S q u e e z y t u n e s

Accordion Reggaeton from Panama

If you ignore the video this piece of reggaeton from Panama with lots of accordion is pretty cool.

It's a remix of a tipico track originally by Nenito Vargas y su Plumas Negras. Here's a version by Luis Perez singing on some kind of Pop Idol competition. The judges don't seem to like it. I'd be quite happy if someone sang this on the UK Pop Idol though.

Anyway, the remix is by an artist called Comando Tiburon who seems to specialise in very catchy commercial reggaeton, such as this, which I'm sure I heard being played all the time in the Philippines recently (unless there's another version floating about by someone else).

Caribbean PVC Marimba Children's Orchestra

I happened upon this great video of a school who have made their own low cost marimbas out of PVC yesterday.

Since then I've discovered lots more about marimbas that I'll share one day. For now there, here is the school.

Accordions in North East Brazil

Here is a fantastic piece of footage, evidently taken from a movie, of Jackson Do Pandeiro and Almira Castilho singing and dancing. I don't really understand the culture here, but it's fascinating.

Incidentally, I found this on a Brazilian blog called 'Forro em Vinil' which specialises in posting mp3s of out of print forro records. My recommendation is to search for the 78rpm records.

Link: Forro em Vinil 

More from Chapi Chapo

The last selection went down well, so here's a second set.

Cat Organ!

Cat Organ!, originally uploaded by PauloJASerra.

See Wikipedia for a description of the cat piano or Katzenklavier.

Link: Cat Piano on Wikipedia