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"Radio Myanmar (Burma)"
For Sublime Frequencies' latest musical tour, Geoff Hawryluk and Alan Bishop set their sights on Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. As highlighted in recent new stories about their flooding disaster, Myanmar's government keeps a pretty tight grip on what comes into and leaves the country. With that in mind, I was surprised at how much Western influence is discernible on some of the selections here.
Mainly recorded in 2007 with additional segments from 1994-2002, this disc captures radio snippets of classical music, pop music, news and government announcements, commercials, and even an Avril Lavigne cover. The tracks vary in length from ten seconds to several minutes, occasionally buffered with tuning static for broadcast verisimilitude. With over 40 tracks, it's a stimulating assortment. Many of the commentaries and news announcements are strangely in English and are certainly interesting for what they reveal of party machinations, but they aren't the sort of things that beg for a lot of repeated listens. Yet in context they don't detract from the experience, and the wide variety of music surrounding them keeps things moving at a lively pace.
My favorite tracks are the more traditional ones, like "Classical Music (Female Vocal #11)," "Tribal Drums & Male Vocal," and "Classical Music Group." They transport me to somewhere I've never been, giving the music a sense of place that's somewhat lacking in the more Western-influenced songs. While it's amusing to hear foreigners tackle popular Western musical forms on tracks like "Classic Rock-Country Oldie," "How Many Cheeks Have You Kissed? (Mawrs)," "Rock Song," or the Avril Lavigne cover, a lot of them sound generic and aren't the sort of thing I need a lot of in my life. Additionally, like most commercials, the ones included here don't have a lot of musical value, but they do provide the illusion of listening to the radio rather than an album.
Although I can't say that I like all of the music equally, the tracks are brief enough and the running order arranged in such a way that there's rarely a dull moment. While no substitute for traveling to Myanmar in person, this disc serves as an intriguing cultural snapshot.
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