★Death Is Not The End
Stars from Another Sky Pt. 1: Film Songs from the Subcontinent Before the World Was Torn Asunder, 1932-1939
"It may surprise some that, after two decades of silent films, when Alam Ara broke the silence in 1931, it and every South Asian talkie that followed was what we in the West think of as a "musical." Music had been integral to the culture's staged drama going back to the Gupta Dynasty — sometime between the 4 th and 6 th Century CE. Since its inception, South Asian cinema drew heavily from Marathi, Parsi, and Bengali musical theatre and silent film screenings were often accompanied by live music …
Japanese Post-Punk, Goth & New Wave 1980-1991 Pt.2
A special Halloween drop in the form of part two of a two-part Japanese post-punk, goth & new wave mixtape, the first in a tranche of globally-focused mixes in partnership with Philadelphia’s punk archivists World Gone Mad.
Japanese Post-Punk, Goth & New Wave 1980-1991 Pt.1
A special Halloween drop in the form of part one of a two-part Japanese post-punk, goth & new wave mixtape, the first in a tranche of globally-focused mixes reissued in partnership with Philadelphia’s punk archivists World Gone Mad. -- Gary Sullivan (Bodega Pop)
Straight Outta Tenggara: Southeast Asian Hip-Hop, 1990s-2000s
Another Dinte tape curated by cult WFMU show and blogger Bodega Pop; Gary Sullivan's long-running project rooted in a passion for digging for music in bodegas and cell-phone stores across NYC's boroughs. This edition focuses in on late 1990s and early 00s hip-hop & rnb from across Southeastern Asia.
"While on a work trip to Chicago in the mid-2000s, I was craving a bowl of pho. A bit of sleuthing led me to hop on the red line "L" up to Argyle Street, ground zero of Chicago's Little Saigon. In th…
In Search of Revolutionary Voices: Mexican Wax Cylinder Recordings, 1900-1910
A collection of Mexican recordings dating from approximately 1900 to 1910. Corridos, zarzuelas, poetry, popular songs, police bands, solo harps & guitars, all taken from wax cylinders issued from the beginning of the 20th century through to roughly the start of the Mexican revolution.
Inspired by Dr. Fatima Volkoviskii's paper 'In Search of Revolutionary Voices: Performance Practices of Mexican Singers in Cylinder Recordings' delivered at the Early Recordings Association's 'Exploring Traditional…
Digging Central Asia: Musical Archaeology along the Silk Road
Anvar Kalandarov is a music archaeologist, musician and producer from Tashkent, Uzbekistan with a focus on unearthing rare and hard to find gems from across Central Asia. Last year he compiled Synthesizing the Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Tatar Jazz, released in collaboration with Ostinato Records. He also runs his own label Maqom Soul Records. Digging Central Asia is a mixtape that journeys through the psychedelic landscapes of the Silk Road, featuring recordings re…
Let Me Perish Without Return: Lament and Longing from the Fading Russian Empire, 1889-1917
Tip Our next release with Gary Sullivan's Bodega Pop project - rooted in a passion for digging for music in bodegas and cell-phone stores across NYC's boroughs. This edition focuses in on early recordings found in Russian neighborhoods in Brooklyn & Queens. "At the turn of the last century, the Russian Empire stood at a crossroads, caught between the weight of its imperial past and the promise of a radically altered future. Recorded during a period of profound cultural transformation and unrest,…
Waiting for Your Return: A Shidaiqu Anthology 1927-1952, Pt. I
Shidaiqu literally means "songs of the era", a term used to describe a hybrid musical genre that first began permeating through the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai in the late 1920s. Blending western pop, jazz, blues and Hollywood-inspired film soundtracks with traditional Chinese elements, the shidaiqu represented a musical and cultural merging that would go on to shape a golden age of Chinese popular song & film in the pre-communism interwar period.
Waiting for Your Return brings together a wide…
Begging the Moon: Phleng Thai Sakon & Luk Krung, 1945-1960
Begging the Moon is a collection focused upon an early-to-mid 20th century style of Thai popular song, commonly named Phleng Thai sakon (meaning "song which is both Thai and universal"). With recordings taken from the end of WWII until the start of the 1960s, many of these tracks may also be referred to as Luk krung (meaning "child of the city") a more urbanised style of popular song that is in contrast to the Thai country music known as Luk thung ("child of the field").
Following the Thai cultu…
The Past Is a Wound in My Heart
Death Is Not The End platforms a selection of brooding, haunting Turkish tango recordings from the decades following the foundation of the republic in the early 1920s through to the mid 1950s.
Making Records: Home Recordings c. 1890-1920
A collection of DIY home recordings, transferred from blank and repurposed brown and black wax cylinders made during the early years of phonographic technology, between the late 1800s and early 1900s. Persons unknown singing, playing instruments, just talking, telling jokes, sending audio-letters to family overseas for in the distant future, children crying & babbling, farmyard animal noises - it's got it all.
Soundsystems at Notting Hill Carnival, 1984-1988
Death Is Not The End's mixtape-style selection of clips from tapes recorded live at soundsystems playing during London's Notting Hill Carnival between 1984 and 1988, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in August 2018, is the latest to be committed to cassette as part of their 10th anniversary series. Featuring sounds from the likes of Jamdown Rockers, Saxon, Java Nuclear Power, Killerwatt Turbotronic, Stereograph, Sir Coxsone, Volcano Express and more.
Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts …
If I Had a Pair of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop, Vol. 3
A third and final volume of Jamaican doo wop & R&B records taken from the late 50s and early 60s. These records represent a period in which sound-systems were beginning to dominate the island, with Duke Reid and Sir Coxsone Dodd stepping up their rivalry by beginning to make and release their own records rather than rely on US imports for use in their dances. Many of these records are definitely more-or-less imitations of the American records, as the uniquely Jamaican ska sound was yet to take h…
Folk Poetry, Song & Rhythm in Northeastern Brazil
Death Is Not The End's survey of folk music traditions in Northeastern Brazil, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in 2019, becomes the latest to be committed to cassette as part of their 10th anniversary series. It specifically focuses in on the spur-of-the-moment improvised "duelling" poetry of the repente, embolada & aboio styles that are unique to the Nordeste region.
Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986
Death Is Not The End turns 10 years old in May and as part of the celebrations we are committing a selection of Dinte NTS Radio shows from over the years to cassette. Kicking off with this recent special Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986 - comprising a selection of clips from sessions held at Halfway Tree, Kingston's most storied roller skating rink during the dancehall era's golden period of the early to mid/late 1980s. Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts of the Who Cork The Dance crew -…
The Archival Recordings of Constantin Brãiloiu, 1913-1953
An assorted mixtape-style collection of recordings from Constantin Brăiloiu's World Collection of Folk Music archive, originally broadcast on NTS Radio in July 2017, issued as part of Dinte's 10th anniversary series. Comprising field recordings made by the pioneering Romanian ethnomusicologist of English, Irish, Gaelic, Norwegian, Breton, Japanese, Italian, Swiss, Basque, Fulah, Sardinian, Estonian, Georgian, Greek, Turkish, Judaeo-Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Russian, Hausa, Tuareg, In…
Your Kisses Are Like Roses: Fado Recordings, 1914-1936
The definition of the word 'fado' is technically 'fate', though the Portuguese meaning bound up with this term is more complex. The music itself can be fairly closely compared with that of Greek rebetika - also the American blues or the original working-class tango music of Argentina and Uruguay - and similarly takes it's common subject matter from the various cruel realities of the world. Though perhaps what distinguishes fado in character is it's often poised acceptance of the pains of life ra…
Bristol Pirates
Death Is Not The End's contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series, subsequently given a cassette release on the label in 2019, finally receives a limited vinyl LP pressing. "A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."
Heaven Is Better Than This: A Jamaican Gospel Mixtape
A slightly revised & edited take of Death Is Not The End's Jamaican Gospel special for NTS Radio, originally broadcast for the station back in late 2016. A dusty heap of JA gospel from the 60s and early 70s. Split across two sides - all vinyl and all 45s - played through a touch of delay pedal with crackle aplenty.
If I Had A Pair Of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop, Vol. 2
Repressed by popular demand! Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.