Album World Tour – Bosco's Modern Life

Album World Tour: Italy

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

7/198

Album: Gloria

Artist: Umberto Tozzi

Year: 1979

Length: 39:27

Genre: Pop / Europop

Out of all of the countries I will be visiting on this world tour for music exploration, Italy is one of the 2 that is more personal for me (which makes sense why I probably decided to visit it early. I will be waiting quite some time before doing the 2nd one). Although I am Canadian born and pretty westernized culturally, racially I am Italian. My mom comes from a small mountain village in the south of Italy, located in the province of Calabria, and most of my family on her side still lives in Italy. There has always been this desire in me to get more in touch with my Italian roots both historically and culturally. I’ve always felt I’ve identified more with my Italian side than I have with my French-Canadian side, even though I’m an incredibly westernized Italian. I was never fully integrated into the culture but there was a lot that was there thanks to my mom when I was being raised (the importance of family values, the food, a lot of the traditions). I’d love to say I’m more Italian than I really am, but sadly I never even learned the language (I only know what my mom has yelled at me when I’ve annoyed her), which is usually a basic necessity to being part of it culturally.

A big part with getting in touch with my Italian heritage was diving into the music of Italy, music I would find myself over the years absolutely adoring and revisiting quite heavily. Of course, having a parent who grew up in Italy helped expose me to many Italian singers. I’ve had my mom gush to me about Adriano Celentano, Toto Cutugno and Umberto Tozzi throughout my life. All I have to do is mention some of these guys and she’ll start singing one of their greatest hits. I remember as a kid, having to perform a rendition of “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” when I was in elementary school. My mom got so excited about that, I even wore nice dressy black shoes to please her. My mom and I still bust into our own renditions of “L’Italiano” by Toto Cutugno, gravelly singing “Lasciatemi cantare, Con la chitarra in mano” at the top of our lungs. “Azzuro” will always be a crowd pleaser at my house and “Gloria” just slaps so hard that there’s no way you won’t find us dancing and singing along. In an attempt to help me learn Italian, I had an 8-track cassette of kids songs that would have heavy rotation in my dad’s van on trips. To this day I still sing the likes of “La Mia Mamma La Va Al Merca” and “l’Inverno E Passato” (although we just called it the Coocoo song). It’s easy to see why Italian music holds a special place in my heart.

Of course, I can’t talk about Italian music without talking about the classic music of Italy in the form of the Tarantella. Now, Italy is very rich in musical history, bringing innovations in compositions, musical notation, scaling, harmonies and theatre, over a wide variety of genres such as Baroque, Classical and Opera. In Italy, music is a strong part of their ethnic identity and would often be used to talk about politics and society. However, I want to focus on the dance craze that invaded southern Italy and became an integral part of their cultural lexicon, the tarantella.

Every region has their own variation of the tarantella but at the base they have the same characteristics: A fast, upbeat temp, a time signature of 6/8 and often accompanied by tambourines, and played on accordions. I’d be hard pressed to find an Italian out there who doesn’t have an uncle or grandfather who had a button accordion and would crank out his own variation of the tarantella once in awhile. My late uncle owned one, which I now have in my possession and the music of Italy has definitely been a key factor in influencing me to want to learn how to play the accordion. The history of the tarantella is quite an unusual one too. Seems to have originated from the mythos that when people were bitten by tarantulas, they’d start to get infected and suffer from tarantism. It was believed that doing a certain ritual dance to a specific type of music would help cure them of tarantism, which basically gave birth to the tarantella as a dance. However strange it’s roots, there’s no doubt how much of a hold this dance has on Italians. If you want to see old Italian women run to the dance floor, all you need to do is start playing the tarantella. Never have I ever seen my mom move to a dance floor so fast then when the tarantella started playing at my cousin’s wedding. it is a sight to behold. I’m no exception as I find myself constantly listening to the classic Tarantella and other songs that use the form such as the classic “Funiculi, Funicula” and even the more modern and hilarious Roby Santini song “Giovanna e Angiolino”.

When it came to picking an album from Italy, I had quite a well of music to choose from and as always when it comes to a lot of these countries there’s the debate between finding something modern or more classical. With Italy, there felt like an obvious choice for me. Seeing how “Gloria” has been such a big song in my life that I absolutely love and Umberto Tozzi is well loved, I figured the album that “Gloria” was a no brainer. As I listened tot he album with my mom in the hopes of getting some insight into it, I found out that one of my cousins is not only a big Umberto Tozzi fan but has met him personally on many occasions to the point that Umberto knows her very well. Probably means that if I ever wanted to meet the superstar himself, I have an easy way of doing it! I didn’t get too much insight into his music, but I learned that Umberto Tozzi was a cultural icon for Italy through the 70s and 80s. He was one of the first to have a major hit overseas with “Gloria” that was so successful it even got an American remake, famously by Laura Branigan.

Listening to this album, though, it felt that, like most superstars, he was definitely more of a singles musician than an albums musician. Where the singles off the album are bangers, the rest of the songs do feel like filler. His biggest hit opens the album, which is an incredibly strong way to start it, but unfortunately only leaves room to go down from there. I never quite felt the rest of the album could ever hit the high that was “Gloria”. That doesn’t mean it was all bad though. The other dance songs on the album are a ton of fun, and there’s some genuinely sentimental moments on ballads throughout. You would think the mix of dance pop songs and slow ballads would make for a strange tonal shift and feel inconsistent and messy as an album as it keeps jumping back and forth, but they surprisingly all work well together and there is a nice flow to the album as a whole. Not bad, as the songs range from forgettable to great. The main pull of the album is clearly Umberto Tozzi the performer, whose vocals and delivery are really what sells each song, even the filler. I wouldn’t be surprised if people listen to this more because it’s Umberto Tozzi and less because of the songs themselves. That’s not a bad thing because Umberto Tozzi has a great voice and a charismatic presence that can be felt through the speakers. I can see why he became such a big thing.

As I continue my journey to getting more in touch with my cultural roots, I find myself feeling more like… myself, if that makes sense. One day I hope I will learn Italian, a goal that both me and my girlfriend (who is also Italian from southern Italy) hope to achieve. We both would love to go back and visit Italy again for a longer period of time, where we could integrate ourselves into the culture more (along with visiting family we never get to see). But for now, the best I could do is consume as much Italian media as I can. Along with the music, a big way my mom and I bond is by watching old Italian films, a lot from the neorealist era. It’s not only a way for me and my mom to connect but also scratches another itch of mine that I have and that’s my love for movies and film history. There’s something about those old Italian movies I really love and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of my desire to connect with my heritage that has me engaging so strongly. Regardless, it’s all held closely to my heart and that’s what’s important to me.

Camila’s Thoughts: Feel like I can become fluent in Italian if I listen to this full album another 3 times. Which I might actually do because I thoroughly enjoyed myself. His slow stuff was not my fave stuff, I feel like his fast paced / dance songs are where he shines. Added many of them to my Italian playlist.

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour: South Africa

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

6/198

Album: Miriam Makeba

Artist: Miriam Makeba

Year: 1960

Length: 34:42

Genre: World Music / African Music

Before I started this journey to listen to an album from every country, it all began when, one week, I decided to try and listen to albums from different country for the entirety of the week. It started off as something fun for myself but it wasn’t until I chose to listen to Miriam Makeba’s debut that I was inspired to do this as an actual project rather than something just for myself. I don’t quite know what it is about Miriam Makeba’s debut album that has put a spell on me, but it’s become one of those albums that I want other people to know about, that I want people to discover and listen to. I want to share this album with everyone and doing the Album World Tour felt like a great way for me to talk about it to everyone and hope that many others will check it out for themselves.

It’s also fitting that I would choose Miriam Makeba for South Africa since she is considered, not only one of the most important musical artists, but also one of the most important people to come out of South Africa (straight from the city of Johannesburg). She did so much to put not only her country of South Africa onto the map but also had western audiences paying attention more closely to Africa in general as a continent. Basically being seen as an ambassador of sorts, she was given the nickname of “Mama Africa” and was seen as an emblematic of the continent of Africa from the eyes of North Americans. She would also receive the monikers of “Empress of African Song” and “Queen of South African Music”. She would be the one to bring African music to western audiences and would even one of the artists to popularise the term “World Music” (a term she did not particularly enjoy as she felt it marginalised music from the “third world”). It cannot be understated how important she was when it came to bringing African music to Western audiences.

Along with that, she was also an important activist for her country during the times of Apartheid. Openly speaking out against it and vocalising these feelings through her music. She was one of the most visible people to stand up against it and spokesperson for black Africans, to the point that her country would refuse her entry into it. She would use her high profile to testify against apartheid in front of the UN. She became a symbol of the cruelty of Apartheid as many of her songs would get banned in South Africa, where they were eventually distributed in the underground away from the eyes of the government. According to Hugh Masekela (Another artist and an ex-husband of Miriam Makeba), “there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba”. Nelson Mandela would even send her praises saying, “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.” There couldn’t be an artist more fitting to represent South Africa.

Her self-titled debut is something really special. It worked as a showcase of traditional African songs that would be exposed to American audiences. Most songs were sung in her home languages of Xhosa, Swahili and Sotho, with a handful of the English songs being covers of American classics to show she can do those just as well. It’s really the traditional songs that shine on this album with a mix of lullabies, the classic chant of “Mbube” (which would eventually be appropriated by an american band to make the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and her famous “The Click Song”, named so because American audiences could not pronounce the original title (something she prefaces the song with). There’s a beauty and grace to her voice that I find rare and even though you might not understand what she is singing, you can feel the sincerity and soul coming from her. She has a lot of love for these songs and it shows and that passion and heart radiates out creating a listening experience that is comforting and warm, like a large blanket enveloping you.

Although, one song off the album has left me baffled for years now. “One More Dance” is the penultimate song off the album and it’s a fascinating and curious song. One of the few sung in English, she sings about a husband whose health is failing and eventually dies. She sounds sad and evokes those emotions well. However, throughout the song a male vocalist sings along in a duet with her… but is laughing his ass off through the entire thing. I have done research and the closest I can find is this song is described as being about two cynical lovers… why this man is laughing about the failing health about this woman’s husband is beyond me and to this day has left me with so many questions. I would love to know the purpose of this duet but for now, it still remains a mystery.

This album left quite an impact on me the first time I heard it about six / seven years ago as I still find myself thinking about it and constantly feeling this desire to have it heard by everyone. It sits nicely in my top 100 favourite albums of all time and is just such a lovely album that is incredibly difficult to dislike. I genuinely do think everyone should listen to this album at least once in their lives and I hope when they do that they also feel the same warmth and comfort I did when I had first heard it.

Camila’s Thoughts: “I will definitely listen to this again in the future. I feel like I’m in a party in a grandma’s basement with lots of good food and so much love around.”

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour: Greece

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

5/198

Album: 666

Artist: Aphrodite’s Child

Year: 1972

Length: 82:44

Genre: Progressive Rock / Psychedelic Rock / Art Rock

I’m going to be fully transparent here, I had an absolutely DUH moment when it came to writing this post initially. I originally found myself writing about how this was possibly the first instance of a country in my World Tour where I couldn’t really think of how much impact the country had, especially when it came to North America. I dug deep in my thoughts to figure out what I knew about Greece and it’s lasting influences and came up with a short list that stated, what else do we really know about Greece other than its beautiful landscapes and tourist attractions, Zorba the Greek, gyros and anything we learned from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I was sincere when I said this, genuinely being unable to think of anything else from Greece that may have impacted media in anyway shape or form.

Would you believe my reaction when I eventually realised, “Wait! Ancient Greece was a thing!” How could I possibly forget that. How could I forget that Greece brought us a huge variety of things that still have a major impact on us in the modern day. I mean, we have Ancient Greek Philosophy from the likes of Plato and Aristotle (I had literally referenced Plato’s Cave last month!), The Greek tragedies and comedies in theatre (as a big theatre person, how could I not remember this!). They created so much of the language of theatre from terms such as Deus Ex Machina and the concept of the Greek chorus. There’s poetry and literature that has transcended their mediums and is still taught in schools today: Homer’s The Odyssey, The Illiad! I mean, The Greek Gods and Greek mythology is still a huge thing, I have even been writing a script heavily influenced by Greek Mythology! Greece has given us so much in terms of media, that I cannot believe I had such a massive brain fart in regards to it.

However, when it comes to music, other than the classic greek music we all know from Greek weddings, there isn’t really much to be said about any music that comes out of Greece. Not to say they don’t have a rich history of it, au contraire. Music in Greece can be traced back all the way to ancient Greece, with men performing in choruses and using a variety of plucked instruments, such as the pandura, the lyre, the kanonaki and the kithara, with the inclusion of a reed instrument known as the aulos. Music was so important to education in Ancient Greece that young boys would learn a variety of musical modes and theory that would eventually lead to the creation of classical and religious music.

Through their history they would develop other forms of music such as Greek Folk music, that could be separated into two categories of Acritic songs and Klephtic songs, Nisiotika music from the Aegean islands, Ikariotikos, a traditional style of dance music, and Cretan music, most famously heard with the Zorba the Greek song and what us modern western audiences are probably most familiar with when thinking of Greek music. Greece definitely has a rich history of music, but again, when it came to thinking of a particular band or album, it wasn’t an obvious choice for me.

This was a case where the album was picked before the country. A thing I have been doing this year is cataloguing all the albums I’ve listened to throughout the year so I can keep track of what I have listened to. I happened to be hitting album 666 of the year and thought it would be fitting to find an album that fit that ever famous number. It just so happened that not only did I find an album called 666 but it also happened to be from a different country, which fit perfectly with this series, so killing two birds with one stone!

Despite the factors that led me to picking this album, it still ended up being a great pick and an overall fascinating album. Of course, a progressive rock band wouldn’t be the first thing you’d think about when it comes to Greece, but Aphrodite’s Child seems to have been a big enough success that they definitely helped put Greece on the map in terms of the genre with this ambitious concept album they created. Although the band had started as a more pop-oriented band the progressive rock route they took would eventually lead to their break-up, due to band members not enjoying this choice made my lead songwriter Vangelis Papathanassiou, they definitely left quite an impact with this as their last album. It would amass a major cult following and Jon Anderson from the band Yes would eventually collaborate with Vangelis.

The basic concept of 666 was to do a retelling of the Book of Revelations. According to Vangelis, he was heavily influenced by a lot of non-linear storytelling formats found in movies such as Rashomon and Intolerance and combining it with the rock opera stylings of The Who’s Tommy. The album told the story of a circus performing a show based on the apocalypse while the real apocalypse took place right outside of the circus tent, and as the album progresses the two stories eventually merge into one. To bring this story to life, the band utilised a variety of electronic instruments, studio techniques and tons of experimentation that led to songs to were considered uncommercial yet still tuneful as a whole. There’s barely any vocals to be found throughout as well, with a majority of the album being mainly instrumental. For some this can definitely be considered a bit of a challenging listen but an incredibly satisfying one if you can stick it out to the end. It was highly ambitious as a project, but this is a case where ambition did not exceed skill and the band were able to execute this concept quite beautifully.

It’s not for everyone, but is a worthwhile listen f you’re willing to give it your full attention.

Camila’s Thoughts: “Highly disappointed there weren’t any breaking plates sounds”

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour: Germany

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

4/198

Album: Computer World

Artist: Kraftwerk

Year: 1981

Length: 34:25

Genre: Electronic / Synth-Pop / Electro

I am only four countries in and once again I’ve decided to do a big country when it came to music. Just like Japan and Brazil, Germany was probably, debateably, one of the leading forces for music innovation and influence. Of course, it wasn’t the only country to do so, but there’s definitely a strong case to be made for what Germany had to offer musically to the world and the impact it had left. Let’s just say there was no lack of choice when trying to pick a band to listen to, let alone an album. That’s just a testament to Germany’s music that I could probably do a whole series purely on German bands and it would last me longer than I had ever thought.

Again, we find ourselves a country rich in musical genres, with a nice variety of selections that are also considered incredibly German. There was schlager music, which was a more traditional music of Germany, Kraut-rock (with bands like Faust and Can), Kosmische Musik (with bands like Neu and Kluster), and of course, as a branch of Kosmische Musik, their electronic music that was heavily influenced by the likes of bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. Every single one of these bands had albums I had considered to talk about, but it only made sense to me to choose what is possibly my favourite band of the bunch, my favourite album of theirs and the first band from Germany I ever got into: the unbelievably wonderful and innovative electronic robots, Kraftwerk.

Kraftwerk have often been called the grandfathers of electronic music for a good reason. They may not have been the first to use synthesizers, contemporaries Tangerine Dream were making music at the same time and doing cool soundscapes with them, and electronic music was starting to take form as early as the 1960s with albums like Wendy Carlos’ “Switched On Bach” in 1968. No, they weren’t the first, but they were definitely the most innovative, creating their music from instruments they made themselves, isolating themselves into their own recording studio (called Kling Klang studio, a sound that fits their music appropriately) and developed the aesthetic of robots and machinery as the main sound of electronic music. Before them, synthesizers were used for experimentation, but Kraftwerk took the mechanical sounds and used them to create pieces of machinery and music bout said machinery with albums about driving a car, train tracks and travels, exploring humans as robots living under neon lights and in metropolis’ as the Man Machine, and finally a world controlled by computers. Sounds you can hear through modern electronic and dance music, sampled in countless Hip Hop albums and continuing to appear in current musical trends, even if you don’t realise it.

Before going on, I think it’s important to mention how Germany truly developed this sound. Before Kraut-Rock was a thing, the musical landscape in the country was heavy with Schlager and American influenced bands, something that the youth at the time wasn’t enjoying. They were not happy with the condition of Germany, disappointed with their history coming out of the world war and just not enjoying the extremely conservative stylings of Schlager music and annoyed at how American influences were taking over, they wanted to create their own music, their own sound that they can truly call as their own. These young musicians started to experiment with their instruments, creating new sounds and music that was somewhat challenging yet interesting. Bands like Can and Faust, the latter writing a song called Kraut-Rock (possibly coining the term right there), would hit the scene with drone-like songs and hypnotic, mesmerising tunes that could run as long as ten minutes. Kraftwerk was also one of these bands, starting off extremely experimental in nature (one of the main guys was playing the flute in the early days) and it wouldn’t be until their fourth album that they would discover their true sound.

Discovering synthesizers, they realised they really could do anything they wanted musically and started to develop their robotic and mechanical sound that they would become famously known for. It would be an aesthetic so synonymous with the band, that they would even do live shows with robotic mannequins sculpted in their likeness in their place on stage rather than them playing. Their almost motionless, dead pan, machine-like style of playing would go on to influence a large amount of New Wave and Post-Punk bands who would adapt a lot of those movements to their own aesthetics. Any one of their albums would have been worth talking about, but Computer World is the one I constantly find myself listening to over and over again and out of all of them, still completely blows me away at how ahead of the times they were not only musically, but predicting the modern world that seemed so damn futuristic in 1981.

Take into account that Computers in 1981 were incredibly primitive and not a household item like it is today. Somehow, out of all their albums, this one seems not only prophetic but incredibly, even more relevant today than when it was released. We truly do live in a Computer World today, where we are constantly connected to the internet, with a thousand devices surrounding us at all times that we constantly use. It’s at the point that we wouldn’t even be able to survive without all the technology we have. I especially love the song Pocket Calculator that seemed so innocent and playful at the time, about enjoying your little pocket calculator that you operate yourself and push the buttons and it plays little melodies. From a modern lens, there’s no way to see this as anything than an ode to our love and obsession to our Iphones. I’m guessing this all factors in as to why the album resonates with me more and more as the years go by.

Kraftwerk’s influence on electronic music and how ahead of their time they were cannot be understated. They didn’t put Germany on the map when it came to music, but they definitely cemented the country’s name in music history as being a powerhouse of music. With everything that country has been through, it’s nice to see they at least get this one big positive.

Camila’s Thoughts: “This makes me remember all the reasons why I broke up with my ex.”

How cryptic Camila…

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour: India

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

3/198

Album: The Sounds of India

Artist: Ravi Shankar

Year: 1957

Length: 53:40

Genre: Hindustani Classical Music

Originally I was going to talk about a different album from India. I was so determined to write about it and had listened to it with glee and excitement. See, Ravi Shankar felt like an obvious choice, but his nephew Ananda Shankar was right there and was doing something very interesting with his album, “Ananda Shankar” from 1970. A master of the sitar himself, he took classical Indian music and, after staying in San Francisco for some time, decided to combine it with modern rock music. What we get is this wonderful fusion of western rock sensibilities and classical Indian music with covers of Jumping Jack Flash and Light My Fire, played primarily with the sitar, sitting next to Raga compositions. What a great way to fuse the classic with the modern.

One problem, I only just found out about five minutes ago from writing this… despite Ananda Shankar being an Indian musician, that particular album was actually released in the US on an American label… oops. One could say that technically it would still be considered an Indian album seeing as Ananda Shankar is a big Indian artist, but this seems to be considered an American album, and I want to keep to the rules of an album from the country I am doing. So, the obvious choice it is with his uncle, the true master of the sitar, the sitar god himself, Ravi Shankar.

I had thankfully just listened to this album recently to wind down before bed one night, so it is still fresh in my mind. Before I do though, I think it is important to mention just how important Ravi Shankar was to Indian Music in the 50s and 60s. He was basically the biggest sitar player in the world and the most internationally famous Indian musician, practically single-handedly bringing classical Indian music to the western world, exposing them to their compositions and sounds. I don’t know how many other Indian musicians at the time managed to get western audiences as fans, but I feel even the average music listener had at least heard of Ravi Shankar in some capacity. He would also be the first Indian to compose music for non-indian movies and would even perform at the famous Woodstock Festival in 1969. Despite the sitar becoming synonymous with hippie culture in the 60s, he was also very outspoken against it and their heavy drug use because he felt that music was their connection to god and didn’t like the association to their music with such a bad thing (the bad thing being the drugs). Now you see what I mean by he was the obvious choice.

You can tell how passionate he was about his music and this album is good proof of that. The name “The Sounds of India” wasn’t just a literal album name but was meant to be seen as an educational title for western audiences listening to it. At the beginning of each performance, before he plays any music, Ravi Shankar describes the different attributes and sounds of the music he is about to play with short examples. This is as much a teaching of Classical Hindustani Music as it is an example of the great music Ravi Shankar made. He was the greatest ambassador for Classical Hindustani Music and merged his love for playing it with his love for teaching western audiences about it onto this one album. This is equally and excellent historical artefact to preserve the sounds of Indian music for modern audiences and also just a solid album of great music. I cannot understate the musical skills Ravi Shankar presents here on the sitar, it is truly transcendent.

One form of music he uses here is a Raga, which is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian music and… honestly, I could attempt to explain all this but Ravi Shankar explains it better than I ever could on the album. Why not let the master share his knowledge?

Camila’s thoughts: “Wow, George Harrison really westernized the sitar when he added it to music”

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour: Japan

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

2/198

Album: In A Model Room

Artist: P-Model

Year: 1979

Length: 33:28

Genre: New Wave / Synth Pop

I wonder if I’m doing myself a disservice by starting this World Tour by going through all the, what I call, easy countries. Japan, like Brazil, is also a big exporter of media and I was thinking, if I go through all these countries really quickly, I’ll basically be left with all the random small countries that no one has ever heard of left with no big countries in between. Maybe I should pace myself? Ahhh, it’s only the second country, I’ll do what I want!

Japan is a great country when it comes to media as a whole, I don’t think anyone can deny the impact Japan has had on western culture. We see it everywhere, from anime to conventions to manga to food and clothing with those kimono wearing Japanese obsessed people. You don’t have to look very far to find someone gushing about Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki and how breath taking his visual style is. Mangas get their own section in book stores and libraries. Even as a child, we were surrounded by Pokemon everywhere, a force so strong that 25 years later, it’s still grabbing the attention of the younger generation. Japan has had such an impact on North America that there’s a large group of weird obsessed white people who desperately want to become Japanese (I’ve known quite a few white women who would ONLY date Japanese men… yeah).

And even within their own country, they have such a unique style to their media that when you think of Japanese media, you can already picture exactly what it is. Ever seen a Japanese gameshow? I’m sure your mind is already conjuring up images of pure chaos and reckless abandon as contestants do the most ridiculous things in ridiculous costumes for laughs. Japanese game show concepts have attempted to come to North America but it just never worked.

Out of all the media, Music has always been an interesting one. Of course, Japan has it’s classical sounds that I’m sure everyone can hear in their minds. The 80s in Western Culture were ripe with Japanese influences, with most New Wave bands trying to capture the sounds of East Asia, Turning Japanese by The Vapors is an obvious one, heck the band Japan was clearly obsessed with the country to the point the David Sylvan looked like he was trying to turn into a Japanese pop icon himself. The band Sparks had two geishas on the cover of their album Kimono My House (that title too!) and the Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra would become one of the most sampled bands in American Hip Hop music. Japan is everywhere it seems, no matter where you look.

Picking an album was tough because there’s a lot of Japanese bands I love. Yellow Magic Orchestra felt like an obvious one, not only for their impact on Hip Hop with how sampled they were but their influences on electronic and video game music as well! (The Plastics were also in consideration). But P-Model’s In a Model Room ended up winning it over for the main reason that I just love this album and it had suddenly appeared on Spotify for the first time and I got so excited that I listened to it multiple times. I know there’s going to be some major bias sometimes when it comes to picking albums, but let me remind you this is about listening to an album from every country and not an album that’s emblematic of that country. Any genre and style is up for grabs!

That being said, P-Model still had an important place in Japanese history. It was one of the biggest rock bands to come out of the country and funnily enough, with how I talked about Japan’s influences on North America, the band was heavily influenced b the New Wave movement starting in North America. Susumu Hirosawa, guitarist and vocalist (and main songwriter), would do away with the prog metal band he was in and adopt the New Wave stylings for his band. This made the music frenetic, high energy, with staccato guitar playing, synthesizers that bleeped and blopped and vocals that were both aggressively in your face but also a lot of fun. This is the kind of album that has all the ingredients for the kind of music I love. On top of it all, lyrically there was a lot of socio-political commentary about the conditions of society in Japan at the time, that just adds the extra cherry on top of this delicious sundae. With a mix of Post-Punk blaring tunes (Art Mania, Health Angel), some slower pop (Kameari Pop, Sophisticated) and experimental synth songs that would be a pre-cursor to their later work (Art Blind). I can see this not being for everyone but if you’re into bands like Devo, Talking Heads, The B-52’s and The Suburban Lawns, then this band is for you!

Because she helped out with my Brazil post, I figured it’d be fun to see what my friend Camila thought of this album. This is what she said:

“This album just feels like a big machine.”

Surprisingly accurate reaction.

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour: Brazil

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

1/198

Album: Os Mutantes

Artist: Os Mutantes

Year: 1968

Genre: Psychedelic Pop / Experimental Rock / Psychedelic Rock

Length: 36:01

As I take my first steps into this long journey ahead of me, it only made sense that I start it off with not only something familiar that I love but a country that is rich in musical history. Brazil just felt like the perfect place to start. Outside of the usual western music we are constantly bombarded with (specifically US and UK) Brazil is one of the countries that has the richest and biggest music scenes that not only led to innovation and massive inspiration for artists outside of it but also had massive historical importance and was revolutionary within it’s own history.

I fell in love with Brazilian music years ago when I started doing my 1001 Albums challenge and started to discover how much music came out of Brazil and how much of it was superbly amazing, discovering artists like Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, Joao Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, Milton Nascimento, Lo Borges, (and thanks to some good Brazilian friends of mine (One of whom, my good friend, Camila, gave me some great insight into Brazilian music for this post, so I hope I do you proud!)I also discovered bands like) Mamonas Assassinas, Raul Seixas, and Ultraje a Rigor. And this only scratches the surface of so many great musical artists that Brazil has to offer.

It became clear that choosing an album from this country would be difficult. With the already mentioned multitude of artists I named, the amount of great albums I love from the country and a variety of musical genres and movements that came out of Brazil: Samba, Tropicalia, Bossa Nova, Choro, Brega Music, Sertanejo, MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira), I basically had an entire ocean of music I could choose.

It only made sense to me then that I would pick Os Mutantes debut album to listen to, for two reasons: 1. They were historically one of the most important bands of Brazil when it came to the Tropicalia movement and revolutionary attitudes during an oppressive time and 2. I was just really in the mood to listen to Os Mutantes because I just love this album.

At this point in the 60s, Brazil was under a military dictatorship and the government was basically setting up bans of what could be said in various forms of media (music, newspaper, tv, theatre, etc.). It only made sense that out of this militaristic right wing government, a large group of left-wing liberals would come out as revolutionaries to speak out against it. Problem was, the government was heavily chekcing what every piece of media was saying and if it even mentioned anything they disagreed with, it would never see the light of day. How did they work around this? They made their music sound like nonsense or used very poetic language, so they’d only get their message across to those who truly knew what they were really saying.

Os Mutantes were one of those bands (along with Caetano Veloso who famously was kicked out of the country for his outspoken revolutionary views of the government through his music) to come out of the movement and their mix of lyrical themes and satire with discordant, fuzzy guitars and strange musical noises, made them a favourite amongst the population (something that would protect them as the government tended to just kill any revolutionaries but because these were artists well-liked by the population they didn’t just do away with them (hence why Caetano Veloso was asked to leave rather than just full-on murdered)).

Os Mutantes weren’t just revolutionizing rock music but played an important part to standing up to an oppressive government, a sentiment that would eventually permeate throughout other cultural movements in other countries. In a lot of ways, they were a punk band before punk ever had a name. And that’s pretty cool in my books.

I would highly encourage everyone to seek out the music of Brazil because there really is a lot of amazing music there (and yes I realize I am biased since I love Brazilian music quite a lot). I had almost gone with Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges’ album Clube da Esquina, which is a phenomenal album as well and deserves all the attention and I would highly recommend that you at least check that one out as well.

Starting this journey with a strong opener, here’s to another 197 to go!

-Bosco

Updated Country List

Album World Tour!

A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country

In my pursuit to constantly discover new music, I had come up with the idea to listen to an album from a different country for the entirety of a week. As the week came to a close, I found myself wanting to continue to do it and decided that it’d be a lot of fun to set out on a journey to listen to an album from every single country, a feat that will take a considerable amount of time but I am sure will be worth it.

There is about 198 countries which means I will be listening to 198 different albums throughout this journey. I don’t really have any rules or caveats when it comes to choosing what album to listen to other than it must be from an artist or band from that country. This means I’ll be listening to a large variety of music. I’m not sticking to the idea that the album I choose has to be representative of that country’s culture and sound, although it would be nice to find some that do! That means I might pick albums that have a sound that is in vain of the traditional music of that country or might be a straight-forward rock album that fits with western musical sensibilities of the modern age. The album could be old or could be new. it could be incredibly popular or might be obscure. There’s no knowing what I will pick!

Included here will be a list of every country that I will constantly update with the chosen album as the journey progresses. it should be noted I have separated the UK into three parts as England, Wales and Scotland as, even though they technically make up one country, they are three distinct cultures that have tons of musical artists that hail from each.

Here it is:

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
The Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil: Os Mutantes – Os Mutantes
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the
Costa Rica
Côte d’Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor (Timor-Leste)
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
The Gambia
Georgia
Germany: Kraftwerk – Computer World
Ghana
Greece: Aphrodite’s Child – 666
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India: Ravi Shankar – The Sounds of India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy: Umberto Tozzi – Gloria
Jamaica
Japan: P-Model – In A Model Room
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States of
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar (Burma)
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Macedonia
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa: Miriam Makeba – Miriam Makeba
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Sudan, South
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom:
England:
Scotland:
Wales:
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

HERE WE GO!