I Like Thai Music , Do You ? And Who Do You Like ?

[ManilaLover]

I Like Thai Music , Do You ? And Who Do You Like ?

No !

I dislike Thai music a lot it really makes me nervous. Never allowed girlfriends to play Thai music in my home and if they can't without they better go home.

Same for Thai TV highly annoying and not allowed in my house !

Actually I really dislike all Asian music, so 'over-harmonized' and sounds sooo artificial but has got no soul nothing. Filippino singers are much better.

Thai's can't sing at all, poor voices and no disipline they literally makes dogs yelling, total lack of rhythm and soul and usually cheap copies of commercial American crap.

I've got 3 Thai cd's that are not that bad, older Isan and Kalasin style songs at least that has got some soul.

In Asia only India and Mongolia are OK for me and I like Azerbaijan and Greenland, and 70% of African, South American and latin.

[johnnyj]

yeah I have quite a bit of thai music I like,

the usual Loso and Carabou

but currently hooked on P-Sadu (i think thats his name), don't mind tata young (with sound or without )

there is other music I like from thailand but cant recall the names, I have many mates who find it funny as I have had a reputation as a Melodic Death Metal head for quite some time lol.

[kurtgruen]

I used to like Carabao, until he sold out to the almighty dollar (or Baht), with Beer Chang Songs and Carabao Daeng drinks. Like most activists, of the past, I feel he sold out.

I still really like Tuk, the Guitarist that plays at the Brasserie, in Chiang Mai. He's great. Reminds me of Alvin Lee, from Ten Years After, when he plays guitar. To me he is a true artist. We go to see him quite often, when we are in Chiang Mai.

I also liked a couple of the bands that played at Government house, a couple of years ago, but I can't remember their names. My wife has one of their CD's somewhere.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

jintarla poonlarbs my favourite, been listening to her music for over ten year, from the first day i set foot in the country. doesnt go down to well with the wife though, think theirs a bit of jelousy on her part. she absolutely hates it every time i put any of her vcds on.

Ha, completely the same for me. The Mrs. can't stand it as soon as it approaches more traditional morlam, but is okay with the more pop type stuff especially if it's somewhat more in the Northern region as opposed to North Eastern. (Kratae et al) Jintara's more pop type songs are also okay, which is most of her recent stuff. (To be honest I have to be in a particular mood myself to appreciate hard core morlam.)

[dttk0009]

Most Thai music is totally horrible with the exception of a few underground bands and Silly Fools (the old stuff).

[vestalfleck]

morlam and luk thung. rule for me. i also like bawee, t-bone and noo meetuh.

[bina]

siliporn of course; although thai husband is young, he loves traditional phin music and plays as well. the only music we hear w/o earphones on recently is the phin music. we are trying to buy an electric phin at the moment... i also like the more traditional various thai styles of classical thai music although anon hates it. we both like anything with the khaen , phin, saw...but then again i like music that has repetative phrasing in it like arab/near east music and the khaen has that. also the pan pipes.

we all like pleng cheewit including my israeli 20 yr old son who has fairly eclectic tastes for a young adult ;got him a cd of job2do (since do do der was translated loosely in to a hebrew version that ran on radio for a while...)

daeng kittikorn ; mike; some of the other women singers but mostly the older ones.

the new pop stuff reminds me of eurotrash. dont like any of the rock but then dont like the stuff i hear in israel either (not sure what is played in the states we get more european music on the radio or the britany spears /lady gaga stuff; nothing fresh or not main stream.

mor lum/or lum sing and chanting. i like the monks chanting.

i am going to move this to the farang pub forum; there are already similar music threads running there as well... there was also one with thai music and clips in it...

bina

israeli

[KhaoNiaw]

Maleehuanna

[RusticCharm]

I quite like Asanee/Wasan.

Carabao are plain awful. The worst singing 'voice' I've ever heard. Didn't like their anti-'farang' songs either.

[manarak]

please keep posting your favorites!

I have expanded my list a bit:

I like:

- Da Endorphine

I can listen to:

- Au Haruetai

- Palmy

- Four Mod

- Hang Man

- Abuse the Youth

- Tata Young

Da Endorphine is still alone in my "I like" list.

Her voice and the sonority is just so different from everything else!

In Thai music I definitely don't like the semi-traditional songs with squeaky voices, wailing or nasal voices and the very monotonous love/sad songs which all sound more or less the same, and of which the better ones make me sleep.

Some thai bands make good music with good themes and melodies, unfortunately the singers ruin everything with very weak voices.

I would like to see more thai music of this style (ManilaLover, try to listen to one or two of those?):

Fast & strong

Beautiful exotic a capella at the beginning

other good stuff

and maybe a couple of thai girly bands with some sexy pop/dance songs would be nice too.

Edited March 15, 2010 by manarak

[somchaiq]

I like this Guys, also if they are not Thai; http://www.somango.com/

Carabao, Loso and also some other Singers, but I do not remember the names.

[manarak]

those are not bad in the pop department:

but I have no idea of the name

and of course I forgot the China Dolls

[manarak]

cinderella

[stingray]

I don't like it at all and so far as i know outside Thailand noone listen Thai music. But i'm from Switzerland and i don't like Swiss music either!

Edited March 15, 2010 by stingray

[eurasianthai]

This one. Thai Reggae.

Job2Do

Edited March 15, 2010 by eurasianthai

[tombkk]

I like Thai pop.

The young Bird (Thongchai McIntyre) was phantastic, but my all-time favourite is Mos. Yes, I'm that old. Furthermore, Peter Corp Dyrendal comes to mind with his songs Kumpapan or Peechai Khon Nung. Adding other songs that I sing on karaoke would include The Clash, or Assani/Wasan.

Thai rock is not my favourite. I walked out of a concert of the Potato and just listened to the youtube video of Modern Dog somebody posted in this thread. But that's OK, not everybody needs to be young.

There are many more video links in this thread that I haven't followed yet.

[tombkk]

I used to like Carabao, until he sold out to the almighty dollar (or Baht), with Beer Chang Songs and Carabao Daeng drinks. Like most activists, of the past, I feel he sold out.

[...]

Ad Carabao sold out long before Beer Chang was invented, IMHO. After he started with the plaeng phuea chiwit, he made advertising for some pick-up truck. A fuel-burning vehicle polluting the environment he was out to protect, at least according to his songs. Nowhere in the ad it said that this vehicle burns less fuel than the competition, it just said it is stronger and faster. I'm talking about early or mid 1990s.

Carabao Daeng is just a merchandising thing, like T-Shirts other bands sell. It's part of the business, even if you do it for the music: You have to make a living somehow. I don't blame him for this.

[thai3]

Thai music has always created very differing reactions for me over the past 15 years, some styles I love, others I just cannot abide for more than a few minutes. I would certainly put Palmy and a host of other string acts in the later type, as well as most phua cheewit. Most people do not realise the many different types of music in Thailand, but in a country with where so many languages are spoken, and with so many diverse peoples it's not surprising, what is surprising is that the same old names keep coming up here.

I agree with those who say carabao is a sellout, the street clothes and attitude is all fake as far as I can see. His style of phua cheewit was originally born out of student protests of the 70's with credible bands like Caravan. Carabao latched onto to this but his music has never been about protest, he is a rebel without a cause, other than making money. To be fair though real protest music in Thailand would perhaps not get very far as even in Thaksins time they drew up a list of banned songs including one just because it featured an unfaithful army officer, that was sung by Jintara by the way who a few people have mentioned here.

Jintara's career spans 22 years now and despite having seen every major luktung and morlam singer she is still a favorite of mine even though I have seen her almost 80 times all over the country and abroad. She is never boring, partly because you are never quite sure if you are at the right venue, or if she is going to turn up or not. She is still an exceptional singer though despite her managerial deficiencies. It's interesting to have a look at some of her early songs from the 80's such as warn puan kean jot mai from her second album and compare that to some of the pap that passes for luktung today. Songs like that, full of emotion and difficult to sing seem to have been replaced by easier to sing numbers as well as the recent attempts to blend luktung with phua cheewit sounds, R Siam company being the hero, or culprit with this trend. Song writer singer Noo Meter was recently on a TV show I attended where he explained that where 'luktung phua cheewit' was concerned, phua cheewit only referred to the dress code of denim jeans etc worn by himself, luang Gai, Bowee and others. Utter nonsense and I am sure he did not believe it at all, he was merely spouting the R Siam line. They have had some success with this style and Asia are a pretty good duo, however it's noticeable at luktung-cheewit concerts fewer numbers turn up despite the R Siam marketing machine attempts to tap into the luktung audiences

Siriporn was also mentioned several times and here is an artist who you can always expect to turn up, and well on time too. She's a real professional and also has a very good attitiude to her fans. Siriporn's has toured every year for 18 years, but says she will stop in two years, so if you have not seen her, and she is very easy to catch, now is the time. her shows are excellent as a rule. She is in Bangkok at the moment, entrance 100 baht for a great three hour show.

My favorites have changed over the years, I used to be mad keen on Fon Tanasunthorn and Ot Oppart, but sometimes seeing singers in concert ends up with appreciating them a little less than before. Others on the other hand when you see them can have the opposite effect. Rung Suriya is far better in concert than on disc and one of my favorite concert performers, little nong Mai is another, although not so little any more. probably the best acts from a fans point of view are from Nopporn Silver gold, they have a different sort of culture to the other big companies, maybe as it was founded by a singer. Job and Joy are real favorites. The first time I saw them i just could not believe how good they were, rather like seeing two Jintara's together. I would honestly say they are two of the most talented luktung/morlam singers over the past few years and they have also performed 'real morlam' alongside the four minute modern song variety found on their morlam pan lai releases.

Mrs says it bed time so just time to put down a few other favorites

Banyen Raggen

Somjit Bortong

Charlempol malekahm

Pimjai Petpanjai

Mangpor Chonticha

Surapon

Pumpuang

Yodrak

Nok Pornpana

Mike Piromporn

Takkedan Cholada

about 50 others as well

never tire of this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BuUJRIGG0

Edited March 15, 2010 by thai3

[RakJungTorlae]

LOSO Is the only musically talented Thai musicians I’ve seen so far. Everything ells sucks ass

Although im a fan of RNB. They just can’t cut the cake.

[thai3]

LOSO Is the only musically talented Thai musicians I’ve seen so far. Everything ells sucks ass

Although im a fan of RNB. They just can’t cut the cake.

Sounds like you have had little exposure to Thai music then. The main reason people like Loso is that he is a pale imitation of a western act, so seems familiar and safe.

[KhaoNiaw]

Carabao Daeng is just a merchandising thing, like T-Shirts other bands sell. It's part of the business, even if you do it for the music: You have to make a living somehow. I don't blame him for this.

Except that before going into the business himself, Ad had been very critical of energy drinks and how they were exploiting the labouring classes.

But you'll find the very first accusations of 'sell-out' very very early in the bands career in the 80s when they did Coke advertising.

Edited March 16, 2010 by KhaoNiaw

[classix]

jintarla poonlarbs my favourite, been listening to her music for over ten year, from the first day i set foot in the country. doesnt go down to well with the wife though, think theirs a bit of jelousy on her part. she absolutely hates it every time i put any of her vcds on.

also like dacatan churada, siriporn um pai wong, pai pong sa ton, got jackapan, pee sa dirt and many others.

lucky to have one of those twangdeng clubs down the road, love it! bottle of whiskey, good food and sing song with the locals.

on the flip side, there are some good bands out there like, silly fools, hang man(ex frontman of silly fools outfit), the potatoe and bodyslam.

I am with you Jintara halahihalahu i met her in germany once dam_n sexy,i also like Ponsak .piloporn better then <deleted>....ing hipflop and scorpionshotelcalifornia they play here since 20 years.old Ekachai good and now Saantipaap good vcd Live in Krabi.I cant here raeggae,sorry job to do.

[bina]

ah, jintara, know i know who she is.... the problem is really that we listen to alot of music; whatever discs thai workers bring over with them so when there are new guys, there is some new music; ive been listening this way for the past 19 yrs and only recently with my language skills could actually listen to lyrics; have always loved the kitchy stuff as well as the much older mor lum sing (i had a cassette tape from a worker that came here in the early '80's that was real mor lum sing by some old guy dont know the name sadly as the tape disintegrated due to thai adherence to impermanance (left of car dash in the sun)....

sine my farang tastes are left way back when with jethro tull, grateful dead, and my israeli tastes border on the wailing arab style cassette music/kitchy repetative and westerners dont like it too much, sort of turkish/greek/morrocan western mixes, my thai tastes dont match either.

for the past two months anon has been on a phin obsession so thats what we hear from the 'net.

siliporn in concert is different than her cds' as she is hoarse from the amount of performances she gives , at least thats what i was told.

daeng kitikorn i knew because he is the brother in law of one of our workers so heard him over and over while at work...

i have yet to understand one thing: it seems to me that most of the luuk thung stuff at least is just covers of each other. the question i have is from where do they take most of their lyrics and also the music itself. is most of it , the phrasing etc, taken from issaan style musical phrasing or is it originals and just not too many people write music? also the lyrics-- are they adopted/adapted folk phrases/songs or are they originals?

i saw a woman/girl on thai tv interview, she is a self made singer, from the north i think, never went to school, cant read or write, but apparently is very popular. cant remember who it was... it was recent as someone here had taped it from a show , thru satelite.

and another performer and song that i really like (pay attention to the musical phrasing of the thai instruments , skip the silly dancers and the guitar riffs)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx_CPaKwZSw&NR=1 lam -toi muekdaeng

if u take in to acount that most of the leuk thung players used to be fairly w/o education and the music learned by ear, i find it amazing. my hsuband plays only by ear; even piano he can hear and then play. but has no clue musically speaking about anything formal.

bina

isael

[thai3]

siliporn in concert is different than her cds' as she is hoarse from the amount of performances she gives , at least thats what i was told.

daeng kitikorn i knew because he is the brother in law of one of our workers so heard him over and over while at work...

i have yet to understand one thing: it seems to me that most of the luuk thung stuff at least is just covers of each other. the question i have is from where do they take most of their lyrics and also the music itself. is most of it , the phrasing etc, taken from issaan style musical phrasing or is it originals and just not too many people write music? also the lyrics-- are they adopted/adapted folk phrases/songs or are they originals?

i saw a woman/girl on thai tv interview, she is a self made singer, from the north i think, never went to school, cant read or write, but apparently is very popular. cant remember who it was... it was recent as someone here had taped it from a show , thru satelite.

bina

isael

Siriporn has always had a hoarse voice, Grammy tried to 'improve' it when she joined them, but gave up. Not seen much of Deang Jitakorn recently, I asume you are in KK then as that's where he is from. Jintara's other title is sao seang phin, lady sound like phin.

The sources of luktung are varied with some early lyrics being from earlier styles of music. It is only in more recent times that Issan sounds like morlam and kantrum have had a big influence on luktung, so it's a mistake to call luktung 'Issan music'. As luktung now has had influences and singers from all parts of the country it is really a national style of country music. That being so the more recent presentation of clearly phua cheewit, and now even string acts as luktung is making the term somewhat meaningless compared to the past. If you do compare 1950-70's luktung to much of today's output it's clearly very different in many respects, although most of the themes are similar to years ago, migrant workers, unfaithful lovers, harshness of urban life compared to an idolised rural one, good girls gone wrong and unrequited love songs are common.

Cannot think who that northern singer is but if she cannot read/write today then it's likely a hilltribe singer.

[bina]

actually in israel; worked with a guy for 6 years from nongkhai but moved to buriram area to wife's family; daeng married her sister or some other relative in the family; apparently doesn/didnt help the family out much the more popular he got the more he went the way of 'wine woman song'; had a car crash, after that i dont know, s. left israel to go back to his wife and we did not stay in contact.

yep the 1970's lyrics had alot of 'boy goes overseas to make money, girl finds rich farang' sob sob sob...

i like the lyrics (need help with translation as my issaan thai is almost nil already, hubby insists on central thai with me, although he speaks korat thai) from many of the older songs. tbh, i can relate more, as, again, they fit a lot of the older israeli cassette song styles: hard working, helps out family, cant marry rich girl; blablasobsob.... the more recent stuff has caught up with most western lyrics: in love out of love life sucks when u dont have love.

not too many westerners sing about working in factories or farms, crops failing, drug addictions etc (well, i dont know much about hip hop rap etc but from the eurotrash and american stuff i hear here on the radio, the lyrics are boooring. here we also have the war/death/dying/tragedy songs, something that the thai singers dont have. neither do most of the western musicians. also here, we have a lot of mainstream music that 'steal' from the psalms and other relgious motifs made in to good songs. have yet to hear that from thai music or western (apart from evangelical stuff, i mean we have it as mainstream daily respected music).

what is kantrum? yes, the girl was frmo a tribe as far as i understood cause she also didnt really speak central or the usual issan thai that i would tune in on and the interviewer had to be patient and repeat himself... will try to find out who it was.... she's like a self made hero for her area....

bina

israel

[thai3]

what is kantrum? yes, the girl was frmo a tribe as far as i understood cause she also didnt really speak central or the usual issan thai that i would tune in on and the interviewer had to be patient and repeat himself... will try to find out who it was.... she's like a self made hero for her area....

I have heard a few negative things about Deang and not seen him since last fm 95 awards a year ago, also seen him a few times on stage obviously the worse the wear from something or other.

Kantrum is the music of the Khmer from the former Cambodian areas of Thailand, Sisiket, Surin and parts of Buri Ram where many still speak Thai as a second language, especially older people. Katrum is built around the saaw a bow like instrument whereas morlam from the lao areas uses the reed khaen. Although there is on older type of kantrum, the name of which a forget, that also used the khaen.The kantrum sound has been used by one or two luktung singers, recently in Pai Ponsathorn's sao kantrum song. As kantrum is sung in khmer it has limited appeal to Thai's from outside areas. It has also suffered from a lack of really good artists, an exception being Darkie, who sadly is no longer with us. Kantrum could be used more than it is and I have heard performances of 'kantrum cing' similar to morlam cing but using kantrum sounds and in khmer mixed with luktung in Thai, Rosarin is a female singer (I think from Buri ram) who does this, she's exceptionally good.

Edited March 16, 2010 by thai3

[dmax]

forgot to mention ok mocca - ska variety this one always gets me up ..

Edited March 16, 2010 by dmax

[thai3]

actually in israel;

bina

israel

Are there many Thai's in Israel? I know Jintara and Mike Piromporn went there for a concert a couple of years back and another morlam singer told me she was offered a job there as a cook when she was young. Do they go there as the visa is easy to get?

[thai3]

forgot to mention ok mocca - ska variety this one always gets me up ..

Never heard of them who are they? I know about ska though and used to see Laurel Aitken (grandfather of ska) when we both lived in Leicester, he had given up singing by then. Sometimes saw him in the Burlington pub or at a blues by mr Shifta. There is a Thai connection as shifta lived in Thailand for a time but got injured by a water buffalo, gored him in leg somehow. I do miss good west Indian music, especially lovers rock from the 80's, dub used to give me a headache though.

[tombkk]

Carabao Daeng is just a merchandising thing, like T-Shirts other bands sell. It's part of the business, even if you do it for the music: You have to make a living somehow. I don't blame him for this.

Except that before going into the business himself, Ad had been very critical of energy drinks and how they were exploiting the labouring classes.

But you'll find the very first accusations of 'sell-out' very very early in the bands career in the 80s when they did Coke advertising.

I see you've been around here longern tha I have. I didn't know he was very critical of energy drinks, I will google it up. If verified, it would indeed qualify as "selling out".

And then, it just confirms what I said about his ads for pick-up trucks.