Foreign Language Records You Should Listen to
It’s weirdly hard to find foreign language music if you don’t know what you are looking for. Outside of Eurovision (fuck the ESC), there isn’t a lot of non-English music that gets played where you might stumble across it. Here are some of my recommendations:
Deniz’deki Kent
Frxzbie
A Turkish language alt-rock EP with post-punk and shoegaze influences. Turkish has a different texture to English. There’s a very emotional delivery. Dark sound.
Favourite track: Ah Be Kader
Listen if you like: Amira Elfeky and emotionally dramatic vocal delivery.
Neyslutrans
Hatari
An Icelandic language electro-industrial album with abrasive growls and clean synthpop melodies. It also includes an extended version of Hatriđ Mun Sigra, Iceland’s 2019 Eurovision entry.
Favourite track:
Listen if you like: unusually sensual anti-capitalist industrial EBM with both clean and harsh vocals.
Der Tag an dem die Welt unterging
We Butter the Bread with Butter
A German language electronicore album about the end of the world. Frankly, German speakers also cannot understand the screaming.
Favourite track: Der kleine Vampir
Listen if you like: weirdly groovy eurodance deathcore that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Blonde comme moi
BB Brunes
A French indie-garage-revival-rock album with some post-punk elements too. Very 2007. A peerie bit sleazy. I made the mistake of showing my N5 French teacher it without realising there is lyrical wrist-tying and threesome-suggesting.
Favourite track: Dis-moi
Listen if you like: feeling like you're back in terrible university accommodation smoking with the cool girl you fancy except ✨ French ✨.
Bulgarskie centrum
Pidzama Porno
It probably would have been harder to explain liking Pidzama Porno to my Polish piercer than Republika, which still made him laugh anyway. A Polish album I cannot understand but someone online told me was about being fed up with society which probably checks out.
Favourite track: Bulgarskie centrum hujozy
Listen if you like: Bleak somewhat abrasive post-communist post-punk with ska influences.