Wednesday 13 November 2019

Кола Бельды / Kola Beldy ‎– "Белый Остров / White Island" (Мелодия ‎– С60 27841 007) 1989


Never really been a big fan of ethnic,slash,'world' music......I blame Peter Gabriel for that, and all those  middle class Womad festival fans, whose very existence seems to remove any point in making,writing about, or listening to music at all. The very thought of millionaire urban folkies exploiting the impoverished musicians of a third world country to win a 'Grammy' for their theft, makes me wanna bash my own brains in. Specifically, I'm thinking Paul Simon here.....what a bastard he was/is!?
High in the 'Bastard' stakes, along with Simon, is Coca-Cola, but replace the 'C' with a 'K' and we get super-bizarre Nanai tribe member and trad folk singer Kola Beldy.
In 1986 he was awarded the title of 'Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR' (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist republic!?);we've all got one of those.....haven't we???He had a number of Soviet-era permfrost themed hits, most famously with the top ten smash,  "I will take you to the tundra", hmmmm yes please???......you don't get hits with titles like that in the UK.....well....I suppose we did have "Snooker Loopy",which you sure as hell wouldn't find in the Soviet Charts of the time.You wouldn't think that Chas,of Chas'n'Dave, was in Gene Vincent's backing band in the early sixties now would you?

The awards kept coming for Kola,winning "Award no.2"(that's the name of the award NOT his second award!) at the 'Sopot International Song Festival' in 1973....what "Award no.1" was, and who won it,remains a closely gaurded state secret to this day.
This album, has any number of bizarre sounds augmenting Kola's ethno-operatic fusion,which adds greatly to its score on the 'weird' scale.Certainly one for the coveted 'Other' section in the record shop.
Luckily, politics and common sense stopped Paul Simon from making a 'collaboration' with Mr Beldy, and just good luck saved him from Peter Gabriel's insidious clutches.The Iron Curtain had its uses after all?

Tracklist:

1 White Island (Saami Song)
2 Master Of Forest (Mansi Song)
3 A Seagull (Dolgan Song)
4 Return Home (Chukchi Song)
5 To The Ocean (Yukagir Song)
6 A Hunter (Evenki Song)
7 Fisher-woman (Evenki Song)
8 Holiday (Eskimo Song)
9 By Dog Sledge (Hanti Song)
10 My Darling (Hanti Song)
11 Greeting (Ulchi Song)
12 Strange Girls (Nanai Song)
13 Kmali Chinekh (Itelmen Song)
14 Emaron Island (Nanai Song)
15 Toasting Song (Yakutian Song)
16 Snowy Tundra (Saami Song)
17 My Little Reindeer (Evenki Song)
18 Fisher's Song (Nanai Song)


13 comments:

YAHOWAH said...
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dj_shaver said...
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kevinesse said...

this time i think the mediafire link is truly not working

Jonny Zchivago said...

No no no....this time it truly has been fixed again! Never, NEVER underestimate my capabilities Kevin! Enjoy....this one is really weird.

kevinesse said...

residents eskimo, like frampton, comes alive!!

Jonny Zchivago said...

I suspect this is where the Residents stole their ideas for "Eskimo" from,even Kola's name is chanted by our eyeball headed chums...."Koka Kola,Koka Kola..." am i right or am I right?.....Frampton's still alive?

Shug Hanlan said...

Surprised you've never heard of the Beldy/Simon project "Redland" which spawned the world wide hits "Boy in the Blubber", "You can call me Kola" and " Seagull shit on the soles of my moccasin".

Jonny Zchivago said...

Even Garfunkel got in on the act it says in Discogs (doesn't really,we're only playing.)....."Melting Ice Shelf Over Troubled Polar Waters", "A Hazy Shade Of a Siberian Winter", and Simons own autobiographical ice story "Slip Slidin Away".
I wish he'd slip slide away...for good.

JWDen said...

Jonny, you keep coming up with the choicest material. Your selections are always interesting (especially the ambient and just plain weird stuff), and I say keep up the terrific work!

JWDen said...

Your comments on Paul Simon are so harsh, you could be a member of Los Lobos...

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Love that cover, too - it's the icing on the cake!

tane said...

Thank you for this. Kola was an absolute legend, who else could take Eskimo throat singing and turn it into cutting edge of Soviet pop music:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iei1AWuULIk

Jonny Zchivago said...

I may not be in Los Lobos but i am a male member,