Traditional Thai Music - Isaan. Where Can I Buy It?

[tariq]

Evening all...

Its been a while since i've visited this site. Hope all of you are well and enjoying the olympics.

Surprisingly for me and my TGF I am really liking traidional thai music. I beieeve a lot of it comes from Isaan. I'm usually into soul, RnB, hip-hop and rap with the odd but of rock music so this is something a little bit .....erm actually a lot different for me but I find it relaxing and a lot of the beats and melodies quite hypnotic!

Anyway, I am struggling to find anywhere I can buy it on the web. There are some sites that come up when I google it but they are not sites that I am familiar with so I am reluctant to put my card details in.

Can anyone recommend some albums or singers that I should search for or websites that are safe and good for downloading this kind of music?

There 's one song in particular that I really like its buy a singer called Prisana Wongsiri aka Kai and the song is called Mon rak mae nam which I believe is Moon River Love?

Going back to LOS later this year but I want some of this on my mp3 player now!

Thanks in advance for any help.

[falkan]

go down to the local karaoke-bar they fix it for you =)

Edited July 29, 2012 by falkan

[Beetlejuice]

Easy peesy.

There are hundreds of Thai music videos and music audios on Utube.

Download AUDIOGRABBER onto your computer.

http://www.audiograbber.org/

It`s easy to use. Just play the Utube video and record the audio with AUDIOGRABBER. You can save in your prefered format and either copy to a flash drive or burn on CD/DVD.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Beetlejuice

[geminiman]

ZudRangMa Records on Sukhumvit Soi 51. They have a web site and will ship international orders. www.zudrangmarecords.com

[hookedondhamma]

Do you mean MawLaam by chance? It's even better if you can understand it ;-)

[cooked]

I dunno, I think 'traditional Thai music' might mean stuff played before the introduction of electronic amplifiers, drum machines and the rest? I detest the above example of music. I imagine that Thailand is going through the same process that Europe went through up to about 30 -40 years ago. Everything that really is traditional was really boring, only for the oldies. When people catch on to the fact that it has nearly gone then there may be a determined effort to recover what is left -the folk revival of the fifties and sixties in the USA and Europe was just in time.

Meanwhile, people that did learn the old songs and dances feel ashamed, they are laughed at (not always), as I saw in Portugal 20 years ago.

Anyway I have plans to buy a decent video camera and start collecting in Isaan, I'm sure that every village has people that still know the old songs, I just have to find and persuade people not to be shy. (meaning whiskey I guess).

Any help, suggestions or hints about this project would be most welcome!

For my soon to happen 'traditional Thai marriage' I am causing unrest in the village when I suggest a ban on electronic gear at least for the first part of the proceedings, and am wondering about how to organise things, I am looked at as if I am mad when I talk about this.

Issan music - Thai music. The best demonstration I saw was in fact in Switzerland - we saw examples of music and dance from the south, from Isaan, Chiang Mai as well as courtly. The Isaan music and dance was simple enough, the dancers had been taught well as they made the effort to dance 'flat footed' as the rustic dances in Europe are danced. Isaan people don't walk the same as Bangkok people. The courtly dances were more on the on the balls of the feet, which changes the style completely.

I talk about dance principally as I led a historical dance group in Switzerland for many years, and also because wherever music is played, people will dance to it.

Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed, I will need a few days to recover from jet lag.