Piranha Records at cdRoots

Piranha Records

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Please note!
Most of our CDs have been imported from Europe or Asia. They are not all shrink-wrapped, and I am not going to con you by wrapping them here just to make you think they have been sterilized in America. I guarantee that the CDs and the contents are all brand new and in perfect condition. Whenever I can, I use recycled shipping materials. They may not look as pretty on the outside, but they save money and keep the trash dumps a little bit emptier.
Thanks- Cliff, cdRoots

Piranha Records
Swimming amongst the sharks since 1987, this independent label from Germany has been at the cutting edge of 'world music' the whole time.

Shaatnez - Sephardic Songs of the Balkans - Ruth Yaakov Ensemble
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-yaakov)
religious and secular music of the Sephardic Jews in the Balkans, most sung in Ladino

Ashkelon - Emil Zrihan
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-zrihan)
Emil Zrihan is a Sephardic singer from Rabat, Morocco and cantor of the synagogue in Ashkelon, Israel. On this recording, he is backed by an ensemble of ud, violin, accordion, darabouka, percussion, guitar and bass, in a selection of traditional Moroccan and Judeo-Moroccan works. Originally released in 1999.

The Last Balkan Tango: An Apocalyptic Dance Party - Boris Kovac and Ladaaba Orchest
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-kovac-tango)
Contempory music from a dark wellspring of Balkan folk roots, offered by this composer/saxophonist and an orchestra of accordion, reeds, bass and more.

World after History - Boris Kovac and La Campanella
$19.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir1997)
With La Campanella, Boris Kovac, composer, instrumentalist and multimedia artist from the Vojvodina part of Yugoslavia, spins off his critically acclaimed La Danza Apocalypsa Balcanica project. La Campanella's Pannonian-Mediterranean round-trip creates sentimental spaces, interrelated by the threads of nostalgia, joy, tristesa, romantic enthusiasm and melancholy. 'I can't change or stop history. I just could say, 'History is over – for a moment – for the time of music we play on this album.'' - BK

Live in Youth Club Belgrade - Darko Rundek and Cargo Orkestar
$19.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir0205)
During the long Balkan civil war, Darko Rundek, cosmopolitan singer, songwriter and composer, moved to Paris where he gathered a new family around him - the members of Cargo Orkestar. The French magazine Vibrations has called him a melange of d'Higelin, Gainsbourg, Bertrand Cantat and Bashung. The Daily Times put him in the category of post-modern troubadours like Tom Waits and Paulo Conte. Recorded live in Belgrade at The Youth Club, this show serves as proof that the ex-frontman of the legendary new wave rock band Haustor still enjoys a dedicated crowd of fans in the Balkans.

Ruke - Darko Rundek and Cargo Orkestar
$17.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir1894)
Darko Rundek, singer, poet, actor, theatre director and frontman of the late Yugo-cult band Haustor, took a holiday from his solo-career for the adventures of a real Cargo Orkestar. The comédie des sens of Paris meet the European spleen of Zagreb, cosmopolitan influences of immigration clash with Balkan traditions. Join the Cargo Orkestar for a mysterious musical journey, rough and real, made of questioning, pain, joy and humour. Listen

Tarefero de mis Pagos - Chango Spasiuk
$17.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir1895)
Accordion master Chango Spasiuk has come to be seen as the guardian angel of chamamé, the most influental champion of the 'music with the deepest swing in Argentina.' In many ways his contribution to the revitalisation of these folk traditions can be compared to the influence that his fellow countryman Astor Piazzolla has had in the contemporary development of tango. Tarefero de mis Pagos was produced on location in Buenos Aires by Ben Mandelson.

Brother Moses Smote The Water - Klezmatics with Joshua Nelson and Kathryn Farmer
$17.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir1896)
Klezmer meets gospel: the one and only Klezmatics, with renowned gospel artists Joshua Nelson and Kathryn Farmer, breathe new life into songs from both the Jewish and African-American heriage to tell a story of inspiration and social action, while weaving a revelatory dialogue between cultures and musial styles. Their first live album, recorded during the HeimatKlänge at MuseumsInselFestival in Berlin, Germany, includes 8 new and 2 classic songs.

Fuji Satisfaction - Bantu, featuring Ayuba
$17.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir1998)
Adé Bantu is one of the defining figures of German HipHop. Born and raised in Lagos,Nigeria, then relocated to Cologne, his AfroPean blend draws from his forefathers' heritage and his experience of the African diaspora alike. He uses urban styles and sounds from R'n'B through HipHop to Ragga to contribute to the soundtrack of a global Africa: rooted in Yoruba history yet ripe with Western production, deeply sensual yet utterly spiritual, thoroughly individual and highly political. He is joined by Adewale Ayuba, a master of Nigeria's next generation of Fuji music.

Proibido Cochilar - Cabruera
$17.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir1999)
Cabruêra present 'the next generation of samba' on a CD subtitled 'Sambas for Sleepless Nights.' Inspired by the Mangue Beat movement led by the late great Chico Science, this ensemble from the northeast of Brazil spice up the forró roots of their rural origins with urban-global influences - rock, funk, jazz, rap, reggae, jungle, eElectro, even a bit of retro-lounge all find a place in here.

Mhm A-ha Oh Yeah Da-Da - Darko Rundek
$17.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir2005)
Croatian born, Paris-based Rundek and his Cargo Orkestar are a band unto themselves, shamelessly mixing European roots with rock, jazz, film music and just plain oddness in a manner only rivaled by Serbian Boris Kovac. Their songs tell of the loneliness of the exile and the placelessness of the Internet, the realities of a modern metropolis and the utopia of a love that transcends all borders, recited and sung in a number of languages. It's all cool and callous, wonderfully played and very original.

Diaspora Hi-Fi - A Mediterranean Caravan - Watcha Clan
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir2230)
It's been ten years since Watcha Clan burst on to Europe's new world-beat scene. With a best-selling début CD to its credit (20,000 units worldwide), here the Clan whisks us on a wild ride from the dance fl oors of London to France's Provence, from the Balkan mountains to the Maghreb seaside, from roots to rebellion. North and South, Arabic and Hebrew are re-united on this album, which features the exuberant vocals of Marseilles-born Sista K. Diaspora Hi-Fi presents an intoxicating blend of new reggae, jungle and electronic club beats with traditional sounds. Includes a bonus live video version of the Clan's fave, "Eli."

Raindrops and Elephants - dunkelbunt
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir2335)
Vienna-based [dunkelbunt] is part of a DJ movement that transcends standard Central European techno and house music by drawing inspiration from other genres and cultures. His remixes for artists as various as Balkan Beat Box, 17 Hippies and the Amsterdam Klezmer Band have gained him international renown. A passionate blender of spices in his spare time, [dunkelbunt] sees composing and cooking as related arts. On Raindrops and Elephants, [dunkelbunt] has applied his passion for blending to selected Piranha tracks from Simentera, Frank London, Watcha Clan and more.

Egypt Noir - Ali Hassan Kuban, Mahmoud Fadl
$19.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir2337)
In recent decades, Western archeologists unearthed the remains of Nubia - an advanced Black African civilization thousands of years older than Egypt's, but they could have just as easily discovered the funky echoes of this lost world at certain Cairo nightclubs today. This doubly lost and found culture shows its stuff on Egypt Noir, a collection featuring the icons and innovators of Nubian music. The album brings together decades of Nubian urban song, giving an unprecedented overview of the neglected musical achievements of this unsung people. Piranha's enhanced CD also offers a visual tour of the great "Orientalist" paintings of the nineteenth century - images reflecting European artists' sensual vision of Egypt and Nubia.

A Night in Berlin - BalkanBeats
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir2338)
Robert Soko has been throwing parties in Berlin since 1993. He was the first to coin the term BalkanBeats to try and define his mix of music from the Balkans. BalkanBeats are Serbian Gypsy brass and folk melodies reinterpreted, given electronic beats and blended with western styles such as ska and rock. In the recent past the phenomenon has caught on in other cities around the world where Balkan immigrants live. BalkanBeats parties rave all the way from Frankfurt and Vienna to New York and Melbourne. Robert grew up in Zenica, central Bosnia, listening to western music: rock and roll, punk and ska. In 1990 he left Bosnia for Berlin. He took a job as a taxi driver and started hanging out at the Arcanoa, a punk bar in Berlin's immigrant quarter Kreuzberg with his ex-pat friends. The Arcanoa became their second home. Soko put on his first parties there, playing his Yugo music for fifty German marks and beer for free. He celebrated socialist holidays: Tito's birthday, Day of Women. May First. The parties were a mix of irony and nostalgia and Soko was surprised to see how many people came, as nostalgia for Yugoslav socialism was not the 'in thing' in those days of growing Balkan nationalism. And yet the parties grew. Then something happened. After years of listening and playing western-derived rock, punk and ska, Soko found himself returning to his ethnic Balkan music roots, the roots he had rejected as a youth in Bosnia. This was largely due to two figures, Goran Bregovic and Emir Kusturica. Bregovic who revamped Balkan Gypsy melodies, making Balkan music palatable for a western audience, and Kusturica, for whose Gypsy inspired films Bregovic did the soundtracks. And Soko played new/old Balkan music. And people loved it. Women grooved to it. Guys pogoed to it. It was a sensation. The press took notice. From the Arcanoa, Soko moved onwards and upwards, first to the Mudd Club, then to the Lido, all the while spreading the party fever to other cities around Europe, to New York, L.A., South Africa and Brazil. The enhanced CD features a Slideshow, which takes the viewer through a BalkanBeats night in Berlin with music by Fanfare Ciocarlia. Listen tp Markovic Orchestar | Listen to dunklebunt

Magnification - Magnifico
$18.99
(cdRoots# hm-pir2440)
Slovenia's Magnifico gyrates with Euro irony and sultry smoothness, backed by a burst of Balkan brass and a chorus of go-go dancers, revelling in the pleasures of pan-European English, pop culture and the sillier side of porn - all presented with a distinctly Slavic wink in songs about everything from xenophobia to homophobia. He offers Balkan- and Roma-scented funk, R&B and soul... and even a flirtation with American country music and Mexican-style horns. The tracks on Magnification hail from Magnifico's latest limited edition Slovenian release, along with several freshly minted songs from the songwriter's fertile, bizarre mind. Two videos and other extras are also included.

Nwahulwana (Marrabenta goes to Hollywood) - Wazimbo and Marrabenta Star de Moçambique
$19.99
(cdRoots# hm-wazimbo)
The city-sound of Maputo is ready to mesmerise, energise, elevate and educate all newcomers to the magical Marrabenta style. 'Nwahulwana' - Marrabenta´s most powerful ballad, sung by Mozambique´s top singer Wazimbo - emerged on the soundtrack of 'The Pledge', Sean Penn´s ' film. This release includes 10 classic recordings from the legendary Harare sessions plus a music video of the title song.