Music Finds: 7 Ethnic Tracks

One of my favorite "soul test" for a song had been to make someone listen to it who doesn't understand the language and see if they can still figure out the meaning from rhythm and vocal emotions. All of the following tracks are "remixed" versions of original tracks (if there were any), have sweet vocals and certainly has a different style.

[artist - album - song]

• Deep Forest - Pure Moods - Sweet Lullaby. Probably an African language. My guess for this song was that it's a song for pre-marriage rituals and I was wrong for both guesses. You can find english translation from Internet but give yourself a try!


• Deep Forest - Boheme - Marta's Song. This one is pretty old (released in 1995). Rest of the album is crap.


• Karunesh - Global Spirit - Punjab. Probably a version of folk song in an Indian language Punjabi. Extremely popular 2002 hit in India. Karunesh is a German born artist who later came to India after near-fatal motorbike accident which started off his spiritual journey.


• Khalid - Khalid - Didi. After you listen to Arabic languages you might wonder, if one can even sing in that. This old global hit might prove you wrong.


• DJ Aqeel - Ek Haseenna thi - Tu Tu Wahi. One of the Bombay style remix but with very cool vocals.


• Instant Karma - Dance Masti Again - Aaja Piya. Yet another Bollywood remix with cool vocals.


• Bally Sagoo - Best of Bally Sagoo - Gur Nalon Ishq Mitha. The bhangra-style music is well known to make your feet move. And when that gets remixed by Bally Sagoo, it a definite dance hit. Much of the album is also not too crapy.