Interactive Poll: Sounds of Asia

Christian:  Anoushka Shankar “Land of Gold”  As expected, sitar music, but a British (I think) vocalist, cello and toned metal drums set the stage. Understated mixture of East and West, with two girls from oviously other cultures than each other walk with each other in the video, illustrating the essence of the song.  The music picks up in intensity.  Another gorgeous piece in this poll.  Cornelius “Audio Architecture” Live performance this time.  Ah, whangles and curving keys and guitar notes start this one out.  Very jazz feeling to me, but the vocals are not really a jazz type vocal, kind of more spoken than sung.  Some electronic wriggles and keyboard runs provide punctuation throughout.   Discordant sort of keyed horns and jumbled vocal effects, then back to the main theme, than an abrupt ending.  Talvin Singh “Seven Notes”  Sounds of great interest before even hearing it, from your description.  Almost keyboard tapping sounds with soft keyboard tones, an eerie and plaintive voice enters, with lots of echo and such.  Some guitar notes play here and there, then pick up again for a longer stretch in a repetitive pattern. There is some scatting type of singing, again, I think he is uttering drumbeats.  Keyboards enter and play a horn sort of sound, mizmar-ish, yet slightly deeper in tone.  Haunting and mesmerizing. 

Shadowyzard:  Quite looking forward to hearing some of the music of your homeland!  Fatih Erkoc “Emmoglu”  Live performance with a male vocalist doing what I think of as very classic Turkish vocal.  Electric band is behind him, there is the sound of a ney, very quietly (may be being one on a keyboard).  Band comes in, really modern song, sung in English.  He does a good imitation of Louis Armstrong for a moment.  Singer plays trumpet in a solo, then back to Turkish (Habibi means beloved, does it not?) classic type singing.  Then sound of a santur (?) (again on keys?).  Then sort of a Tom Jones performance, with microphone flourishes and such.  Haktan Canevi “Beddua”  Here we have Oriental orchestra setting, just beautiful music.  Another classic Turkish type vocal, wondering how/if it will get switched up.  This almost gets operatic in style, yet retaining obviously Turkish rather than Italian language, showcasing his range.  Love the way everyone is clapping along and enjoying so much.  Stunning, really quite enjoyed this one.  Erkan Gümüşsuyu “Yıllar”  Another Oriental Orchestra type setting with dumbek heard a bit more than in the two previous.  Very smooth singing style, thinking this may be a much-loved song that he is covering?  Very passionate performance, really hits those high notes.  The orchestral melody is also very beautiful. The judges are very appreciative.   I prefer the middle of the 3, however. 

Mike:  Kahimi Karie “Lolitapop Dollhouse”  This is much more rocky than many of the previous entrants.  Makes me think a lot of punk, she talk/sings in a very little girl type voice over very raucous instrumentation.  Compelling to listen to, even though I have no idea what she is singing.  They way they layer it is much more sophisticated than punk.  There is a break a bit over mid-way, to add interest.  Jaminai “Prelude/Onda”  I almost brought this myself, but like Mila, noticed that you’d reviewed them, so left them for you.  I hope some here haven’t heard them yet, they are in for a wonderful surprise!  Sales “Off and On”  Definitely get the alt-rock vibe right from the start.  There is a repeating guitar, bass and drums riffing under the female vocalist’s soft delivery.  Lead guitar is sort surf-y, nice tone to it.  Feels very much like a summer beach sort of tune, or driving on the coast.