Radio Bastet is one of the "indispensables" in my podcast collection - Hosted by Marisa, it consists of an hour-plus of "vintage" bellydance music from the 1950s through the 1980s, nearly all of it played on the original vinyl! It's a great place to hear classic (and mostly still in print) artists such as George Abdo, Eddie "The Sheik" Kochak, Ozel Turkbas and others, but I think my favorite part of the show is the mostly-out-of-print, bachelor-pad "exotica" from groups with names like The Sheik's Men and The Seven Players (check out Program 61 to hear what I mean; it's basically an "all-lounge" show with songs like "Rebecca From Mecca" and "A Night With Cleopatra" along with five versions of "Caravan"). Cheesy goodness indeed!
Adding to the kitsch factor are the snippets from various "How to Bellydance"-type albums that feature an instructor explaining how to do a step (I can only imagine those poor 1970s housewives trying to follow along with little or no visual instruction - thank goodness for DVDs!). There's also a "full-length bellydance routine" in each episode - a 20-minute-or-so piece containing the elements of the traditional multi-part dance routine.
Radio Bastet started out as a streaming Internet radio show; Marisa started releasing the archived episodes as podcasts a few years ago. They're usually released in groups of three every few months; she's currently up to Program 66 (out of, I believe, 77 total episodes). Unfortunately, about halfway through this process, Marisa lost the spoken-word sound files that served to introduce each episode, the full-length routine intros, etc. So now each episode has the same generic intro and closing (thus, no information on the songs being played).
I am pleased to report, however, that the LP Cover Gallery is back on her website! Marisa has posted her vast collection of vintage bellydance album covers here; many innocuous, some kitschy, some cringe-worthy (Marisa adds commentary where appropriate). You can also find larger versions of some of these albums accompanying the podcast list.
If you're a long-time bellydance fan, you probably already know about the podcast, or already have a lot of this music. But it's a great resource for those new to the dance, or for those curious about "bellydance music" but unsure of what to purchase. The best part is that there's almost no repetition of songs among the episodes, which means I've got over 66 hours of free bellydance music on my iPod!
