· April, 2006

Stories about Music from April, 2006

Hong Kong: Incentives for local musicians

  28 April 2006

This week on n8ma's Xanga site: “news of a new orchestral fellowship for string-playing graduates of the Central, Shanghai, and Hong Kong Conservatories that will help curb the mass emigration of Chinese musicians to more promising and lucrative employment in American orchestras.“

China: Rock festival coming

  27 April 2006

Friend Gram at Holidarity pulls quotes from the organizer of The Midi Festival—China's biggest each year—to be held in Beijing during the Golden Week holiday next week. “Before you could never do a big outdoor festival,” writes organizer Zhang Fan. “We're trying to let the government accept that rock ‘n’...

Taiwan: Punks still DIYing

  27 April 2006

Sack Be Jim at gotmahmojo finds DIY punk ethic, graffiti and a seldom-seen side of Taiwanese society while visiting a collective of artists squatting in an abandoned building in the island's capitol: “I was really excited to see something positive and creative going on in the city, since its been...

Taiwan: Taxi music's passing

  27 April 2006

Rank blog's Dog of the South blogs about the disappearance of a genre of music that used to make cab rides a treat: “For all its obvious flaws, I always thought Taxi Music communicated a bit of credible pathos. And you know what? The women and men who sang those...

Bolivia: Unity Festival 2006

  26 April 2006

GlowMain lists the DJ's that will perform at the 24-hour, non-stop, psychedelic trance event (ES) called “Unity Festival,” which will take place the first week of May in Bolivia.

African music #7

  25 April 2006

Nothing beats a music festival. You meet like the music lovers, people interested in the genre and enjoy the good party vibe. And though you know the lineup in advance you have no idea what antics will be displayed on stage. With these musings I look forward to the 4th...

Diaspora: Mashup and Football

  20 April 2006

Soul on Ice posts on a new music trend known as “mash ups” - which he says is nothing new really but a continuation of mix and remix and remixing – some “mash up” links if you are that way inclined. Also a short piece on this weeks Champion League...

Ethiopia: concert

  17 April 2006

African music blog, Benn loxo du taccu reports on an Ethiopian concert he attended last week. Great music and video clips of an amazing sax solo by Getatchew Mekuria – I have already played it half a dozen times.

Nigeria: Star Factor

  13 April 2006

Adefunke on Adefunke posts on a new Nigerian talent show called Star Factor – auditions are now being held in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Enugu, Jos, Makurdi and for some reason London.

Argentina, Spain: More Music

  11 April 2006

Two more Argentine indie groups recommended by musical connoisseur Fernando Casale. Check out sample tracks from Sync Filmico and Alvy Singer. From Spain, 4024 Segundos is a compilation available for download of new songs licensed under the Spanish Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

Mexico: Encordados

  11 April 2006

León Felipe Sánchez introduces the Mexican rock band Encordados whose latest album is licensed under Creative Commons and freely available for download.

African music (#6)

  11 April 2006

Coupé-Décalé? I went blank when my lady friend Tchi asked if I knew about Coupé-Décalé. A wiki entry for Coupé-Décalé provides a brief definition: “The Coupe-Decale created by Doucoure during the militaro-political crisis in Cote d'Ivoire,reflects the aspirations of the Ivorian youth. Coupe-Decale is a very melodious and percussive African...

Japan: Technology overload

  11 April 2006

“Laptop computers, mobile phones, hand-held devices, MP3 music players and even the occasional photocopy machine fill the carriage with a cacophony of unpleasantness. It's high-tech gone mad,” writes the Englishman in Osaka blogger of Japanese trains.