Filed under: Turkey
Berkant Akgürgen was born on New Years Eve 1938 in Ankara, Turkey. At the age of 19, he formed his first band Üstün Poyrazoğlu Orkestrası. Later that year, the band changed their name to Jüpiter Kenteti – or Jupiter Quintets. After a stint in the military, he formed Vasfi Uçaroğlu Orkestrası.
Berkant recorded dozens of singles between 1966 and 1974, and many of the songs were collected on an album in 1974. In 1993, he attempted a comeback with an album called “Samanyolu ’93” – or “Milky Way ’93”. He died today – October 1st, 2012.
This song, which translates as “First Love” was originally recorded by Ajda Pekkan.
Catalog number SP 303 on Sevilen Plāk of Turkey, released 1972.
Filed under: Japan
Speaking of James Bond… Here’s a version of “Goldfinger“.
Now, there never was a band called ‘Monkey A Go Go Band’. The origin of this single is pretty sketchy, since there is no information on it what so ever. I believe it was manufactured in either Malaysia or Hong Kong. But the cover happens to look a whole like Takeshi Terauchi & His Blue Jeans’ album “モンキー・ア・ゴー・ゴー!” – which translates as “Monkey A Go Go!“. And, what do you know? All of the songs on this single happen to be on that album.
Catalog number EPS 201 on STL Records. No other information available.
Filed under: Ghana
I first came across the Avengers when I was researching another band from Ghana – Tall Emma & His Skippers – and had been looking for one of their records ever since. I stumbled upon an article written by Soundway Records‘ Miles Cleret, but the both bands barely get a mention…
The guitar riff on this track bares more than a passing resemblance to the theme song from the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice” – that was released the same year as this record.
If you have any further information about the Avengers, or know if they produced any other recordings, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number FIC.245 on Ghana Film Studios, manufactured in England. Released 1967.
Filed under: Armenia
ԱՐԱ – or Ara – was an Armenian musician based in Beirut, Lebanon. He released at least one other single as Ara and His Trio – which was multi-colored record released by Lis Records with “Sev Sev Atcher” (which had also been recorded by fellow Armenian Adiss Harmandyan) on the A side and “Maria” on the flipside.
If you have any information on ԱՐԱ / Ara, please get in touch or leave a comment.
Catalog number 6652 / M 105 on Meka Records of Beirut, Lebanon. No release date listed.
Filed under: South Korea
♬ 안개 / 이슬비
♬ 오! / 님아
This record is a mystery… It’s basically a collection of Disco version medleys of songs by artists like San Ul Rim and Ham Jung-A. It’s so odd that it has a charm of its own. The music – and the concept itself – is not too all that dissimilar to the Non-Stop Music records by The Stylers and The Travellers of Singapore. Just one major difference – this record has no mention of the artist(s) anywhere on it.
If you have any information about this record, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number HLM-16 on Hit Record of South Korea, released 1978
Filed under: Dahomey
There are times when I am inspired to write. And then… Well, it’s like pulling teeth.
If you are somewhat familiar with the music of Benin – formerly known as Dahomey, you should own a copy of Analog Africa‘s African Scream Contest (If not, stop what you are doing, run – don’t walk – to your local record store and purchase it. Right now. Go on. Get.). Besides the closing track “Oya Ka Jojo”, you will find an interview with Atchadé Joseph in the extensive liner notes.
For further information, as well as a number of great tracks, head over to ORO (Here, here, here, here, here and here.).
Catalog number VG EP 0007 on Les Volcans. Released 1977.
Filed under: Egypt
♬ El Kamh
This post has been written by Hany Zaki – my man in Cairo. Besides being an encyclopedia of Egyptian music, he has been a very helpful resource for other North African and Middle Eastern music. He also runs a website dedicated to Omar Khorshid.
As young man he emerged at the sunset of the grand artists of the Middle East, Omar El Shariyi did not depend much on his family’s wealth through his struggles in the music scene – even though he was blind. His tools were his talent that made him earn studies from various musical institutions worldwide.
Omar got start as a musician playing accordion before switching to keyboard, playing with small bands and artists in night clubs and weddings. He eventually made the move to composition in 1975.
He got his big breakthrough when he collaborated with the music superstar Shadia to compose music for her 1979 film “Suspicion My Love”. That opened many doors for him to work with numerous artists in Egypt, and soon afterwards, the rest of Middle East.
In the early 80s, El Shariyi began work with the Roland keyboard company to produce an ‘Oriental keyboard‘. The venture was so successful that it was used a trademark in the music scene in Egypt throughout the 80s and 90s.
Omar had a fruitful career producing tribute albums in his own style of the departed giants of the Middle Eastern music – such as Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid al-Atrash and Laila Mourad, to name a few. In 1980, he formed a group by the name of ‘Al Asdekaa’ – or ‘Friends’ – with three singers, which was a popular trend in Egyptian music in the mid 70s and lasted until mid 80s.
In the 1990s, El Shariyi would take standard Egyptian songs from radio programs and transform them to a larger sound production for television programs. Omar’s love for the musical history of Egypt was evident in his compositions for radio, television and film – most of which were recorded in his ‘Omar Sound’ studio.
Catalog number MT 4868 on Soutelphan Records of Cairo, Egypt. Released 1977.
Filed under: Malaysia
Funny… The last single I bought from Malaysia also happened to be cover versions of Bollywood songs. But where as that single was note for note recreations – and all from the same film – A. Aziz & The Addend Boys have transformed their versions into garage rock gems. This track was originally recorded by Mohammed Rafi for the film “Milan Ki Raat“.
Unfortunately, there is zero information on the record sleeve or the record label. If you have any information on A. Aziz & The Addend Boys, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number EP 018 on Rose Record. No further information available.
Filed under: Central African Republic
As I have mentioned before, the best weapon for hunting records is information. But sometimes all you get conflicting accounts or faulty facts.
According to the person who sold me this record, 4 Black Brothers – or, as they are listed on the back cover, Quatre Black Brothers – were from the Central African Republic. I had been searching for anything from that country for quite some time. The only group that I had heard about from C. A. R. was L’Orchestre Centrafrican Jazz, whose records on the Disques France-Afrique label have eluded me for years. But now that I have this record in my hands, I’m cannot confirm where it may have come from – other than a pressing plant in France.
There is not a lot of information on the record sleeve itself. Other than the sentence “Prise de son: ZOUNDI FELIX DAVID – KAKLABAL”, it does credit the songwriters Augustin Zala Kanda Morin and Charles Malonga – who was the band leader. Apparently, Malonga was originally from Gabon, then moved to Upper Volta – now Burkina Faso. He is also listed as the guitarist for the Ivoirian band Jean Raph & Les Zoulous – who released a single on Société Ivoirienne Du Disque. Also, a discography for the label Sonafric lists 4 Black Brothers as having been from Upper Volta… But – at least to these ears – this doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard from there.
If you have any further information on 4 Black Brothers / Quatre Black Brothers, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number SAF 61003, Sonafric records of Paris, France. Released 1978.
Filed under: Kazakhstan
The Republic of Kazakhstan is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Europe. The ninth largest country in the world by land area, it is also the world’s largest landlocked country; its territory of 2,727,300 square kilometres (1,053,000 sq mi) is larger than Western Europe. It is neighbored by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea.
Controlled by the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union until it’s independence in 1991 – the last Soviet republic to do so – Kazakhstan’s folk and classical traditions are connected with ethnic Russian music and European classical music. Prior to the 20th century, Kazakh folk music had been collected and studied by ethnographic research teams. After the Russian revolution, what little that was recorded had to be approved by the censors at the Russian state-owned and operated Μелодия (Melodiya) label.
Дос-Мукасан (Dos-Mukasan) were the first modern pop music group in Kazakhstan. They formed in 1967 at the Kazakh Polytechnic Institute in the former capitol city of Almaty. The band’s name was derived from the first syllable of each the founding member’s names: Dosym Suleev, Murat Kusainov, Kamit Sanbaev, and “Sanya” Alexander Litvinov. Although their discography seems to end somewhere in the mid 80s, judging by the many clips on YouTube they are apparently still active to this day.
If you have any further information on Дос-Мукасан, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number… Well, there isn’t one. These songs were included on a flexi-disc – one of six – with the December 1977 issue of Kpyƨoзop (Krugozor) magazine, which was published by the Μелодия label.
Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe 
