Ρεμπέτικο (Η Αυθεντική Μουσική Από Την Ταινία Του Κ. Φέρρη / The Original Soundtrack Of The Film And The TV Series "Rebetiko")

This is the soundtrack to a 1983 film called Ρεμπέτικο, which translates to "rembetiko", literally the genre this album is. I've not seen the film and probably never will, but it'd be like naming a movie "The Blues" and then making a soundtrack to the film and calling it "The Blues", too, and then RYM would have it categorized as Blues genre. All righty then. So now we know what it is... very manly, very traditional, full of pathos. Music from another time and another place (I say ethnocentrically.) That Mediterranean swift-strumming of the bouzouki is just magical, evoking memory of a thing you cannot remember, stimulating longing for an experience you've never had. That deliberate plodding of the accordion, its rhythms punctuated and accented by the finger cymbals, is a light stomp inviting you to dance along.