the surface appearance of things

I am a lover of many kinds of music and the Internet makes it incredibly easy to indulge oneself in more music than can be listened to in a lifetime. One particular interesting type of websites are so-called mp3 blogs, where music aficionados share their own musical taste by offering users the possibility to download songs or entire albums. The legality of this practice has of course been debated for some time but they still exist, the variety of genres broader than ever.

The most interesting blogs are those that offer music that is not otherwise easy to find. Excavated Shellac for instance is a “blog dedicated to 78rpm recordings of folkloric and vernacular music from around the world” and offers anything from Peruvian muliza to Norwegian Hardanger fiddlers to Jewish singers of the Maghreb (Excavated Shellac is also on Facebook here). Another great resource is Awesome Tapes from Africa, run by Brian Simkhovitz in Brooklyn who digitises cassette tapes with African music and puts them online: from Ghanian rap (be sure to listen to Okra’s Agynoamoa Kwesi) to traditional Toma music from Guinea, it is all there and you would never hear this were it not for the net (be sure to also check this interview with Brian in Green Owl). Or what about a blog like Monrakplengthai offering all kinds of Thai music digitised by another enthusiast.

Know any other good mp3 blogs? List them in the comments for others to enjoy..

To listen to it all Mac users can get a gem of a little program called Peel, which allows you to subscribe to mp3 blogs, listen to the music they offer and download the mp3′s you like to iTunes, all from within one interface; it could hardly be made easier!

For your added musical entertainment below is the teaser of a documentary hopefully to be made on music in Mali after the 1960s and the role of regional and national orchestras in its musical development since then, great stuff! Also check this tape of the Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali on Awesome Tapes from Africa and a description of the band here)