Tracks From Abroad

This week Tracks From Abroad returned to Pakistan for a more modern take on the country's popular music. Electronic dance music is not synonomous with Pakistan, but one U of T student from Pakistan named Razzak Noorani working to change that. Razzak joined this week's episode along with a Pakistani Canadian social entrepreneur Fahad Tariq, an alum of the University of Toronto Mississauga.    First...

Tracks From Abroad crosses the 60 episode mark tonight as we visit Toronto's Little Italy neighborhood. TFA has met dozens of new faces during the last 10 episodes while amplifying diverse voices on UofT’s campus every step of the way.  Our show features interviews with Lenny Lombardi of CHIN radio and Italian exchange student Tommaso from Università di Macerata. You can watch TFA's full interview...

This episode is a combination of the best moments of India on Tracks From Abroad. TFA has done 3 episodes about India with various guests and musical styles, so we combined the best moments into 1 hour!

This week  @matrix.msngr  joined TFA to discuss southern India where he grew up on Cape Comorin. At  @uoft  Markus is finishing his masters as a mechanical and industrial engineer. On the show you'll hear Markus's custom playlist which includes 'soup songs' made specifically for the heartbroken. Who knew? Markus also talks about the cricket rivalry between India and Pakistan, the astounding amount...

This week Tracks From Abroad took a trip to Argentina, the winner of the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament. On the episode you’ll also hear a live performance of Argentine folk music recorded in the CIUT 89.5 FM studio by El Ceibo Folklore. First on the show is U of T student Abril, a 4th year political science student who tells us about her home of Mar del Plata and the several other Latin America...

Finally, the day you’ve all been waiting for…Tracks From Abroad is visiting Lithuania with a full hour of music and discussions including a chat with the Ambassador of Lithuania. First on the episode is Elžbieta. Elžbieta is a theater student, kick boxer, and world traveler who talks on TFA about identity and superstitious Lithuanian holidays. TFA’s diplomat guest Darius Skusevičius called in fr...

This week on Tracks From Abroad we visit the beautiful nation of Peru which remains locked in a political crisis over its government's leadership. TFA managed to get a first hand source on the show calling from Lima, Peru to comment on the day to day scenes in the city and the experiences of political protestors. That was Matias Recharte, percussionist of the band band Kuné, Canada's global orches...

They're gonna remember this episode of Tracks From Abroad as we ditch gloomy Toronto and find our way to the shores of the Caribbean. TFA welcomes Zoei, a violinist in the music department, to tell us about her home country of Grenada. Zoei describes the controversy around ethnomusicology, the wonders of Grenadian Jouvert, and the best crowd surfer in the Caribbean: Lavaman. Also on TFA this week...

Tracks From Abroad is back in our 6th season, this week featuring a handful of guests on a show about Romania. TFA has new episodes from all around the world scheduled for every week, so stay tuned and follow us on IG! Dorian and Diana joined TFA to talk about their experiences as Canadian-Romanians, and the heavy metal bassist of Pero Defformero gave TFA's friend Andrej a call all the way from Ea...

Feeling hungry? This week Tracks From Abroad reaches back into the catalogue to all the times that student guests talked about their favorite international foods. From Indonesian Indomie noodles to the Barbadian flying fish to Egyptian chicken panne, TFA has amassed quite the menu. TFA season 6 will begin in the 2023 new year. Thanks for listening in 2022.

From Jamaica to the Bronx, and then to the furthest parts of the globe, the Hip Hop genre has made its mark in cultures around the world. This week on Tracks From Abroad we hear about the origins of Hip Hop from Toronto rapper PHATT Al, before tracing Hip Hop's influence to Palestine, Japan, Poland, Iran, Haiti, and finally back to Canada. You'll hear interview clips from PHATT AL, Professor Skye,...

An entirely new genre, Amapiano, hits the Tracks From Abroad airwaves this week thanks to Atang, our U of T student guest from Botswana. Atang left Botswana in 2019 for Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts USA, and today he enjoys studying chemistry and performing a capella with Tunes Beats Awesome in Toronto. TFA speaks with this worldly student about studying abroad, emerging Zulu genres, new busi...

This week we add another pin to the Tracks From Abroad map in South East Asia by visiting Thailand with U of T student Arav. You'll hear him recount his favorite Thai street foods, explain concepts of Thai gratitude, and detail the judicial chaos caused by Thailand's legalization of marijuana which stands in stark contrast to its neighbors' policies. Arav also gets into the cultural and linguistic...

Tracks From Abroad has raised $800 dollars for CIUT, our campus radio station to which Tracks From Abroad owes its existence. Each donation goes towards strengthening independent student voices on the radio waves and towards the production of fantastic radio episodes like the one TFA is releasing today. On this show we return home to hear music and stories from Indigenous peoples across Canada. Ou...

Boy, would you look at all the places Tracks From Abroad’s TTC card has been! And, like before, the 3x3 grid makes us bump the 10th episode of season 5 onto the next page. Last but not least for the UAE with Youssef. This week’s show is a retrospective of season 5—the best interview moments with music from several different countries. We’re quite glad that TFA has reached episode 50, and soon we w...

We did it. 50 Tracks From Abroad episodes are complete, and this week we visit Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. We also hear music from the Sultans of String, a local band who is kindly giving away two copies of their new album, Sanctuary, to TFA listeners. Enter to win some free music by emailing TracksFromAbroad@ciut.fm before a random drawing selects the two winners! This week you'll hear an...

CD GIVEAWAY DETAILS BELOW: There's lots of local Toronto voices on Tracks From Abroad this week as we return to Trinidad and Tobago, a nation we previously visited during season 3. First on the show is Brittney of the West Indian Students Association at U of T. In the second half we are joined by Miks of Frission Radio who grew up on the island before coming to Canada and graduating from U of T in...

This week Tracks From Abroad radio ventures into a new part of the world: Pakistan and its South Western province Balochistan. We hear from a Balochi student at U of T and a Canadian tabla player dedicated to learning about the drums' history. We begin the show with Lateef Johar Baloch, a political science student with a history of activism in Balochistan. He is a veteran of much social organizing...

We’re heading back to South East Asia on Tracks From Abroad to chat with U of T student Stefi about Indonesia. On the show we’ll get into contemporary Indo music, compare high school experiences, and avoid dying by way of chili sauce. We are also joined by Zoe who was previously a guest on TFA’s 19th Malaysia episode. Did you know Indonesia is the largest muslim country in the world? Or that the c...

This Serbian episode of Tracks From Abroad features a return guest Andrej and his musician friend Jack. Andrej renewed his Serbian playlist with some new genres like Serbian rap and metal; and we talk about Serb news, Ćevapi, plus where to get free Serbian yogurt in the GTA. Jack also tells us about his upright bass studies at Humber College, and that time he played Latin music at the Lula Lounge...

What can we say? We're globe trotters at TFA. As such, this week's episode is on Venezuela, a country mired by corruption and economic failure. But the music plays on in the streets, and today you'll hear some of the best music coming from within Venezuela's borders. This episode features a double interview with U of T student Manuel and U of T professor Donald Kingsbury. Manuel lived in Venezuela...

Hot off an episode on Palestine last week, Tracks From Abroad is crossing the globe to visit Barbados on this week's show. We've had a great experience learning about Caribbean countries with the help of the Caribbean Studies Student Union, the West Indian Students Association, and the Centre for Caribbean Studies at U of T. This week is no exception! UofT student Kairos recorded an interview at C...

Palestine is the focus of this week’s Tracks From Abroad show which brings us a mixture of dance, food and political discussion. You know the drill—this is episode 43. To introduce Palestine we welcome Nadeen, a third year U of T student, and Bashar Murad, a Palestinian pop musician. We also got some help from the minds of RAW on CIUT who suggested some tracks for the episode. In the end, we had t...

Tracks From Abroad hits back HARD this week with a flaming hot episode all about Jamaica. We welcome U of T student Alana to the show to discuss her time representing the island in badminton across the world, and you'll hear from current Second City improv Comedian PHATT Al. As I mentioned to Al, he's done so much in the entertainment industry that I thought his resume was the work of three people...

With the fall semester about to begin, welcome to season 5 of Tracks From Abroad! When this season is complete TFA will be one year old. We begin by returning to Egypt, but this time with a twist. Ramzy is a going into his second year at U of T, but he has only lived in Toronto for a short time. So we thought that eating out at an Egyptian restaurant would be a great way to find Egyptian culture c...