R. Crumb- Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World (2003)

http://www.mediafire.com/?b54hzi52x8dshtr
or
http://www.mediafire.com/?nj3r6d9neneeq49

There have been a few times that I have purchased an album based on the sheer promise of the artwork and song names on the back cover. HOT WOMEN was a very memorable one.


It was compiled by illustrator R. Crumb (and his under-credited wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb) from an impressive group of 78s.


The music is all "traditional," as iTunes calls it. Women, sometimes with their children, all singing around the mic, hisses and all. After being bombarded by Rebecca Blacks and Lady Gagas, i love to hear the flawed crackle of outdated recording technology and the additional talent that performers had in order to adapte to the medium. As a result, the album is beautiful and diverse.


The main reason to purchase the cd is to hold the fantastic artwork in your hand. But the music is good, too.

Complaint: A few of the titles are listed as "Title in Hindustanese" or something similarly lazy. If you're going to put out a compilation, why not bother to ask someone who reads a language to translate it for you??
Big pet peeve. Crumb probably thinks it's part of the charm, but i call it lazy at best (and culturally arrogant at worst). Your call. 

Mahsha & Marjan Vahdat - Songs From a Persian Garden

http://www.mediafire.com/?7pqjlb6m2hcdiqm


This CD caught my eye for whatever reason, and the music ended up being an incredible surprise. Two Iranian sisters recording with a live ensemble of musicians from different countries. Musically, it nearly sounds like two Sade clones singing side by side, with a subtle and sensitive group of musicians. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it's really intoxicating, and the songs oscillate between major and minor keys, which yields an amazing push-pull effect.

The liner notes were interesting:
"As a part of the attempt to localize the evil of the world, a reduction to a state of stupidity, the US administration has burn marked Iran as an enemy to the West, and a deliverer of terror and fear. This distorted picture of a rich culture bearing people is rarely corrected. It is a paradox that Iran, this garden of beauty and poetry, this pressure cooker of love, is regarded as the most dangerous enemy of the West."

It also criticizes Iran's policy of forbidding women to sing in public, but also notes that women in this country of "70 million people will not stop singing whenever they can."


Them singing live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ0PQf_cYcI