Great bands from odd locations

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Most mainstream or even somewhat known alternative music is coming from countries such as the UK and USA, with additionally a somewhat respectable number of bands coming from locations such as Germany, Italy, Canada, Ireland, France, Holland, ... But sometimes you would see a band from a totally odd location finding their way to success far beyond the boundaries of their homeland, while internationally being (one of) the only bands from their country to ever gain fame outside their national borders.

Name your recommendations here when it comes to bands from the countries you would not exactly imagine to deliver chart material.




As named in the other thread, China had a quite active underground music scene despite censorship making it impossible to release records freely or promote concerts actively. One of the bands that had an iconic status underground was all female new-wave act COBRA. The band has split up by now however.

NUUK POSSE is a hiphop band from Greenland. They rap about life in the Arctic, lyrics are sometimes in English but sometimes also in Danish or authentic Greenlandic. They are very big in their native Greenland, but also the less ice-capped Japan has a strange fascination for this band. This band has been existing for over 15 years and still going strong, being one of the best selling bands ever in Greenland (note that best selling is relative in a country with only 55000 inhabitants able to buy an album)

ASTRID is the first rockband rising from the windswept Hebrides (an isolated archipelago west of Scotland) that got limited following in mainland Britain. The band was originally from Stornoway, the 'capital' of the Western Isles, a place that normally only produces some Gaelic folk singers. Astrid dismantled, but their singer is now a solo artist and their drummer now plays with Texas.

JEWEL KILCHER, the famous singer-songwriter, is from Alaska.

LENE MARLIN, succesful Norwegian pop star, originates from Tromsø in the far north of the country (far above the polar circle)

MOON FAR AWAY, a gothic act, originates from Archangelsk in the isolated arctic area of Russia.

Israel has produced several bands who have gained an international fanbase. INFECTED MUSHROOM are a trance band originally from Haifa who have gotten global success with their self-proclaimed "psychedelic trance". The Israeli metal scene has produced a few bands who have become iconic internationally. I mentioned SALEM and ORPHANED LAND both in several topics already ; both bands mix Middle Eastern melodies and folk music with metal and lyrics about the political situation in Israel and neighbouring countries.

Singer-songwriter HEATHER NOVA hails from the Bermuda Islands. She has a devoted fanbase both in Western Europe and to lesser extend the USA. She has been releasing albums for well over 15 years and is currently starting a new European tour.

Despite geographical isolation and a very low number of citizens, Iceland has delivered several internationally succesful indie artists and alternative bands: BJORK, SIGUR ROS and although a bit less known in the mainstream also MUM.

The metal band TYR come from Torshavn, capital of the isolated Faroe Islands in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Despite extreme censorship and relying on spreading music per internet rather than commercially, Saudi Arabia has a vibrant underground metal scene. Due to censorship of all music criticising Islam or the Saudi government and politics, these bands who do tell a story about life in the Kingdom cannot distribute their music in stores and usually they are not allowed to perform live in places other than compounds for western immigrants. A few bands who have gained an iconic status despite these censorship measurements are SOUND OF RUBY and WASTED LAND.

Hi there,

Belgium and then mostly Flandria has become furtile ground for good music over the last ten years. Bands like > dEUS, Arsenal, Goyte, Zita Swoon, Mintzkov and many others. Chapeau....

The quality there is way better than music from my own country. But that's my sub. opinion. Another one; I dislike (most) hiphop.

Luck to all here,
C.

I am not sure if Belgium (which is my native country by the way) can be considered as an odd location in the same terms as for example a rock band from Burkina Faso, Greenland or Laos would be. But well, for Brits and Americans I guess Belgian music can be somewhat exotic. If Belgian bands succesful abroad are concerned, we should add Arid, Starflam, TC Matic and K's Choice to your list and maybe to lesser extent Red Zebra. All bands are from the Dutch speaking area of Belgium with the exception of Starflam who are from the city of Liege.

Finland has quite a strong music scene.

True, although very metal orientated (Nightwish, Tarja Turunen, HIM, Sonata Arctica, Lordi)

The one Scandinavian country that failed to produce several internationally known bands is Denmark, although they did have Aqua during the nineties which was however never taken serious. Recently, Under Byen is getting famous abroad which is quite an achievement as not many Danish bands succeed abroad + they also sing mainly in Danish which in theory is an extra barrier towards international success.

Here's a good list of other Finnish bands...

I've read that the new lead singer for Journey is from the Philippines, and that he couldn't speak any English when he got the gig.

Breed 77 a well class metal band from Gibraltar

Check out Monotonix. They're from Israel, they're a punk/grunge outfit and their gig at Bumbershoot this year got stopped after only four songs due to 'security risk' - i.e. crowdsurfing, naked hairy butt-flashing and the singer riding round the audience in a trash bin. Fun! Although, that was relatively tame considering they've been known to set their drum kit on fire...

Hold that tongue! Denmark is probably the best English-speaking country in the world in terms of consistent musical quality in my opinion! (Yes, I understand they speak Dansk primarily, but they all speak English fluently or near enough too and the bands generally sing in English).

My list of things to check out [note that Aqua is not on this list]:

Mew
Spleen United
moi Caprice
Kashmir
Carpark North
The Raveonettes
Oh No Ono
D-A-D
Junior Senior
The Kissaway Trail
Alphabeat
The Perishers

And in Danish language -
Valravn [sing in Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese]
Under Byen
Nephew (they sing in English and Danish, often in the same song)
Magtens Korridorer


From the Faroe Islands:

Teitur


From Sweden:

The Knife
Kent (Swedish language)
Lykke Li
Peter, Bjorn and John
I'm From Barcelona



From Iceland:
Sigur Rós
Bjork



From France:
Carla Bruni (specially Quelqu'un m'a dit)
Phoenix
Air
Justice
Daft Punk



From Belgium:
Soulwax/Nite Versions/2manyDJs
dEUS


From Norway:
Royksopp



From New Zealand:
Ladyhawke
Minuit
Shihad
Fat Freddy's Drop
The Black Seeds
Shapeshifter
Crowded House
Dragon
The Exponents
Dave Dobbyn/Herbs (only 'Slice of Heaven', which is sort of a national anthem..)

...and Oceania/Hinewehi Mohi if you want some Maori-language Euro-dance.

Yes, New Zealand is a quite exotic musical location for us in Europe due to its geographic isolation from most other countries with the same culture. However, truly fascinating would be a band from Fiji or Vanuatu or so... I am sure there are talented musicians out there but never heard a band from those places who managed to gain fame abroad.

A lot of kiwi bands include Pacific Islanders, for example

Oceania (as mentioned above) include people from Tuvalu
Nesian Mystik (NZ Maori and Samoan, possibly also Tongan, not sure...)
Katchafire (think includes Samoan members)
Fat Freddy's Drop
Shapeshifter
The Black Seeds
The Mint Chicks
all include pacific island members

Though you need to bear in mind that NZ is full of pacific island peoples anyway, being a pacific island nation - they're just considered an integral part of the giant mixture that is 'New Zealander' as opposed to anything exotic though!!

Is there a band you know of that is actually based in and operating from places like SOlomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, ... ? Or would all local musicians relocate to Australia or New Zealand in order to launch a proper career? Is there any somewhat succesful band that is really based on the islands like Tuvalu, Samoa, etc?

None that I know of, though I can find out. I'd say to achieve any modicum of success they'd need to relocate to either Aus or NZ though.

I only know a couple of artists/groups based in the Pacific islands that have had their music released abroad (there's probably a lot more, but most of the Pacific groups I know are based in New Zealand – like Te Vaka and Pacific Soul). I'll post a couple of videos here:


George "Fiji" Veikoso (Fiji, originally Hawaii)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGaVs5h07BE[/youtube]

Kolohe Kai (Hawaii)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWcm_lwkvg[/youtube]

And then, of course, there was this guy:

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Hawaii)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z26BvHOD_sg[/youtube]

Last edited by Murihiku on 13 Oct 2013, 9:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

this was never released except for excerpts played in the "bondi rescue" promotional introduction,
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAo6UHYC1p8[/youtube]