World Mix Tape Volume VII (Songs from Taiwan)

This post contains no music whatsoever from Taiwan.

Also, this photo (compliments of AJ Kuech) is of the really big buildings in Hong Kong, instead of the really big buildings in Taipei, because I don't have any good ones yet.

The Mustangs

Ace - Miami

Anyway, the days of this site being a geographically lopsided diode are over, because I (Mazur) have moved to Taipei. This in part explains the lag in posts recently, because the intra-net here wont let me upload songs (endless thanks to Laz for uploading them for me). Additional downtime was due to, as Laz commented on, her being in Romania, OMGIMike losing his blogger password, and DJ getting something in his eye which hurt real bad. Real bad.

Anyway, since this is my first post from across the Pacific, another installment in the ohmygodimmike World Mix Tape (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) seemed fitting. As resident jet-setter (and Romaniac moonlighter) Laz pointed out in her installment to this worldly collection, world music "according to Wikipedia, has to be non-western, or non western-influenced" which she then states is "pretty hard to come by these days." Our mix tape, which consists heavily of alt or experimental rock, (often from western, sometimes even *gasp* North American countries), like Canada's Black Mountain, Italy's now defunct Dada Swing and Australia's Howling Bells, definetly fails in that respect. So perhaps it would be better to call this an International Mix Tape, or maybe I should just shut the fuck up. Either way, I hope this helps continue our pirate captian DJ's stated goal for this "project" of "only posting songs falling into the rigid category of those made in this one world" and "changing people's hippified perception of world music (ie. not just african drum circles and sitar music)." Although, sitars are, of course, totally sweet.

Anyway, here's some info about the bands posted up top:

The Mustangs were traditionally a noise-rock band from Seoul, South Korea, but their new album (which the above track is off of) finds them drifting into stripped down drone rock territory. HERE's a video of them playing at a club in Hongdae, Seoul.

Next, Miami consists of two women (Ai Kajiya and Ai Kobayashi) from Toyko who play violins and laptops, as well as some other various samplers. And they totally rule. This track is off their recent EP, Great Composers.

And now the sad sad news; wonderful Italian yes-wave band Dada Swing have broken up. Hopefully it's just a sick joke. But probably not. In honor of the twitchy greatness that was, HERE's a link to some sweet free Dada Swing downloads, which again I can't post due to my Taiwan intra-net woes.