A Cocktail Party pt 1

I’m not much of a drinker myself, so in this case the cocktail is a mix of cds and an mp3 blog. The cds I have mentioned before in passing, and many of you may be familiar with them, as they are deservedly famous. The Secret Museum of Mankind is a 8 volume series put out by Yazoo Records. They feature ethnic music (as opposed to North American popular music) recorded between 1925-48 and originally released on 78s. Volumes 1-5 feature music from around the world. Great stuff from Africa, Polynesia, all over Asia, South America, Europe and Native North American music. There are also three stand alone volumes: Central Asia, East Africa, and North Africa, each obviously focusing on music from the particular region. These cds are all pure gold and feature some of the most wonderful music ever recorded. And lucky for us in Calgary, the Calgary public library has 5 out of 8. They have Vol. 1-2,4, Central Asia and North Africa. If you don’t want to stop there the library also has several other Yazoo releases in their Early Ethnic Music series including The Music of Madagascar, and Fire in the Mountains: Polish Fiddle Music vol. 1&2.
The mp3 blog in question is a relatively new one, it’s first post is from May 2007. It is so good!!!! Excavated Shellac is “A weekly blog dedicated to 78rpm recordings of folkloric and vernacular music from around the world”. If you look at the picture of his collection on the about page, I’m sure you’ll join me in hoping that the proprietor of Excavated Shellac keeps going for a very long time. Unbelievably wonderful music, and often equally rare, this is one of the best mp3 blogs I’ve ever seen/heard. Please check it out. Very much along the same lines as the Secret Museum series.
Also I should note that the people who do the Secret Museum of Mankind series also did a radio show called Secret Museum of the Air on WFMU. It’s not on anymore but you can listen to archives here.