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this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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Great thread this, loads to check out.
I'll recommend Songhoy Blues from Mali, and Gaspar Nali of Malawi, both excellent.
They are very famous but it seems their country is rarely thought or discussed.
The Hu from Mongolia are great. A combination of traditional Mongol folk music, modern metal and famous for their Mongolian style gutteral singing.
I’m trying to figure out if you have a misplaced modifier with “obscure, lesser known”. You have it modifying “country” in the title. In other words, you want musicians of any level of renown who come from a lesser known country.
However, you mention Fela Kuti, who is from Nigeria, which is not a lesser known country. You would have to be very ignorant of basic world geography to not have heard of Nigeria.
And, as usual, commenters are completely ignoring your criteria by mentioning musicians from Germany and New Zealand and Columbia and Vietnam.
So perhaps you meant obscure musicians instead of obscure countries, but that would still leave me wondering what subset of countries you intended? Just countries other than your own? But if so, I don’t know what country you are in.
I suppose nationalities or cultures would have been better! People are not their nation and culture crosses borders and all that. As for calling Nigeria lesser known, I suppose I mean more the culture and people of Nigeria than the nation itself. Lots of people where I'm at know of Nigeria at least by name, and typically they think of internet scammers. But if I asked random folks where I'm at who Fela Kuti was I'd get lots of no's back.
Could have worded it as "lesser known cultures" or "cultures not commonly discussed".
Ohhhh! Now I see what you mean. Yeah, I’ve known 2 different dudes from Nigeria over the years but I don’t know anything about the culture.
Like, I know they have a world class soccer team & I’ve heard of their dictator from the 70s – Idi Amin – but that’s about it. And yeah, I guess the spam email thing too.
Idi Amin was Uganda! ;-)
Tudi-Voice, Taiwan - Taiwanese modern folk stuff.
Florent Vollant, Canada - interesting indigenous culture based music.
Mulatu Astatke, Ethiopia - Jazz from the 60s and 70s.
Altın Gün, Türkiye/The Netherlands - modern Anatolian psych sounds.
Gwenno, Wales - Gaelic folktronica.
Traditional Argentinian music: Soledad or Los Chalchaleros
Traditional Brazilian music: Chico Buarque or Caetano Veloso
Traditional Brazilian music from the northeast: Luiz Gonzaga
Argentinian Rock from the 60/70: Sui Generis or Pedro y Pablo
Brazilian Rock from the 60/70: Cazuza or Raul Seixas
Argentinian contemporary music: Bersuit Vergarabat
Contemporary Brazilian Rock (there are tons of metal bands from Brazil, like Angra, Sepultura, Shaman, etc, but I want to point out one in specific): Matanza (although I would describe them more as a hardcore us country style than rock, they sing mostly in Portuguese so it has a very unique style)
Comedy music is a great view into a society, so as a bonus:
Argentinian homemade instrument band: Les Luthiers (this one is a YouTube link because realistically you want to see these guys, not just hear them)
Brazilian Metal joke band: Massacration
Highasakite - Norway
Some latam-based ones
- Uruguay - El cuarteto de nos. Rock/indie rock but sometimes they mix in Latin American sounds as well (check out the song Mario Neta).
- Paraguay - Kchiporros, Bohemia Urbana. Ska and Paraguayan rock.
- Mexico's Yucatan - Pat Boy. Rap in Mayan and sometimes Spanish. Does collabs with other singers of indigenous languages.
NZ - Supergroove, Che Fu, DD Smash, Dragon, Darcy Clay, Trinity Roots, Salmonella Dub, Katchafire - the NZ dub and roots scene should be checked out by anyone who likes roots. Ignore six sixty.
Germany - Colour Haze
Nick Drake - more people should listen to this guy.
May be Maximum the Hormone. They're probably pretty big in Japan though.
O-Zone (of "Numa Numa" fame) is from Moldova; that's pretty obscure, right?
Ylvis ("What Does the Fox Say?") is Norwegian.
"Epic Sax Guy" is... also Moldovan, apparently. Huh.
That's a list of Eurovision hits right there.
Moldova had a good run for a few years. Don't think they've made the finals over the last few though.
O-Zone
I curse you just for mentioning them. I freaking hate that song.
Serbia - Destiny Potato. Prog metal, and their album "Lun" is among my favorites of all time. They changed name to Sordid Pink and released another pretty cool album.
David Maxim Micic is the guitarist, and he has a pretty great solo discography on his own.
There is a kora player from Mali called Ballaké Sissoko who makes really cool and chill music. I only heard about him because of a news article about the TSA destroying his instrument. I googled him after I had read his article and really liked his music, even though I didn't even know what a kora was before.
Bragolin - Into those woods
(Netherlands)
Brazil isn't an obscure country, but there's an indigenous band called Uakti that builds their own instruments. It's some of the most unusual music I've heard. They also have some classical albums, and one by Phillip Glass that I like to listen to when I'm coming down from a trip.
If you're into metal, here are a few bands renowned for mixing cultural music with heavy metal off the top of my head:
Norway - Ulver (They have possibly the most varied discography in all of music, but their first album is a mix of black metal and Norwegian folk music, and their second is entirely Norwegian folk music)
Brazil - Sepultura (From Arise to Roots they started incorporating a lot of Brazilian musical ideas)
Romania - Negura Bunget (They're the only reason I know what a nai is)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadril
Belgian folk group
Specifically: https://www.discogs.com/release/6421340-Kadril-La-Paloma-Negra
made with the band Alumea.
Review: https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/kadril-alumea.shtml
This two-disc set is a studio version of a concert program produced jointly by Galician family combo Alumea and Flemish folk-rock band Kadril, inspired by Flemish pilgrims in Galicia. The results are peculiar but satisfying.
I wish I could find the KCRW episode about this album. That’s (I think) how I heard about it.
Soda Stereo from Argentina, and Monsieur Periné from Colombia
Kenya: Just a Band. Funky, rocky at times, just great music.
Iran: not a band, but a movie representation of the scene. No One Knows About Persian Cats. I have a personal connection to this movie; if you watch it, let me know and I'll fill you in (not publicly though, you'll understand why).
Cambodia: Reign in Slumber. Metal. Changed singers (new one is from the Philippines), still great.
Vietnam: Cut Lon. Metal. Used to dress in hilarious Pikachu balaclavas. Fun, loud, entertaining.
Belarus: Molchat Doma. Gloomy. Oppressive. Wonderful. Makes me think of the Soviet Union in the 70s (not that I was there or alive then).
Really digging Reign in Slumber. Thanks for the recommendation.
On the topic of Asian metal, Voice of Baceprot just played the Glastonbury festival, which is pretty awesome. All-female Indonesian band.
Also, the dude who works at the gas station down the street introduced me to Minerva, a Bangladeshi metal band.
Sweet! Also check Doch Chkae (like a dog), also Khmer metal (and all Cambodians).
Baceprot, listened to them a few months back and, while nice they're getting coverage, it didn't grab me. Hoping they mature well in the coming year!
Oh, and check After God also (Khmer). Drummer turned singer, just released an EP (YouTube I think).
Spotify suggested a bedtime playlist with Elin and the Lullaby Orchestra. They are from Norway. Their albums will put your kids to sleep, but It Came from the Universe to my Landing Pad slaps. That song legitimately deserves a hair metal/glam rock cover.
There's this british band, that dabble in many different styles. Not many people heard of them. Probably because they haven't released any new music in a while, and it feels like they haven't toured in FOREVER!!!
But it's this little niche band, called The Beatles.
Do you think they have a chance of break through?
I'm a fan of Bomba Estereo, from Colombia. They are sort of in the Electro Cumbia genre. Systema Solar is another of that type. I like their more up-tempo songs, they do have slower, pop-ballad type songs too.
They're really fun, I heard a mix of Fuego in a club in Bogota when I moved there and loved them from thereon.
Alan Stivell does some incredible fusion of rock and Celtic folk. i usually avoid the term "Celtic" for music because some people find it dismissive to lump multiple musical traditions together like that, but he very deliberately draws from most (all?) of the musical traditions that would fall under that umbrella. i highly recommend the E Dulenn and Á L'Olympia live albums
I'm a big fan of Tinariwen who are from Mali
Also: Toe from Japan
Also also: yin yin from the Netherlands
And in a similar vein: l'eclair from Switzerland
Also tbh, if you want a great selection of eclectic artists from all over the world, look up a playlist of artists playing on the West Holts stage of Glastonbury for any given year—when I'm at the festival it's always my go to stage if I'm feeling like trying something new and it's rarely disappointed me
I came here to suggest Bombino, who is Nigerien but part of the same Tuareg desert blues genre. That stuff is excellent
Toe are lovely, I've been listening to their live album (currently in Japan too).
There’s an awesome Afrobeat collection called Nigeria: The Definitive Story of 1970’s Funky Lagos. I don’t know if it’s streaming but it’s a good next step.
This is a way more chill recommendation but I love Mayra Andrade from Cape Verde for music to relax to.
I'll need to check that out, sounds good. In return, I'll recommend the Beginner's Guide to African Funk, a 3 CD set full of absolute gems.
Al-Namrood (Metal, Saudi-Arabia)
Mdou Mactar (Desert Blues)
Leliță Săftiță (Aromanian folk song)
Hrdza (Folk Rock, Slovakia)
Kamo Mphela (Amapiano, South Africa)
Altyn Tuu. Technically they're located in Russia, but belong to the Altai ethnic group, so I'm counting them.
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