Today, I would like to introduce a band from Chile. I really enjoy writing this blog that I met some musicians. Last week I met The Freak Fandango Orchestra from Spain and wrote about them. This week I met with an interesting and funny band La Mano Ajena from Chile. After I heard their music, I fell in love with their songs. Their eclectic and hybrid sound fuses Eastern Europe sound like Balkan music, gypsy music, klezmer and jazz manouche with Latin music elements like cha-cha-cha, cumbia, mambo, rumba and tango. You also could hear rock rhythms in some of their songs. I like bands perform Balkan and gypsy music, nonetheless their musical diversity is very good that they combine European and Latin sound successfully. I have added four songs from their three albums. I believe that you will enjoy hearing La Mano Ajena’s unique music and hybrid sound. You could listen and buy their albums from their website.
La Mano Ajena consists of seven multi instrumentalist musicians. Instrumental variety setup well that you hear typical Balkan music, modern music and Latin music instruments together. Saxophone, guitar, piccolo flute, keyboard, theremin, melodica, violin, marimba, accordion, clarinet, drums, darbuka and djembe, bass and double bass are leading instruments we could hear in their music. Although lyrics are generally in Spanish, it is possible to find some lyrics in Yiddish, Hebrew, French and English. I suggest them using some Turkish and Greek instruments to enhance their musical variety and diversity, although their musical diversity is perfect.
La Mano Ajena joined many concerts in some countries like Spain, Denmark, Serbia, and Argentina. They shared the stage with Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra and Gogol Bordello. In 2008, Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra asked them to join their show in Santiago. After this performance, Emir Kusturica invited them to participate in Kustendorf Film Festival held in Serbia. La Mano Ajena was the first and only one group joined the festival from Latin America. They were invited once again to share the stage with Emir Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra in 2009. The band will be on tour in Europe in July 2012. I hope they could come to Turkey with my favorite director Emir Kusturica and his band The No Smoking Orchestra.
La Mano Ajena has three albums. You could buy their albums from their website. It is appreciated band that you will never feel regret to buy their albums. Let us see their discography and some of my suggestions.
La Mano Ajena (2005) is a successful debut album that the work made in Chile first time. It is easy to understand the band consists of talented musicians. I could say female vocals are perfect. I really enjoyed hearing Ashrenu (Doyna), Favella, Wewo, Tango A La Django and Joropo songs from the album.
Radio Galena (2008) is the album that the band improved their sound and added some new instruments. I suggest the album extremely. The album contains more Chilean elements. Café Turco, La Balada Del Hombre Invisible, Camimar, Psicomambo Cha Cha Cha, Cumbia Klezmer and Declaracion de Principios are my favorites in the album. Do not lose the album.
Raza Quimera (2011) is a perfect album that they added some rock elements in some songs. Their songs got better with electric guitars fascinating sound. Raza Quimera, Novus Ordo Seclorum, Loco Loco, Eskil’s Cow, Spaguetti Klezmer, Fabula, and Kasidishe Nigun are my favorites. It is an extremely suggested album.
La Mano Ajena is a great band from Chile that they combines Balkan, gypsy and klezmer music elements with Latin music melodies. I really appreciate their musical understanding and diversity. You could listen and buy their albums from their official website. Do not lose the successful band!
Bye for now!
Special Note: Audio materials are put into the blog upon permission of the band.
The Freak Fandango Orchestra is a multi cultural band from Barcelona, Spain that they perform gypsy music with Balkan Music, polka, punk rock and folk elements. Last week, I was trying to find some royalty free music on jamendo.com to post my blog. There are so many groups, performers, and artist in Jamendo to share and distribute their music. While I was thinking I only could find some amateur records, I saw an album cover. Fandango word attracted me firstly. After that I checked the band’s page and found some tags like gypsy punk, rock, folk rock, Balkan and gypsy music. When I open the player, I met with a band performs rock music with Balkan and gypsy music elements very well. I did not expect to meet a professional band but, I said wow, it is perfect! I also appreciated their motto. We don’t want your money, we want your soul. They created their album with Creative Commons License. It means you could copy and share the album as long as you consider conditions given at the bottom of the post. You could press play button on the player has given below to meet the fascinating band The Freak Fandango Orchestra.
Special Note: The album given above created with Creative Commons License and some rights reserved. You could copy, distribute, advertise and play this album as long as you:
Fanfare Ciocarlia is gypsy brass band legends. Balkan Music is my favorite genre that I wrote posts about musician side of 
Taraf de Haidouks! It is a gypsy band from Romania. If you like gypsy music and Balkan music, read it carefully. You will meet with one of the best gypsy band of the world. They are world music’s smiley faces. The band carries gypsy music to the stage of world music successfully. Could an instrument talk? Taraf de Haidouks members do it. It is a Clejani, Romania based gypsy band consists of 15 funny musicians that they perform from 80’s. Although some members died, the band still plays with musicians from the first and the second generations. Romania hosts the largest gypsy community of Europe. It is possible to find many gypsy orchestras and group in Romania. The country exports high quality gypsy music with Taraf de Haidouks and Fanfare Ciocarlia. They are the milestone of gypsy music and Balkan music. When you hear their music, you will enjoy and try to control yourself not to dance. 
Musiques de Tziganes de Roumanie (1991) 
The group’s first album is Gadjo (means foreigner in gypsy language) made in 2006. We could listen to Robin Nolan’s guitar in the song named in Django. Gadjo is a good debut album to expect their musicality in the future. The album consists of some funny songs; you could also find some romantic songs. In the debut album, gypsy jazz combined with some modern styles like pop, hip-hop, reggae and rock. Rock influence is a bit less in this album. On the Road Again, Tango, Cry of the Gypsy and Django with Robin Nolan are favorite songs in the album. 
The group involved in so many world music festivals in Europe. In 2009, Mad Manoush released Gypsy R-Evolution album. In my humble opinion it is the best album of the band and I expect new albums from them. Although we could see influence of reggae, pop, hip-hop and gypsy jazz in the album, rock’s influence is very high. Guitar put in the front and it made their music better and better. Their music is growing continuously with gypsy jazz and the other modern world music elements. 
Do you like multicultural bands merge different music styles? If your answer is yes, there is a band for you to know. I always like bands like this, because it is very good to listen to different tastes together. In addition, if bands members are from different countries, to listen to their music is more interesting and pleasurable. To make the music by blending wide range of styles with musicians from different countries make Erika and Emigrante’s musicality very high. Erika and Emigrante is a Paris based gypsy music band. The band’s main lineup consists of a Syrian Italian guitarist Serigo Leonardi, a French drummer Francois Laizeau, a jazzy bass player from Cameroon D.D. Bell, an Indian tabla player Latif Ahmet Khan, and some guest gypsy and French performers. All of them are entertaining musicians and they reflect their soul to the music.
