country

Today is the start of the holiday week in Istanbul and to celebrate the holiday spirit here’s the second part of our 5 Star Monday series with all kinds of cheerful bluegrass, ska and world music from Charlie Haden, The Clarendonians, Horst Jankowski et al.

Fortunately our fears are a thing of the past right now as the iconic Barack Obama has become the 44th president of the USA. We’ve been watching his moves much longer than the media hype started surrounding him and no one deserves this spot better than this sincere, honest and kind man, he has been an inspiration for a whole generation and I hope he will succeed in bringing change and unity to his country and the world.

I’ll admit I’m a new convert to Katherine Elizabeth (Kaki) King’s intricate music. I haven’t listened to her previous body of work which has higher critical acclaim. I’m not really knowledgeable in this acoustic alt. country/folk/indie stuff, frankly I haven’t even listened to Cat Power. I’m not an American you know!

* New Thrill Parade
* Wait til the ice melts, compilation on Exponential
* Plunderphonics band Oh Astro
* Seattle singer-songwriter Andy Liotta

Mr. Ehlers is one of the most respected and diverse names in the electronic music scene. He’s one of the few people who never repeats himself. He’s recorded minimal house music as Betrieb and experimental music as Auch, He’s recorded electronic pop with Maerz; his Plays album deconstructed freejazzhead Albert Ayler and blues guitarist Robert Johnson and experimented.

Mr. David Berman here, is an indie rock icon who has survived a suicide attempt a few years ago, and on this album he gets assisted by lots of his old friends like Stephen Malkmus of Pavement. He is surely one of those old poet guys who really has the lyrical ability to write songs properly.