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A trip to Almaty awaits as we explore the old and the new of Kazakhstan on this Round Trip with Dunia Aljawad! An amazing country of some of the deepest history you can find, Asia's Crossroads never disappoints on the cultural and artistic front.
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
June 22, 2022
The Drop with Danno
Borat – Kazakhstan National Anthem
Son Pascal – Altyn Night
Marhaba Sabi – Qoi,kursinbe
DARICORN – Temperatura
Stephanskiy x Imanbek – Smoke It Up
Darkhan Juzz – Bylygyp
Yenlik – Bipl
Moldanazar – Alystana
Dos Mukasan feat Murat Kusainov – Sulu Kyiz
dudeontheguitar – baq
planettu – Vdoch
Jeltoksan feat dudeontheguitar & mountflower – Chill Chill
Qonyratbay Fam – Baribir
Taspay – Orlana Qashqyn
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight, and flight TD 077 is readying for takeoff from Incheon International Airport, so we are packing bags presently with a reminder to roll & not fold to pack like a true travel pro before we head to the airport. This is Danno let’s go on the mic in studio 2 GFN HQ in Downtown Gwangju, how do you do? This evening takes us to one of Asia’s largest countries in Kazakhstan. An amazingly diverse country with a discography that reflects such a state, the crossroads of Central Asia has an incredible history which we’ll explore a good bit through music when we take off for Almaty tonight with our ever-present and positively wonderful weekly travel companion Dunia Aljawad, and naturally shall be warming up until we go wheels up. As for now though, we start in Hollywood with Kazakhstan’s obviously fake national anthem and get down to brass tacks on the other side with the world’s ongoing struggles in the culture & geography departments. THIS is The Drop.
Borat – Kazakhstan National Anthem
The Drop heads for the airport as the VIP bus begins the jaunt up to ICN this evening, and flight TD077 takes off for Almaty, Kazakhstan tonight on our Round Trip weekly, with Dunia Aljawad joining us once we are aboard the flight.
Now, as usual we started with our TIGHT (or) feature to take a look at the history while opening the show. That was the spoof version of the Kazakhstan national anthem made for Sacha Baron-Cohen’s Borat movie. Now, I do not merely play that song in gest, as it was 10 years ago in Kuwait that a rather stunning mistake was made by the hosts. When Kazakhstan’s shooting team won the gold medal at the event, that song was actually played while athlete Maria Divitrenko was on the podium. Interestingly, Divitrenko didn’t really react, merely smiling at the end knowing that wasn’t it.
However, we are obviously not making fun of Kazakhstan here, just highlighting some rather hilarious history. It must also be duly noted that event organizers played the wrong national anthem when Serbia won gold in another event.
So, let’s get into the music proper for this week’s trip to Almaty, and up next we have a trio of tunes from Son Pascal, Marhaba Sabi and DARICORN. And we’ll try to get the details correct, unlike how most people do when trying to remember the stuff they see on maps. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night to Kazakhstan.
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The Drop continues and we are just about to disembark at the ICN terminal right now, so getting with the pocket checks and making sure the bag is where we left it before we hop off. For those just joining us we head to Kazakhstan tonight and after the spoof history intro, we just rocked a trio of cuts to get the Kazakh vibes flowing right tonight, so let’s break it down but not off…
Son Pascal – Altyn Night (…born in Italy, it’s interesting because this artist is rather an adopted Kazakhstani due to his popularity there. His 2012 adaptation of An Englishman in New York called An Englishman in Shymkent went viral in the country, and Son Pascal is noted for releasing songs in English, Kazakh, and Russian during his career.)
Marhaba Sabi – Qoi,kursinbe (…very little on this talented and beautiful singer biographically speaking, so we’ll just have to leave it there. This was a standalone single from 2020 that translates to Don’t sigh.)
DARICORN – Temperatura (…as you may have guessed, this song means temperature. Daricorn is a well-known artist in Kazakhstan and a good bit beyond, with this song being released in 2019. The artist has a huge social media profile with just under a million followers on the gram, along with other big numbers on other platforms.)
Alright, so we’re just pulling up to the terminal but we got a good bit of time before we actually get off the bus, so we’ll go with a trio of bangers to end the first quarter tonight. Up next we have Stephanskiy and Imanbek with a cut called Smoke It Up, followed by Kazakh indie darlings Darkhan Juzz and we’ll close with a tune called Bipl by Yenlik to close the first fourth. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night to The Garden State, no pumping your own gas, kids.
Stephanskiy x Imanbek – Smoke It Up
Darkhan Juzz – Bylygyp
Yenlik – Bipl
II.
The Drop is back after the first jump of the evening on our Round Trip Wednesday, departing at 9pm tonight on flight TD077 for Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty and joined by the lovely Dunia Aljawad we shall be prior to takeoff in part 3. However, for right now we’re simmering the dish in part 2 with some slower burners to start, so let’s get to the details as we continue to wait in line to check in for the flight.
Moldanazar - Alystana (…this is a Kazakh quintet lead by Galymdan Moldanazar who composes all of the group’s songs. Moldanazar actually began as a solo independent project but has like many bedroom groups grown in both numbers and popularity, now a leading indie band in Central Asia.)
Dos Mukasan feat Murat Kusainov – Sulu Kyiz (…going truly old school and back to the Soviet era with four students of Almaty Polytechnic Institute who formed this group as VIA initially in 1967. Dos Mukasan became the first Kazakh group playing rock music and the first group trying to create the fusion of rock music and Kazakh folk music, plying their trade for over a decade to great acclaim as one of the USSR’s best bands.)
Moving along SM, #9870, podcast let us know …
Okay, so next block we’ll head back to more contemporary climes with the next trio of tunes, with dudeontheguitar starting the process, followed by planettu and Jeltoksan to finish smooth. Of course, we’ll tell all that we know but only after you listen, and THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday evening to Kazakhstan.
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The Drop has arrived at the departure gate this evening just prior to final call to board. Dunia Aljawad is not here at the gate, but we’ll see her on the plane prior to hitting the skies. As to that last slow cooked trio of tunes, let’s give you the ingredients...
dudeontheguitar – baq ( …this is an artist very much on the rise who plies his trade in Almaty. This one dropped in 2021 on the Korpe LP, which means blanket. This song title hear means garden in Kazakh by the way, or so the google language gods inform me.)
planettu – Vdoch (…this song title means breath. The band moniker means planet with the group itself being a hip-hop duet from Almaty consisting of Olzhas Nurtazin aka Crime the Magician and Yura Zubov aka Travis.)
Jeltoksan feat mountflower – Chill Chill (…this is an artist out of Almaty who named himself after a famous protest event in December 1986 that rocked what was then the Kazakh SSR. With the Afghanistan War being at a high point of stress, the result was a massacre still remembered by all Kazakhs today and a major turning point in Central Asian history.)
Okay, so we gotta head to the gate and get on the plane but we still got a little time to rock some more indie from Kazakhstan before we buckle in. Up next is a band we’ll feature in hour 2 called Qonyratbay Fam titled Baribir or Anyway, and then we’ll finish with Taspay time permitting and a cut called Orlana Qashqyn which I can’t find a translation on, so I guess we’ll need to get used to that before we go wheels up. THIS is The Drop at the half.
Qonyratbay Fam – Baribir
Taspay – Orlana Qashqyn
III & IV Round Trip
Dana Tunes – Mende Bar Arman
Zhanar Dugalova - Izin korem (I see traces)
Shamshi Kaldayakov - Дүнген қызы (The daughter of Dungan)
dudeontheguitar – Boiy Bolgan
Imanbek x Rita Ora - Bang Bang
Asiya Ospanova – MSQ
Ulytau – Adai
Qonyratbay Fam – Beker Emes
Ziruza - Айт ендi (Tell me now)
Asiya - Bezoruzhen
Lee Hyo Ri 이효리 – 미쳐 crazy
BoA - Better
Dana Tunes – Mende Bar Arman
- Meaning I Have A Dream, this song was released as a standalone in 2019.
- Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dana Zulpykhar hails from Kazakhstan but is currently studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She was also a concertmaster in the Berklee World Strings orchestra in 2020 and currently works on scoring films as well.
Zhanar Dugalova - Izin korem (I see traces)
• a Kazakh singer, who won the Turkvision Song Contest 2014 representing Kazakhstan with the song "Izin kórem".[2] She is also a former member of Kazakhstani pop group KeshYou.[3] Since August 2014 she has continued her career independently
• Years before her debut in the music industry, she took part in the contest Zhas Kanat, a national music festival. well-known producer became interested in her voice and In late 2012, she released her first single
• Dugalova expressed interest in representing Kazakhstan in the Eurovision Song Contest. As of 2020, Kazakhstan has never participated in the contest.
Shamshi Kaldayakov - Дүнген қызы (The daughter of Dungan)
• a music genius from southern Kazakhstan. His father and mother both liked music very much and so did he. He was born as Shamshy Donbayev, but ran away from school and changed his name to avoid the police.
• He started playing music aged 17 and mainly wrote songs in a waltz style, but in 1956, he composed the music to the patriotic song My Kazakhstan. It was adopted in 2006 to be the Kazakhstan national anthem after a few modifications in the lyrics
• Many statues of him were erected around the country and streets are named after him. So you can find even a street, two statues and a park named after him
dudeontheguitar – Boiy Bolgan
- He Was Tall is the title of this one from the Abay 175 LP released in 2020.
- Born in the Suryagash in the country’s Turkmen region, he now resides in Almaty the largest city of Kazakhstan. With a notable ability to sing in both Kazakh and English, he actually graduated with a programming degree but already knew when he graduated that it wasn’t what he was gonna do, saying it was more for his parents.
Imanbek x Rita Ora - Bang Bang
• In 2019, he became known for his remix of Saint Jhn's "Roses". In 2021, Imanbek won a Grammy for his remix of "Roses", becoming the first Grammy recipient from Kazakhstan, and the first Grammy award winner in a non-classical category from within the Commonwealth of Independent States
• Imanbek released his new song "Sweet Dreams" with English-Norwegian producer Alan Walker (faded).
• released Bang, a collaborative 4-track extended play (EP) with English singer Rita Ora.
• 2021, Imanbek won a Grammy for his remix of "Roses", becoming the first person from Kazakhstan to win a Grammy.
Asiya Ospanova – MSQ
- This is an artist that still is working to make waves with her music, but this one did cause some commotion to be sure.
- Asiya is an artist who’s been making music since she was in her early teens, and her pop sound is heavily influenced by early exposure to Britney Spears and she says “of course” Beyonce.
Ulytau - Adai
• literally meaning "the great mountain", is a popular Turkic neopagan instrumental folk metal trio from Kazakhstan.Their music combines the sound of the violin and electric guitar with the dombra, a traditional two stringed instrument from their country.
• They have since toured Germany, England, Scotland, Poland, USA, Turkey, China, Japan and Russia. The band was awarded the "Golden Disc" in 2001 for their song "Aday" that was based on a composition from Kurmangazy of the same name. The song was also featured on the Rough Guide(British travel guide) compilation to the music of Central Asia.
Qonyratbay Fam – Beker Emes
- A title meaning not for nothing in my poorly pronounced Kazakh, this is a brother sister duo that hails from Almaty.
- This is a nascent indie band still trying to make their mark, but they do have a lovely, intricate sound that bit by bit is catching.
Ziruza - Айт ендi (Tell me now)
• a Q-pop singer, songwriter and actress. The first video clip was released in 2017 for the song "Айт ендi".
• At the beginning of her career, Ziruza tried to become a member of the girl group Juz Entertainment. But it did not happen.
• In 2017, producer Erlan Alimov notices Ziruza, who offers Ziruza a 7-year contract
Asiya – Bezoruzhen
- Okay, admittedly I cannot find anything on this artist aside from an insta profile that says Asiya hails from Almaty as well. But anyway, I had to find an accoutrement to this final banger from Dunia, so there you go…has a good social media following though so does seem rather popular, and the fact that Asiya is super fine most likely does not hurt.
Lee Hyo Ri 이효리 – 미쳐 crazy
• South Korean singer, Lee Hyori is known for her popular songs like ‘Hey Girl,’ ‘Hey Mr. Big,’ ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,’ ‘Shall We Dance,’ ‘Amor Mio,’ and ‘Going Crazy,’ among others.
• She is an actress, television presenter, as well as an activist.
• Hyori debuted her singing career as a member of the K-Pop Girls group ‘Fin.K.L.’ She also worked for the Mnet Media & B2M Entertainment and DSP Entertainment. She won Artist of the Year awards for her debut solo album, Stylish in 2003. She is married to musician Lee Sang-soon, guitarist of the rock band "Roller Coaster."
BoA – Better
- The title track to BoA’s 10th Korean language studio album, true name Kwon Bo-ah. I would guess she differentiates between her Korean, Japanese, and English LP’s, which if that beautiful and that smart does not qualify BoA as unfairly gifted, I don’t know what does. In total, the artist has released 20 full-length albums since debut in 2000.
- This LP was released in 2020.