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Radio C is Hungary’s first Gypsy radio station, run by Roma people for Roma people and playing a blend of authentic gypsy music, experimental gypsy rap and simple classics from Micheal Jackson to Frank Sinatra.
The result is a genre specific radio station that you can listen to all day. For most Australian flamenco aficionados there comes a point when one very specific style of music, like flamenco, needs to be turned off for a while. Flamenco is rare (one or two songs per day) on Radio C, but you will constantly hear a variety of other influences that surround gypsy music.
It is for that same reason that our featured online broadcaster every month, will not be restricted to just flamenco. Our goal is to bring you a source of influence and inspiration that boldly ventures outside the box.
Flamenco Australia dot org, does not officially launch until March 2010. We have chosen Radio C as our first featured broadcaster because, like Radio C, we are trying to reach and strengthen connections amongst a very small group of people. That and it’s their birthday this month.
To pre-launch the idea of having a different station streaming online from our sidebar each month we will be leaving Radio C active until early March 2010.
Scroll down the right column on any page to hear the live broadcast.
Once we replace the stream with a new featured station you can always access Radio C via the link below.
Play in Winamp, Realplayer or iTunes
19th Century Gypsy Band (Hungary)
Radio C first went to air in 2001, initially limited to a 30 day trial and competing with two christian radio stations for a full-time license, the station now has a global reach. Built on the idea of favouring Roma events and news and allowing listeners to bring in their own music, Radio C has become one of the few places online where you can get access to an authentic source of Gypsy music.
Because Australia has never really had a large Romani population (~20,000) and white Australians have always borrowed from the culture of their immediate bloodlines, Gypsy music has been slow to kick off down under. In the past few years, however, there has been a new wave of bands, eclectic melting pots of instruments and Gajo (non-Gypsy) musicians that break the mold of the drums, rhythm guitar, bass and keyboard associated with rock. Instead, …Violin, Trumpet and Double Bass players, once banished to the back rows of a suburban big band or orchestra, are finding a younger romping stomping audience. These bands are cross-pollinating existing styles, whilst trying to maintain the wild energy of Gypsy music. That crazy sound that bewitches an audience to dance spontaneously.
In Melbourne particularly, there are venues popping up that are devoted solely to Gypsy and Balkan Music. Unfortunately some of the bands are crammed too full of instruments and lack decent arrangement, while others are lacking any authenticity, but we are good at absorbing cultures in Australia, throwing out the bits we can’t fake and keeping anything that works.
The internet and an online Gypsy radio station, will bring that authenticity one step closer for Australian Gypsy bands who are struggling to find some duende amongst all that white skin.
VARDOS – we leave you now with the Melbourne based Gypsy Band, Vardos.
Facebook comments:
Nice to have Romany music on ‘Radio C’
we also have a Romany program every monday night from 10pm -12pm.on 88.6 Plenty Valley FM.
Melbourne Australia
Tele: 9404-2111
Nice to see this on the site. Some good bands/musicians which are readily heard on MySpace/ Youtube etc and which sell through Itunes are Parno Graszt, Ternipe, Dikanda, Mahala Rai Banda, Romano Drom Saban Bajramovic, Goran Bregovic and Jony Iliev. Cheers.