Badawi, Schneider TM and Anouar Brahem: Are they too "out there"?

I just find it hard to believe that besides a mention in a list, I've been the only ILMer to write anything about Badawi, which would either suggest that my tastes are complete garbage, or something else.

Also umm yeah dude, Schneider TM is pretty weird in lots of ways. I mean, there are kinds of weirdness that don't have to do with being all structurally avant-garde -- like, say, stoned-sounding German guys doing weird gamelan-sample talk/rap tracks? His singles are still really accessible ("Cataractact," etc.), but ... there's something odd about the dude.

Are you asking whether or not it's strange that you like music that other people don't like or aren't aware of? If so, then no. It's not strange at all. Tastes vary. Records that are popular (even if only within a small niche) or much-talked-about for other reasons will heard and evaluated by many more people than those that are genuinely obscure. Self-evident blah blah blah...

Or are you just trying to bring attention to stuff you like? If so, then fine, but the misdirection tactics seem strange.

[No, I'm not trying some backhanded attention-seeking blahblahblah.]

I just remain puzzled that out of 1300(!) albums, not one(!) mentions these, which have more universal appeal in I my opinion than, say, a lot of the albums between numbers 800 and 1300.

So my question remains, are these three artists "too obscure" for all of the 503 "music critics" (I still don't know what that means in this case) who participated in this poll?

I'd like to hear from others if there is what they think is a very good album that wasn't included on the list.

I assume this is the case for some critics, but there's gotta be a couple as moronic as me.

This makes more sense now.

I am not a critic, but take their role very seriously, because I wanna now about all of the music that is out there that I'd love (I assume there's tons of it). But often, I get the idea that many critics don't take their roles as seriously....maybe worrying more about having to churn so much of this stuff out before a deadline, or creating a niche or schtick. Whether or not those are legitimate concerns for their own livelihoods, I really could care less as a music press consumer.

Hence my question as what constitutes a "Music Critic".....I often wonder if its just someone who is a better [or at least more prolific] writer than me who knows a thing or three about music, but could easily be in the business department in their paper......or writes just as much about pop culture in general as they do about music.

As for the "...so what", there's 1000 posts on the thread comparing the two polls.

Mark Nauseef, Ikue Mori, Walter Quintus, Sylvie Courvoisier: Albert.

http://www.sylviecourvoisier.com/discs.htm

I just heard La Voyage de Sahar for the first time, and it's really really tedious, even by ECM standards.

If anyone is looking for some good Oud action there is a a Holland/DeJohnette rhythm section on Brahem's latest, and I think it is beautiful.

Yep, looking forward to hearing it - Thimar, Brahem's previous rec w/ Dave Holland (and John Surman), is one of my v. favourite ECM discs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg0PcRPgYhQ

I'm really in thrall to this one at the moment.

i can't claim to know anything about Anouar Brahem's discography, although i aim to become more familiar with it in the coming weeks. but Blue Maqams is EXCELLENT