Best act not from USA, UK, IRL, CA, Aust, SA

Broilers rock!





Deutschland: Schoen dass Sie da Sind

 

French band : Magma !

Probably the only band in France that can really be in an international league. They don't sing in French, the don't try to sing in English.... they sing in their own language they invented: the Kobaian !

 

From Belgium, a list with some artists with tracks from earlier this year ...
Link for the list of current artists with videoclips: Belgian Current Artists Playlist
Making this list was 'a labour of love', hope you'll find an artist you'll like

mainly in English, but a few in two of the three national languages (Dutch/Flemmish and French) as well.

I'm not really aware of Belgian artists singing in the third national language (German).

A few in the Dutch/Flemmish part of the country release also songs in German (traditional schlager-variety which is popular with the older population in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria,...). But not aware of succesful artists that were born in the German-speaking part of the country. If someone has suggestions, maybe people from Germany?

Some of the biggest Belgian international hits were sung in Italian by the likes of Rocco Granata and Salvatore Adamo (most of his hits were in French). They were children of the first generation Italian immigrants, mostly working in the coalmines and industrial regions. Italian music has been very popular in Belgium (and other European countries), including many Top 10 and even number 1-hits. Over the last years not as much, as before ... Since 45's and cd-singles have disappeared, Italian music seems to have disappeared from the charts (but some radiostations keep playing it).


From the older generations:
Adolphe Sax (inventor of the saxophone)
Django Reinhardt
Toots Thielemans (jazz, harmonica)
André Brasseur
Marc Moulin; Dan Lacksman, Telex
Viktor Lazlo
Lio
Salvatore Adamo
Rocco Granata
Wallace Collection
The Pebbles
Roland Van Campenhout (still active)
Evil Superstars
dEUS
Neon Judgement (I like them more, than Front 242)
Soulsister (American-hit "The Way to Your Heart")
Vaya Con Dios
Claude Barzotti
Johan Verminnen
Jacques Brel
Patrick Hernandez
Technotronic / Hi Tek 3
Amnesia (Ibiza)
Lara Fabian
The Pop Gun
Pas de Deux
Jean-Claude Maury (French DJ, working in Belgium, that later brought the Balearic sound to Ibiza, the other mainly British dj's were copying the sound that was already very popular in the leading Belgian clubs at that time)
+ don't forget the popcorn, ebm, new beat and electronic music scene from the 70's on...

...

 

Focus

 

Sun Ra (from Saturn)

 

Giorgio Moroder
Donovan
The Incredible String Band

 

Astor Piazzolla - Argentina
Gotan Project - Argentina
Zap Mama - Belgium/Africa I only like 1 album but I really like that album
Ceu - Brazil
Cibelle - Brazil
Air - France
Alan Stivell - France
Camille - France
Ekova - France
Gong especially Pierre Moerlen's Gong - France
Paris Combo - France
Prototypes - France
The Rustavi Choir - Georgia
Bjork - Iceland
Gundecha Brothers - India
MIDIval Punditz - India
Ravi Shankar - India
Tarum Bhattacharya - India
Zakir Hussain - India
Azam Ali - Iran-American but sings mostly in Persian
Nyaz - Iran-American but sings mostly in Persian
Rabih Abou-Khalil - Lebanon
Ali Farka Toure - Mali
Salif Keita - Mali
Vieux Farka Toure - Mali
Lila Downs - Mexico
Rodrigo y Gabriella - Mexico
DuOuD - Moroco and Algeria
Tito Puente - native to Pueto Rico even though most of his career was in the US
Fela Kuti - Nigeria
Bushman's Revenge - Norway
Krokofant - Norway
Flairk - The Netherlands
Konono No. 1 - Zaire
Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi - Zimbabwa

 

Edith Piaf
Francoise Hardy
Bjork
Sigur Ros
ABBA

* On a side note , if any non Australians can understand Australian Crawl , kudos .

 

Golden Earring
Hank The Knife & The Jets
Magma
Can
Agitation Free

 

Francis Cabrel - France
Mylène Farmer - France
Jean Jacques Goldman - France
Nolwenn Leroy - France
Lonely Drifter Karen - Austria/Spain
PFM - Italy
Olivia Ruiz - France
Ana Torroja - Spain
Within Temptation - Netherlands

 

I am pretty sure Scotland is still in the UK and still speaks English (mostly).

 

Donovan and the Incredible String Band are Scottish!!

 

I seem to like a lot of German artists -
Can (and solo stuff)
Popol Vuh
Cluster
Kraftwerk
Propaganda

 

scompton has a good list imho. I think gotan is french.

My list, w/o country of origin:

Afro-Cuban All Stars
Ali Farka Toure
Amina Alaoui
Ayub Ogada
Cesaria Evora
Compay Segundo
Duoud
Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey and his Inter-reformers (like King Sunny but mo better)
gotan
Habib Koite
Hamza el Din
Hassan Hakmoun
Ibrahim Ferrer
Issa Bagayogo
Juan Martin
Mariachi Vargas
Nico Saquito
Oliver Mtukudzi
Paolo Conte
Ruben Gonzalez
Samite from Uganda
Thomas Mapfumo
Toumani Diabate
Vieux Farka Toure

 

Eduardo Mateo, 'De Nosotros Dos'

 

Darnauchans, 'Como Los Desconsolados'

 

Darnauchans, 'Capsulas'

 

You know, I just assumed Gotan Project was Argentinian since they do tango. I never looked them up.

 

After perusing the above replies, the following are band interesting enough to me to check out further:
Havana Blacks Finland metal/rock 80/90’s
Hurriganes Finland rock 70’s
Shonen Knife Japan pop punk, 80’s
Puffy Japan pop punk, 90/00’s
Teengenerate Japan punk, 90’s
Les Thugs France punk 80/90’s
22 Pistepirkko Finland rock 80’s
Ulf Lundell Sweden rock 70/80’s
Deolinda Portugal traditional-ish 00’s
LES RITA MITSOUKO France ?? 80’s
Los Vidrios Quebrados Chile garage rock 60’s
Le Butcherettes Mexico punk 00’s

 

I don't think in terms of "best", and I have too many favorites to narrow down. But I will say that Futuro by Low Frequency in Stereo (from Norway) still remains possibly my favorite album of the last six years.

I highly recommend the band to fans of Can or Spiritualized, that kind of stuff (you know who you are...). All four of their albums are worth the price of admission, but Futuro and their debut are perhaps the best jumping-in points.

The Low Frequency in Stereo - Solar System (2009)

 

They are probably mentioned somewhere on these seven pages, but let me add, in case they are not:

Lolita (Austria)
Mocedades (Spain)
Domenico Modugno (Italy)
Nena (Germany)
Roxette (Sweden)
Kyu Sakamoto (Japan)
The Singing Nun (Belgium)
Caterina Valente (Italy)

All of them had Top 20 singles on the U.S. singles charts, many of them in a native language.

 

Roxette... one of my guilty pleasures from the 1980's!

 

Gigi- Ethiopia, some tunes in English, but most in Aramaic

 

Earth and Fire, Netherlands

EDIT: Every electronic musician I listen to