Great Greek music?

June 11, 2011 10:26 PM

I'm looking for some good Greek music. (Please assume I know nothing.) Current pop or dance music, or anything fun, really.

Interpret "current," "pop," "dance" and "fun" as broadly as you wish. Classics appreciated, as well as music about Greece.

posted by Sissinghurst to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

If you have a record player, I suggest you hunt down this box set. It's wonderful.
posted by dobbs at 10:55 PM on June 11, 2011

Fleet Foxes' Mykonos is a pretty good current tune, and "about" a place in Greece (in title anyway).
posted by illenion at 12:20 AM on June 12, 2011

Most mainstream Greek pop music is really crap - generally boring and derivative, influenced by the much larger english-speaking and middle eastern/arabic markets.

That being said, here's a random selection of things I personally like. Most of it wouldn't count as pop music, but it's not obscure either - a random 20-30 year old Greek would recognize all of these:

• Cheimerinoi Kolymvites, very literate but not academic, e.g. their interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonet 114 is one of my favorites.
• Yannis Angelakas, former leader of the protypical Greek '80s punk band Trypes.
• Thanasis Papakonstantinou is an influential figure, both as a performer as well as a composer/songwriter - e.g. this one written by Papakonstantinou and performed by Angelakas. (Not to be confused with Vassilis Papakonstantinou or our current finance minister - it's a common Greek name).
• If you like Th. Papakonstantinou you will also like Sokratis Malamas and Nikos Papazoglou.
• Mode Plagal essentialy play a fusion of jazz and funk with traditional Greek music, very sucessfully imho.
• The Burger Project are a lot of fun, their live shows always make for a great party. They mostly do humorous covers but are too musical to be considered a joke band.

posted by Dr Dracator at 1:11 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some more traditional/jazz fusion: Karaguna by The Swing Shoes.
posted by Dr Dracator at 2:10 AM on June 12, 2011

There was a Greek-American band in the early '90s called Annabouboula which you might like. They played traditional Greek music all mixed up with dance & pop.

"Tamba-Toumba" | "Don't Worry Ma"
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:11 AM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Here's a last one: Imam Baildi remixing a Manolis Chiotis/Mary Linda classic.
posted by Dr Dracator at 4:12 AM on June 12, 2011

Depends on your definition of fun, but I kind of think a few of the tunes off of 666 by Aphrodite's Child are pretty fun.
Example 1
Example 2
posted by saladin at 4:54 AM on June 12, 2011

I like Burgundy Grapes.
posted by box at 8:58 AM on June 12, 2011

I highly recommend Undo Records if you like stylish Electropop, particularly Marsheaux and Nikonn.

Marsheaux - Summer
Nikonn - Sunday
posted by panboi at 2:33 PM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]