifties. Unhappy with the sappy lyrics, Dulce changed the message and the structure of the song to create a monumental homage to both the dangers of maritime life and the sorrows of unrequited love and jealousy. Video.

O Infante/The Royal Prince

The first single for Dulce's second album Caminhos/Roads (1996), this delicate, hazy ballad softly waves through your mind like ripples on the surface of a lake. The music was written by Dulce herself, although the lyrics are actually a poem by celebrated writer João Pessoa. An ode to the creation of the world that manages to make reference in a few lines to the enormous importance that maritime expeditions had for the formation of the Portuguese empire, and its ultimate destruction (by a curse of the sea, says the poem) this is simply gorgeous and truly attests to Dulce’s musical sensibility and sophistication.

O’ Mare E Tu/The Sea And You (duet with Andrea Bocelli)

Sung in both Portuguese and Italian, this reposed, melancholic ballad has a very strong, earthy folk flavour, but it slowly builds into a majestic semi-classical monument that highlights the beautiful combination of Dulce’s metallic, watery soprano and Andrea Bocelli’s wavering tenor. The end of the song, when they start singing around each other, is simply awesome! Even though I personally hate Andrea Bocelli (I’ll never understand what it is that Pavarotti saw in him), I have to say that he is particularly effective here, providing a strong contrast in style with Dulce’s parts. Lovely. Here’s the video.

Ondéia (Água)/Undulate (Water)

This is my favourite song by Dulce; it closes her spectacular album O Primeiro Canto. It doesn’t really have any lyrics besides the occasional pronouncing of the word ondéia, but it is simply amazing. I wouldn’t call this song watery (yes, no more water metaphors! At last! ;-) ), but crepuscular. Whenever I hear this song, I like imagine an orange sun setting in the mountains after several days of rain – yes, crepuscular is the best way to describe it. However, there’s nothing sad about it; it’s just beautiful and relaxing, only interrupted by a spectacular display of vocal prowess and range in the mid-section of the song. Simply superb. Live performance.

Φωτιά Και Χιόνι – Fotia Kai Chioni/Fire And Snow (duet with Eleftheria Arvanitaki)

To close this selection I’ve included this song, a duet with Greek elafra superstar Eleftheria Arvanitaki (I’m gonna post about her later in the month and I’ll talk about elafra then, don’t worry). An airy ballad that softly flows through the air in tiny sparkles, it is driven by two endless guitar solos that intertwine and separate constantly in the background of the voices. Dulce proves to be quite adept when singing in the mezzo range, and lends some intensity to Eleftheria’s creamy, soft natural tone. The end is simply gorgeous, and for some reason, makes me quite sad. It's taken from Eleftheria's 2001 album Ekpombi/Emission.

The Bulgarian illusionist - Azis

Azis' story is one of success against all odds. A dark-skinned, openly homosexual Gypsy in Eastern Europe, where ethnicity and sexual orientation are still seen as signifiers of race and gender-based social status for many, Azis was born to extreme poverty in 1978 in the medieval town of Sliven. In the beginning, no one could have imagined that, twenty eight years later, he would be declared the 21st greatest Bulgarian of all time on national television (the second living greatest Bulgarian after the unbelievably annoying, petulant and infantile wanker that is soccer player Hristo Stoichkov), and become a sex symbol adored by men and women alike. Azis is Bulgaria’s greatest, brightest, highest-selling musical star, and is largely responsible for the massive popularity of chalga. A genre that was, until before he adopted it, regarded as some sort of cultural aberration – greatly so because it was dominated by clothes-averse pop tarts who, tired of being unable to eat by singing full on folk, tried to break into the mainstream by blending it with techno and dance. Thanks to Azis, chalga has also incorporated hip hop and R&B to its very long list of influences. Needless to say, chalga is a fabulous genre and all its singers have good voices! How could things get any better?!

Azis’ life has been a constant journey in pursuit of a better future, and he came across fame in a somewhat accidental fashion, even if his rise to the top has been vertiginously fast. As a child, his family travelled constantly, finally settling in the town of Kostinbrod, in the outskirts of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Sadly, sedentary life didn’t bring them any joys and when Azis was eleven, their finances were so precarious that their only option to survive was to move to Germany – apparently, they were forced to travel by cart because they couldn’t afford to even rent a vehicle. Life in Germany was very important for Azis, who began to openly express his fascination with femininity and developed a particularly strong bond with his little sister Matilda, his only companion during the seven years the Boyanovs lived there - his parents, practically illiterate Roma people, had to work all day long to be able to sustain the family and were never home. Free to do as he wished and with the complicity of his sister, Azis (who then still went by his given name Vasil) explored his mother’s wardrobe in endless hours of games, which would eventually provide him with the inspiration needed to become a legend.



At nineteen, Azis returned to Bulgaria and started working in restaurants as an ordinary folk singer. He soon got a record contract, but his everyman image didn’t appeal to audiences, and he pretty much went unnoticed for the next five years. Tired of not going anywhere with his career and having to constantly hide his homosexuality, Azis decided to make a drastic change and give in to his love for outrageous clothes by defiantly adopting an ellaborate and carefully studied gender-bending image – he started wearing wigs, heavy make up and high-heeled boots; changed his sober vocal style for a more melodramatic Middle Eastern wail and openly embraced chalga. Needless to say, people loved it, and he soon became a promising star. After he released the album Tseluvaj Me in 2003, he simply exploded into mega stardom, and hasn’t looked back since. The stocky, brooding man of his early records was substituted by a crazy, outrageously vulgar and completely careless character who says whatever comes to his mind and is as likely to discuss the most embarrassing aspects of his personal life as he is to denounce corruption, racism and discrimination against minorities. Azis is, simply put, larger than life.

When Azis became the blinding star he indubitably is, public reaction was extreme. Many were outraged by his flamboyance and for the fact that a Gypsy would be so outspoken. In fact, to this day, the words peder and pedal (‘faggot’ and a derogatory term to refer to Gypsies) are often mentioned by many of his detractors when they talk about him. However, many others welcomed Azis with open arms, and women in particular became fascinated by him, his wildly dramatic and tacky videos and his very healthy obsession with bodybuilders (HOW could such a thing be unhealthy?! ;-P). In his wake, Azis not only became a public face for the gay and the Roma community, but also gave women, who felt isolated from contemporary culture in Bulgaria, the opportunity to claim chalga as their own voice. Still, Azis has always refused to claim exclusivity for anything, saying that his art is there for everyone to enjoy, and anyone can participate in it – that’s why many men have also welcomed him, and follow his next move with bated breath. Not to mention that many chalga singers have risen to stardom thanks to him. In short, Azis is a pretty fucking great individual.



However, Azis has had to face his fair share of controversy. From being verbally attacked by the homophobes and racists to being accused of exploiting and distorting homosexual identity, being labelled a cultural corruptor because of his singing chalga (which is, in the opinion of Bulgar nationalists, ‘foreign’ music) and being scolded by the government for disrespecting the image of Vasil Levski (the most revered historical figure in Bulgaria – so much so, he was nicknamed “The Apostle Of Freedom”) by building a stage on top of it for a public performance, Azis has had to fend off quite a lot of attacks, but has always managed to come on top in spite of it all. Still, not happy with that, in 2005 he decided to launch his political career with the underrepresented Euro Roma party, but was unanimously ridiculed by everyone when it was discovered that he had no electoral program and wasn’t really concerned about anything besides advocating in favour of gay marriage and settlement rights, as well as subventions, for the Roma people. Since he received a minimal amount of votes during the elections due to the negative publicity generated, he decided to retaliate by travelling to Germany (he has double nationality) to marry his partner, events promoter and fellow Gypsy Niki Kitaetsa – his answer to the scandal that followed was to repeat the ceremony two days later in Bulgaria, on live television! Then he went on to publicly declare that he had undergone penis enlargement surgery and injected collagen into his lips to improve his sex life… What can I say? He knows what his fans expect of him, and gloriously delivers!



Well, enough of my ramblings! This has to be the longest post I’ve ever made and we haven’t even reached the songs! Well, you know the deal, go get his albums before anything. I’ve been able to find the majority of them on eBay. As usually, I've not included the translations because I've no idea of Bulgarian - I will also keep my comments on each song short. I think I must have reached everyone's saturation point by now.

Обичам Те – Obicham Te (DJ BeBo & B-boy-D remix)

I am not sure whether this is a Kazakh folk song or an original composition by Turkish superstar Serdar Ortaç (people have told me very different things), but it’s a beautiful song. Serdar’s version is a wild house number, whereas the one made by Azis (who is very prone to borrow hits from Turkish and Greek singers) is a fast ballad. I very much prefer this remix, which is simply terrific! It incorporates a fabulous bass line and lots of percussion to the original, giving a sense of urgency that invites you to dance while respecting what I presume is the sad message of the ballad. Awesome song, and immensely funny to dance to. Video for the original version.

Ледена Кралица – Ledena Kralitsa (R&B Version)

This song could very well be an international hit. It has a delicate melody that runs at a slower tempo than the very heavy bass line, and suddenly breaks into an explosive chorus that will make you shake your body around. It’s fantastic. Well, I promised I’d keep things short, so here’s the outrageous video.

Искам, Искам – Iskam, Iskam (duet with Malina)

This hip hoppish track is both indescribably and incredibly good – I hate hip hop, but when I heard this, I was hooked! Maybe the fact that it constantly whirls in a hypnotic kaleidoscope of electronic effects and trumpet solos that fill your mind like a curtain of smoke, has something to do with it. The melody is ripe with hooks, and it has one of the best instrumental breaks I’ve ever heard. Azis and superstar Malina’s voices blend fantastically, and I really like the repetitive, slow chorus. The video is a chav’s dream come true!


Не Казвам Ти Стига – Ne Kazvam Ti Stiga

If you saw my previous post on Azis, you have already watched the video for this song. Still, it’s an amazing track – definitely something you’ll like to dance to. Let me remind you to go to watch the video once again. Oh Lord, is it amazing...

Никой Не Може – Nikoj Ne Mozhe (DJ OeM Club Mix)

The original version of this song is a slow, sad ballad led by the cheesiest synthesizer saxophone imaginable, but once you pass that you’ll find a beautiful melody and one of the catchiest choruses imaginable – which is only highlighted by the dance beat of this remix. Oh, and you have to watch the video! It’s the craziest soap opera imaginable, compressed in five plus minutes!

Черните Очи – Chernite Ochi (duet with Malina)

I love this song! It’s pure chalga, with endless layers of percussion, violins and all sorts of techno little touches, even though it’s also a sad ballad. The video is tacky and tawdry enough as to be borderline pornography but, then again, that's who both Malina and Azis are. Nevertheless, I can’t praise this song enough! It has an exceptionally beautiful melody and Azis goes into chromatic-scale wailing overdrive several times! Amazing!

Month's Heading: May, the Celts are on fire while a god is born

May is the month in which life is in full blossom, the paralysis of winter is only a vague memory and the fires of summer start to insinuate themselves. Still, the abundant rains feed life’s vibrant flames of green, that constantly rise with their multi-coloured flowery sparkles (yes, I write these things on purpose xD). No, seriously, May is the last month to be well within spring, and it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the year. The weather is simply wonderful, everything’s green, the air is humid and you just have to feel young! I wish it could be spring half of the year, and then it’d be autumn and everything would be just perfect! (God, I really think I should moderate my alcohol intake – I’m rambling incoherently… Oh wait, it’s not like that’s something strange for me, is it? ;-) ).



In theory, the word may comes from the Greek goddess Maia, a very minor divinity who was deliberately pushed to the background in Hesiod’s registry of the artificial unifying religion, the Theogony. She was one of the seven Pleiades, daughters of the gigantic Titan Atlas and the matronly divinity Pleione – some of the most prominent member’s of Artemis’s terrifying court of evasive nymphs and vengeful virgin hunters. Maia, who was the most beautiful, intelligent and virtuous of the seven sisters, was raped by Zeus in mount Cyllene, which oversees the city of Thesaly. She soon gave birth to a baby while hiding in a grotto, and when to sleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, the baby became a grown man and went on a stealing rampage, but he soon got bored, so he invented the lyre! Thus Hermes, the god of diplomacy, business, politics and thieves (I know what you’re all thinking and no, it’s not irony: it’s only the truth) came to be.



The Romans shaped her into Ops, Maia Maiestas, an earth/spring goddess in whose honour a festival was celebrated on the 1st of May. However, not everyone celebrated fertility in the same way. For the Celts, Bealtaine was a festivity of utmost importance, marking the beginning of the last quarter of the year and the pastoral summer. Since the Celtic calendar was a mixture of solar and lunar references, it’s possible that the date was so important because it marks the exact mid-point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice: a time when the stars announced that the doors of the Otherworld had opened, and change could take place! The significance of these events has been endlessly celebrated in fairy tales, culminating in Rimskij-Korsakov’s
opus Night On Bald Mountain, the negative and mysterious nature of which attests to the pagan origins of the ritual.



Since I want to do something a bit different this time, I’m going to leave you with the first two movements of Carl Orff’s spectacular music monument to Medieval poetry, Carmina Burana/Songs Of Beuern. It’s impossible not to be marvelled by this music, which is both astonishing and terrifying in its sheer strength and explosive beauty – it also presents the beginning of a special month that will mostly be devoted to artists who have made some sort of work with folk music. Welcome to May! Enjoy the time! :-)

O Fortuna!/Oh, Fortune!

Fortunae Plango Vulnera/I Grieve Because Of The Blows Of Fortune