Gold Coast based world music band A FRENCH BUTLER CALLED SMITH have been performing their high energy Latin, funk, instrumental fusion over a 2 year period to ever increasing audiences on Australia's East Coast. The initial creators behind this all organic dance music sound were acoustic guitar aficionado (Scott French), bass maestro (Jake ‘the Butler’ Martin) and respected world percussion artist (Brennan Smith).
This is an incorrect tag for Kočani Orkestar. If this non-artist appears in your charts, do last.fm and yourself a favor. Fix your artist tags.
Omar Souleyman is a Syrian musical legend. Since 1994, he and his musicians have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout Syria, but until now they have remained little known outside of the country. To date, they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live- recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. Born in rural Northeastern Syria, he began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that remain with him today. The myriad musical traditions of the region are evident in their music.
Michael Beach is a San Francisco-based musician. The formative years of his musical career were spent in Melbourne, Australia where he released several EPs with Electric Jellyfish (Ecstatic Yod, Twin Lakes) as well as his debut LP, Blood Courses (2008). Michael has toured the USA three times with Electric Jellyfish (2007, 2008, and 2010) and once solo (2008). He has toured Australia twice with Electric Jellyfish (summer 2009 and winter 2009) and once solo (2009).
<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/%E9%BC%93%E7%AB%A5" class="bbcode_artist">鼓童</a> (Kodō) is one of the elite taiko drumming groups today. Based in Sado Island, Japan, they have been a major force in the post-World War II revitalization of taiko drumming, both in Japan and abroad. They regularly tour Japan and the United States. Although the main focus of the performance is taiko drumming, other traditional Japanese musical instruments such as fue and shamisen make an appearance on stage as do traditional dance and vocal performance.
Konono Nº1 is a musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire). They combine three electric likembé (a traditional lamellaphone similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator.
Emmanuel Jal (born c. 1980) is a Sudanese musician and former child soldier. Born in the village of Tonj in Southern Sudan, he was a little boy when the civil war broke out. Emmanuel’s father joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and when he was about seven years old his mother died. Emmanuel then decided to join the thousands of children travelling to Ethiopia who had been told that they could be educated there.
Dead Can Dance is a band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1981 by Brendan Perry (baritone) together with Simon Monroe and Paul Erikson later to be joined by Lisa Gerrard (contralto). They disbanded in 1998, and temporarily reunited to do a highly successful world tour in 2005 with a view to recording another studio album together. In order to concentrate on their solo careers and due to ongoing personal differences between Perry and Gerrard, the project was, however, put on hiatus.
Ganga Giri mixes red natural elements with fat tribal beats and dirty funky bass lines to create a unique tribal-technological deep earth dance experience. Explosive and pulsating, at times ambient and flowing, the music is a pumping percussive multi-layered experience of complex grooves and raw, deep natural sound. Ganga himself is a rhythmic didjeridu virtuoso and percussionist -- an inspired music creator whose passion brings people together in celebration of nowness in newness, a modern day corroboree for all!
Archie Roach (born 1956, Mooroopna, Victoria) is an Australian musician. A singer, songwriter and guitarist, he survived a turbulent upbringing to develop into a powerful voice for Indigenous Australia, a storyteller in the tradition of his ancestors, and a nationally popular and respected artist. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.