Vol. 2
of
The Secret Museum of Mankind: Ethnic Music Classics, 1925-48
is a diverse collection of old and rare international musical recordings. Opening with an all male choral bellow from a 1930s New Caledonian group, this CD jumps to a Bulgarian rachinitza, a lyrical Puerto Rican aguinaldo that's usually associated with Christmas festivities, and a Hindustani vocal display by a jamming scholar. The rest of the CD continues along in a similarly adventurous way, presenting early 20th century recordings from Turkish, Sri Lankan, Ukranian, Algerian, and Tibetan cultures, to name but a few. Of particular note is a recording of a Sundanese group. The wailing sounds of the Javanese rebab (a single stringed spiked fiddle) and the suling (bamboo flute) provide a wafting backdrop for the ether-like vocals of the group's singer,
Miss Narem
. From another island nation, Trinidad, comes the CD's upbeat ninth track,
"Old Time Cat-O'-Nine."
Backed up by his band
the Tiger
,
Lord Invader
attempts to persuade his fellow citizens to send the country's hooligans off to another island, Carrera Prison. In short,
is yet another interesting and great sounding contribution to
The Secret Museum
's set of old real "world music" recordings. ~ John Vallier