Talking of The Olympics (as J.P. is elsewhere)

[judith]

Hi Judith :)
Your link to My Brown Horse turns out to be Reach Out and I'll be There -again, so I looked it up and this must be what you intended:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv27dFZRfx4
I've not heard anything quite like it. Her voice soars so easily and freely. Simple and beautiful (plus lovely "bongos"). She seems to become the horse in parts, (A technique still used by hunters from eons back, -from my David Attenborough school of learning)
Just found her website http://urna.com/site/ and a film starring her good self, entitled "The Two Horses of Ghengis Khan": No doubt better watched on the big screen, still..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCdGuwthcZk

Thanks, Willy, for listening to the track. I've gone back and fixed my post. Urna has such a beautiful voice. Of all the singers from that region, she is the one I like the most. Amilal is a wonderful album. It does have the Chemirani brothers on it though, whom I also admire.

I hadn't known that the voice mimicking the animal was a technique used by hunters even though I do enjoy the David Attenborough school of learning. I have marked "The Two Horses of Gengis Khan" to watch soon. If nothing else, I would like to watch her as you put it, 'good self'.

[kas]

Talking about runners, and Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell specifically:

Delroy Wilson (JAM): "Run Run"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdopmJSaxVw

Willy and Judith, thank you for bringing forth that Urna song. Wonderful. I have soaked in my Attenborough (and a few others of the same school) pretty severly and I seem to recall that same technique.
I don't know exactly why, but Urna's song made me think of Native American music. I tried to search something to either corraborate or demolish that idea, but what I found in the 'Tube was a little... Like Really Spiritual New Agey Youknow. I have no idea wether such hypotethical similarities would have deeper roots (going eons back), or wether living with your horse on similar kind of soaring plains is the reason.

[Willy]

Judith, I've misled you, I remembered that the Mongol tribes have a great affinity with their horses, whilst listening to Urna, and she does seem to make a horse like noise in a couple of the songs I've played but I didn't mean that hunters make similar noises. Just that hunters, like the Khoisan people, tune into the prey they are seeking to anticipate their movements.
The film is excellent! and I feel like watching it again. Urna has the most disarming smile.

[judith]

I don't know exactly why, but Urna's song made me think of Native American music. I tried to search something to either corraborate or demolish that idea, but what I found in the 'Tube was a little... Like Really Spiritual New Agey Youknow. I have no idea wether such hypotethical similarities would have deeper roots (going eons back), or wether living with your horse on similar kind of soaring plains is the reason.

When I first heard Urna and other singers from that region, I was astounded by how much the songs and the voice quality reminded me of Native American music. Unless you know the region and names of some of the tribes, most of what you find on the internet will be of the new agey in production value. I think the roots are deep because the coastal tribes (non-nomadic, non-horse culture) where I live have similarities as well, as much in their flute music as the vocal. Garth worked on a wonderful compilation, "Native American" the Soho Collection, that has some traditional tracks on it.

I used to have bookmarked some great sites that would link you to some traditional Native American music that might corroborate what you sensed, but I lost them when my old computer went down. When I've the time, I'll see if I can find some samples.

[judith]

Judith, I've misled you, I remembered that the Mongol tribes have a great affinity with their horses, whilst listening to Urna, and she does seem to make a horse like noise in a couple of the songs I've played but I didn't mean that hunters make similar noises. Just that hunters, like the Khoisan people, tune into the prey they are seeking to anticipate their movements.
The film is excellent! and I feel like watching it again. Urna has the most disarming smile.

Yes, I see what you mean. The difference is subtle but there is a difference between becoming one with the prey/andy animal (and subsequently occasionally sounding like them or sounding out to them) and merely imitating how they sound. You didn't mislead me, I wasn't paying attention!

I'm looking forward to the film and hope to watch it this evening.

[Willy]

Furious knitters unite! over overzealous olympic oligarchs:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/328 ... wool-games
U(sain) couldn't make it up! but you can't pull the woo...Ok I'll stop ;)

[will vine]

And now we learn that Sir Paul is to give us Hey Jude as the climax to the opening ceremony. The world will see how cutting edge we are.

I am reminded of the unloved Tony Blackburn's pertinent remark of many years ago about how the producers at the BBC all thinking they were so hip because they liked The Eagles (while TB was playing of-the-moment soul sounds ).

[Chris P]

Interesting to hear this track used during a dramatically important part (footage of the flames across the nation & Beckham looking smug in a boat) of the Olympics opening ceremony last night. Hadn't heard it before, but it is clearly heavily influenced by Neu!/La Dusseldorf/Harmonia:

http://youtu.be/FvrmbTd6cQ8

Yet another case of art forged at the margins, later entering the mainstream in more accessible form

[Hugh Weldon]

I was going to avoid it if I could but somehow got sucked in and found the opening ceremony to be million times better than I could have expected. It helps to be the same generation as Danny Boyle I suppose, but the ideas and the soundtrack were something I could recognise, share, approve, take some pride in. After that the sport will probably be an anticlimax.

[will vine]

Not for the first time I own up to totally missing the point. I've never paid much attention to Olympics Opening ceremonies. The one that stuck in my mind was a USA one (would it have been Los Angeles?) where they had hundreds of pianists playing Rhapsody in Blue and I just thought....how sickening that America is blowing its own trumpet so loudly. I never realised that the whole point of winning the Olympics was unashamed and unbridled self promotion. I assumed it was supposed to celebrate The Brotherhood of Man (fill in own joke). They could've just plonked the first night of the Womad Festival in Stratford and had a wonderful night....you know, throw in a few fireworks as well. I wish we'd persevered with our idea of 2012 FM Olympic World Radio that we talked about briefly way back.