Bamboo on Mountains: Kmhmu Highlanders [Import]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 16, 1999)
• Original Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Smithsonian Folkways
• ASIN: B00002JXDN
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,770 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Bamboo is the mainstay of Kmhmu music, especially the reedpipes, flutes, blowing-tubes, mouth organs, and percussion instruments heard here along with cymbals and gongs, wooden drums, and exciting vocal styles. Drawn from 15 years of field research that extended from garden apartments in suburban California to mountain villages in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, this CD samples the deep reservoir of musical traditions maintained today in Kmhmu communities. The first of its kind, this recording reveals the enduring beauty and individuality of each community's performances.

AWARDS
2000 Various Children's Music Web Awards for Traditional World Music

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Little sister Thoan will sing one bit!", May 12, 2001

By 

Pharoah S. Wail (Inner Space) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bamboo on Mountains: Kmhmu Highlanders (Audio CD)

I asked for this cd for Christmas, and while I did not like it right away, it has grown on me immensely, although yes, there are still a couple tracks I don't care for very much.

First, I want to make sure you know that this is a "field recording" type of Indigenous music cd that is recorded in wonderful sonic quality. This is not a "world music" cd that is more-or-less Western Pop Music that just happens to be sung in a "foreign language". This is like a documentary or an audio-snapshot of the traditional musics of the Kmhmu highlanders, with all tracks recorded in Laos, California, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This is the most primitive Asian music I have yet to hear. Although even "primitive" is not the perfect word because I'm sure that just getting a tone out of some of these instruments is near impossible. The instruments included are things like mouth organs, various flutes, reedpipes, percussion, etc... The mouthorgans I find to be quite intriguing. Even with only one mouth-organ player at a time it always sounds like we are hearing notes from two or three different instruments simultaneously. This instrument seems to go from sounding like some sort of alien wind howling through caves, to resembling an orchestra of car horns. The reedpipes give you the feeling of listening to a flock of geese while on nitrous oxide.

For you fans of West African musics there is a one-string fiddle on here that in terms of sound, somewhat resembles the njarka violin of western Africa. It's quite interesting to hear two similar, but evolutionally unrelated instruments played in such disparate melodic and rhythmic ways.

The singing was my main hurdle on this cd. Much of the singing I could do without from an aesthetic point of view, although even having said that, at times it's interesting to hear a style of vocal music that is so completely unreleated to any other music I have heard. There are indeed though two vocal tracks that are wonderful. Track #37, sung by a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl with a great and adorable voice, and Track #7 sung by a woman from Laos.

My strongest words of advice are this: If you are already interested in various traditional musics of Southeast Asia then this cd is indeed a historic set of recordings because it fills in a missing piece of the puzzle, and to the best of my knowledge is the only available recording of the various Kmhmu musics. On the other hand, don't purchase this cd expecting it to resemble anything else in your collection. Being in love with other Southeast Asian music's is no guarantee that you'll enjoy this cd because this music is so unlike anything else out there. I was shocked and delighted to hear this little pocket of ethnic musics that seem to bear no resemblance to any of the other traditional musics in their home countries.