Tuesday 31 March 2020

Some less represented genres in my music collection, Part 1

Lately, having found more artists I like in my collection than I can adequately remember by artist name alone, I have been working on filling in the genre tags.  This way, even if I can't recall the Codex Huelgas specifically, I can easily find it under its genre tag, Ars Subtilior.  This is unfortunate for any music whose genre can, accurately or inaccurately, best be described as "rock", a genre which ranges from Aaron Neville to the 90 Day Men, but works fairly well for music which falls into the genre "Art Punk" (Contents: Brainiac's "Bonsai Superstar", New Fries' "More", and the Urinals' "Another EP").  Here are some of the more marginally represented genres in my collection.

Acid House (68 songs, 7:55:17 total time): For a long time this genre was represented solely by Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan's song "Syncopation" from their EP "Electronic Movements". Starting in late 2019, though, I started exploring acid house made _after_ 1962.  Tracks now include Choice's classic "Acid Eiffel", the remastered soundtrack to the Amiga demo "Jesus on E's", and Legowelt's "Sark Island Acid" EP.

Acid Jazz (13 songs, 56:22 Total Time): For a long time this genre was populated solely by Robert Wyatt songs - the short version of "Venceremos/We Will Win" by Working Week and "Another Great Victory" by Jo Bogaert's Millennium.  I have since broadened the records available to me by adding Korean acid jazz group Roller Coaster's 2002 album "Absolute".

Afrobeats: As distinct from "Afrobeat", this contains just one song: Skeleton Move by Master KG feat. Zanda Zakusa.

Analog Drum & Bass: I don't know what this genre is supposed to be.  The genre contains one album, "I Think I See Myself on CCTV" by Disciplina Kitschme.  I see no particular reason to retag the genre on this.

Argentinian Punk/HC: Again only one album here, Soberania Personal's "Benditos Sean Munecos Que Pegan".  I have other Argentinian records in my collection, and other punk/hardcore records, but no punk/hardcore records by Argentinian groups.

Auvergnat Folk Music: Represented only by three songs from Gentiane's 1977 album "Musique d'Auvergne".  Not sure it's particularly worth differentiating Auvergnat Folk Music from Breton Folk Music, but the tags came that way and they're not wrong.

Avant-Oompah: Just one track, Noodband's "Sono Koubaly" from the 1985 compilation "Dutch Difficult Music".  Noodband's other music does not fall into this genre.  I would gladly have more than one song with this genre tag, however, I do not believe there has ever been more than one song recorded in this genre.

Bellydance: Only nine songs here, one of which is "Dark Fire" by Douglas Adams (not that Douglas Adams) and Light Rain, which I ripped from a the soundtrack from a bellydance video on Vimeo.  I've been looking for the rest of this record but it is nowhere to be found.

Bhangra: This is just Daler Mehndi's "Bolo Ta Ra Ra".  I might one day explore Bhangra further but I haven't yet.

Big Band: Most music in this genre is just tagged with "Jazz".  What's left is one of several duplicate MP3s of Fletcher Henderson's "Sugar Foot Stomp", this one tagged as being by "Louis Armstrong With Fletcher Henderson", a fairly avant-garde university piece called Codify by North Texas State University's "Lab '68", and the full five-part "Indian Suite" by Ray Noble, famous for containing "Cherokee".

Blackened Crust: Just "Masters of War" by Iskra.

Bloody Weird: "The Fire-Ant Said to the Cockroach", by Arthur Brown.  Came tagged this way, and having heard it I am unable to conceive of a more appropriate tag for it.

Bongo Flava?: Distinct from the "Bongo Flava" genre (which contains nothing more than Ndege ya Mabua Peku Peku Mitaani Mitaani by the Micky Sound) because I have heard it claimed on the Internet that the X Plastaz album Maasai Hip Hop is _not_ Bongo Flava and only stupid idiots would believe it is.  Therefore I have placed a question mark after the genre and am leaving it there until I can make a more definitive ascertation.

Boom Bap: Contains the S/T LP by Company Flow offshots The Juggaknots, the 1996 album The "Deep" by Japanese hip-hop crew Soul Scream, and "Put It On" by Big L from 1995's "Lifestylez Ov Da Poor And Dangerous".

Brass Rock: A genre that mostly exists so I can easily locate "Kure v Hodenach" by Flamengo, a record I remember mostly as "that really amazingly good brass rock record from somewhere in Eastern Europe, sometime int he '70s".  Tower of Power's set closing out the Fillmore East in 1971 is also present.

Britpop: Contains only "Battle" from the special edition of Blur's "13".  This is probably not the first song to come to mind when most people think of Britpop as a genre.

OK, there's another low-effort blog post for you - I'll try to keep them coming on a semi-regular basis!

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