Originally Posted by Glice

There was a review in the Guardian of J. Cope's Japrocksampler that suggested that, record collectors having utterly mined the Kraut side of things, they're now moving towards Japan. The review was a little disengenuous about Les Rallizes Denudes, suggesting it was the obscurity rather than the magnificence of the music that appeals to record collectors.

I don't suppose what you're talking about is any different to the trend for African (particularly West-African) music in the 70s or the trend for Indian classical in the 60s. Or, further back, black-American blues in the 50s. These things happen, it doesn't really worry me, and I can hardly claim to be an expert on the entireity of the world.

I heard, in sound 323, a record of Chinese noise music. It was interesting insofar as they seem to take a very different approach to noise music (something that's very much needed at the moment), and it wouldn't surprise me if the trend moves thataway. Not that any of it matters, particularly.

I have a few CDs of young people's Sri Lankan music. They're all awful. I have one Bhangra tape. It's uttterly magnificent. Funny thing with Bhangra, unlike Reggae, people other than its 'main audience' don't tend to get into it. Very, very difficult genre to get into unless you know someone in the scene, wouldn't you say?