Rough Guide Alps

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO THE ALPS (coll.)
World Music Network, 2002

EUROPE – Mountain music from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and France. That’s a lot of cultures, and the collection is equally eclectic. Yes, there is yodeling. There are also folkdances, pop songs, and several things that utterly defy categorization. There’s more humor in this collection than in most of the Rough Guides (#4 had me rolling on the floor), and that makes this one of the more interesting entries, in my opinion.

Much more fun than I expected. Give it a spin and lighten things up.

Do you dare play #2? If not, try: 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16

01. 3:54 – catchy percussive song with squeaky singer; lyrics in the obscure Patois language
02. 4:18 – atmospheric yodeling turns into truly bizarre yodel-pop thing; dulcimer + slap bass
03. 4:17 – gorgeous mandolin leads into a nice melody for several violins
04. 2:48 – HILARIOUS! Polka with diatonic harmonica, drums, and shouts of “He-u!”
05. 2:27 – pleasant, oddly tropical instrumental: fiddle, accordion, lots of light percussion
06. 3:21 – atmospheric folk-pop, nice fem vox in another obscure language (Romansch)
07. 4:30 – sample-heavy Austrian funk w/spoken fem vox; some cool vocal tricks
08. 3:21 – um… bad rock turns to oompah beer hall music w/ elec guitars, tuba, male singer
09. 6:05 – off-center instrumental for modern hurdy-gurdy band, relaxed stomping rhythm
10. 4:11 – march for comb orchestra, then a slow vocal chorus with several fast bits
11. 1:29 – short, happy fiddle/guitar instrumental
12. 2:18 – samba influenced horn ensemble with guitar; a cute little ditty
13. 3:39 – nice folk-pop singing, but soprano sax kind of wrecks it
14. 5:53 – solo accordion waltz, a bit heavy and rather pensive; very good
15. 2:49 – slightly tipsy beer garden instrumental, live recording
16. 4:02 – men drinking, then relaxed male choir; recorded in a wine tavern
17. 3:55 – I think it’s a dulcimer, violins, goatskin bagpipe, and bass. Slow dance, picks up.
18. 2:25 – medium dance for fiddle trio with many little pauses in rhythm
19. 3:19 – Christmas song, has a sort of Cajun feel… or Western… hey, that’s a steel pan!

[Fo] - 8/8/02