Imports - Music from Foreign Lands
 

When I was younger I loved going to the many record stores like Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks. I could spend hours in a record store looking through the stacks of records searching for the elusive import containing tracks unreleased in the US.

It is how I expanded my music of U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure, OMD, Psychedelic Furs, New Order, and the other second English Invasion bands. In some fashion I was handed them by MV3 an afternoon show on KHJ-9 in So. Cal headed by David Maples, Richard Blade and Karen Scott. I didn't get MTV at the time, so it was this afternoon show that was a way of getting some music videos. Later there would be other entrants like Friday Night Videos, where I remember seeing the "Late Night Version" of Duran Duran's Girls on Film and seeing Thriller in its entirety.

While I don't do vinyl or CDs much for that matter, when I do go to a city and see a used record/CD store, I tend to walk in and spend a little time looking for musicians that I like and stumbling across new ones to sample. It was harder back in the day because listening to samples was much harder, CD stores helped a little as some of them had CD listening stations where you could have them open CDs and listen to the whole thing before buying it.

Today, it's a little less hunting in person, it's sampling things online and iTunes. I've been able to find some interesting music that isn't from the US. Some of it is pop music sexy lolita Alizée from France to interesting Blues from Iceland's Lay Low or even French electronica tango from Gotan Project (thank you again Halx!), a surprise anime hit song Theme from Voltes V (one of my childhood finds) or an old Filipino disco hit Awitin Mo, Isasayaw Ko by VST & Company.

I have yet to break into the myspace locations to find the diamonds in the rough, but maybe some of you can lead me there.


Voltes V - Theme Song
Voltes V - Soundtrack (1977)


VST & Co. - Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko
unknown - 1970's

(I haven't the foggiest idea who the people in the video are but this is the only original of the song I can find anywhere)


Lay Low - Please Don't Hate Me
Please Don't Hate Me (2006)


Alizée - J'en ai marre!
Mes Courants Électriques (2003)


Alizée - Mademoiselle Juliette
Psychédélices (2007)


Gotan Project - Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)
La Revancha del Tango (2001)

The Gotan Project may sound familiar if you watched the movie Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas as it was the song used for one of the tango scenes.

Good call on Alizeé! Big fan of Moí... Lolita and Mes Courants Electriques albums

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Twarres -Wêr Bisto


A duo from the Netherlands who sing in Frisian (in this video) and English. They split up a few years ago, but are reuniting sometime this year supposedly. Their debut album, Stream, is pretty good. They harmonize fairly well, but don't seem very adventurous as far as genres would go. That is probably a good thing as what they do is done extremely well.

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Mariza - Ó Gente Da Mihna Terra


Fado can be thought of as the national music of Portugal, or Portuguese speaking countries. It can be very moody, and generally just seems sad. Mariza, Cristina Branco, Mísia are three of the more popular practitioners of the art popularized by Amalia Rodriguez

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Morning Musume - Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago


Morning Musume - Chokkan 2


Morning Musume! All pop, all the time! Here are two fairly different styles from them. They are usually all over the place in their songs (ballads, pop, bubblegum, disco, etc) that it is hard to get a general theme for them. Anyway, enjoy!

Thanks! This is exactly what I was expecting to get, this and roachboy's thread about spring sounds are good starting points for me.

I forgot how I stumbled upon Alizee. I think someone sent me a link to her dancing or something like that.

I recall that I liked the original versions of these 80s songs. They made me interested in songs in other languages.


Nena- 99 Luftballons


Falco - Der Kommisar

brezil!

The Waters of March is my favorite song, and it is particularly nice with Elis:



This one by Marisa is another litany:

Nothing to add at the moment, but I wanted to say that I love Falco :p

I was disappointed to hear of his untimely death, and I bought a greatest hits album of his while I was in Austria in high school. One of my favorite Falco songs, "Jeanny, Part I," is a rather dark account of a man's obsession with and implied rape of a girl named Jeanny.

In fact, here it is, though the video is rather craptastic in that mid-80s kinda way :p I recommend listening to the song while reading along in the translated lyrics and ignoring the video. Watch the video after you've heard the song once without it, otherwise it may ruin your first impression ;)



Seriously...I like Falco a lot. I even visited his grave :p (He's buried in the same graveyard as many other famous Austrians, such as Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert.)

I don't have anything to add atm, I just wanted to say damn you! cyn for putting 99 luftballoons in my head!

someone recommended this to me, it's quite interesting and it's in Spanish, it origianates from Mexico.

Café Tacuba - Volver a comenzar
Sino (2007)

Wow. Should have come across this thread earlier; great topic.

I'm very much a pop guy, with some exceptions. That being said, don't mock me too much when I reveal some favorites:

Zazie (France)

A Dutch friend of mine turned me on to her several years ago, and I am now officially in love with her music. CAN NOT play these songs enough:

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Toc Toc Toc

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Rue de la Paix (which is also a pretty cool video, too)


De Palmas (France)

Same friend turned me on to Gerard De Palmas and his band, too. Personal favorite (though there are several other good songs out there):

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J'en rêve encore


Amr Diab (Egypt)

Ever since my first couple of (vacation) trips to the middle east pre- and post-9/11, I can't get his music off my top-rated list. He's sort of an Arabic-singing Enrique Iglesias.

I'm totally NOT his target audience, but I still shell out for his music and smile while I'm doing it. Here's a decent sample, though not his best:

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Amarain

There are a few other artists that I've gotten to on my own or by a friend's tip, but I will freely admit that most of my new music - all of it international artists, oddly - has come from the FIFA video game soundtrack for the past 8 or 9 years. Love the game, and really love the music. Here's some highlights:

Tribalistas (Brazil) - Ja Sei Namorar

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K'naan (Somalia) - Soobax

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Dover (Spain) - Do Ya (My earworm of the frickin' YEAR)

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Them's just the highlights for now. I'm really resisting the urge to monopolize the topic.

And lastly, for those who like 99 Luftballons, I present to you a must-listen (if you haven't already) - 99 Luftproblems.

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First heard that mashup about five years ago, and I STILL play it to pieces.

Great topic, I have a few to share, i have not been able to upload a utube video. How do you guys do it? Thanks:thumbsup:

A couple of dirty little songs for sunday morning. the first is soko (france), the second is esthero (canada?).

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