The Bottom Line
The Rough Guide to the Music of Vietnam is an excellent and surprisingly thorough introduction, which, like the vast majority of the Rough Guides series, is highly entertaining while being highly educational - my favorite way to be introduced to new music! The fourteen tracks on the album cover an enormous amount of ground, folk to modern, Northern to Southern, and so on. Great liner notes complete the package.
Pros
- A great representation of both folk and modern styles.
- Nicely paced mixture of fast and slow songs.
- A great introduction, if you're new to the music of Vietnam.
Cons
- None.
Description
- Fourteen songs from different Vietnamese traditions.
- Folk and modern song styles, from Northern and Southern Vietnam
- Both vocal and instrumental songs represented.
Guide Review - The Rough Guide to the Music of Vietnam
Most Americans' exposure to Vietnamese music has primarily been limited to background music in Southeast Asian restaurants and, perhaps, the occasional track on a world music sampler. Because of deep-set social and cultural stigmas, and perhaps the simple fact that Vietnamese music sounds quite different than Western music, Vietnamese music never caught on in the US the same way, say, reggae or African music has.The folks over at Worldisc, though, are bringing us back into the loop with this excellent CD, which covers Vietnamese music in a thorough, though not pedantic, way. Standout tracks on the disc include the hauntingly bluesy "Cau Doi Cau Cho" from blind dan nguyet player Kim Sinh, the edgy and modern "Toi Yeu" from pop star Quang Linh, and the jazzy "Blue Requiem" from Blue Asia.
The quality of this CD cannot be questioned - it's expertly compiled. The question of whether or not the average listener will enjoy it depends more on their taste in music - Asian music, because of its different scales, modality and rhythms, can be somewhat inaccessible for Western ears. Rough Guides, though, are a great "first step" - offering maximum listening pleasure with minimum commitment - exactly what they are intended for.
June 5, 2007
