Kazakh new age

Aside from boy bands, the Kazakh record industry appears to be pushing a lot of new age stuff like this. Asylbek Detstvo Balalyk must be Kazakh for "smooth jazz on exotic instruments with skinny necks," and if there's a GRP or Narada type label in Central Asia, no doubt they're pumping junk like this out. The video is interesting, however. Part way through, a Communist Studebaker appears momentarily (not as cool as the pink Chaika in that Bangor vid, though). The storyline is pretty sappy, and the music is pure Yanni-style sonic wallpaper.

Most of the Kazakh music I've found so far is just uninteresting. Neighboring Uzbekistan makes music that's far stranger; maybe having a dictator who boils dissidents in oil keeps musicians on their toes. And even Turkmenistan, with its goofy dictator Sapurmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov and his state-enforced personality cult, is coming up with music that has an acceptable level of weirdness.

That said, dictators suck. Especially our very own Jethro Mussolini.