Anyone know about African Music?

spaceboy · Post by **spaceboy** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:19 am

In 2007 and I discovered Fela Kuti, 10 years too late, but all good things come to those who wait!

selector.dub.u · Post by **selector.dub.u** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:29 am

Spaceboy wrote:In 2007 and I discovered Fela Kuti, 10 years too late, but all good things come to those who wait!

check out femi kuti as well!
i love the song beng beng beng.

rachel · Post by **rachel** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:45 pm

Lord Dubious wrote:rach:

those two compilations are filled to the brim with quality tunes and the liner notes ain't bad, either.

will check. thanks

mushug · Post by **mushug** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:09 pm

atropinesting wrote:femi kuti & the positive force - eldest son of fela kuti; good afrobeat

boubacar traoré - malian self taught guitarist; fuse blues, west african styles;

salif keita - west african wunderkind; investigate the rail band and super rail band among various other incarnations to discover his roots

rokia traoré - recently (03') garned a lot of attention with bowmboï; highly recommended

tounami diabaté - senegalese I think; kora player; collaborated with ali farka and ballake sissoko

oumou sangaré - another popular malian singer; moussoulou - great album

oliver mtukudzi - 'tuku music' unique, popular zimbabwean musician; the tuku years is admirable

orchestra baobab - afro-carribean fusion; fantastic sound that slipped through the cracks; recently gained more attention with some much needed reissues of older recordings

unforntunately, most of this is very geocentric (e.g. west africa) and more popular as opposed to traditional but I also recommend inspecting compilations on assorted world music labels such as nonesuch, chant du monde, sublime frequencies, putumayo, rough guide series etc..

really nice recommendations!
read somewhere that toumani diabaté is working with bjork... curious on how it will sound.

also check victor gama, he's an angolan born genious that creates his own instruments... i would define is sound as a mixture of angolan roots with steve reich. he has an album on rephlex.

staas · Post by **staas** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:20 pm

check out lagbaja, most popular new artist in nigeria for the last few years, possibly the best live performance I've ever seen

another good performer is thomas mapfumo of zimbabwe

datura · Post by **datura** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:23 pm

This is awesome:

SALAH RAGAB AND THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND - Present Egyptian Jazz

http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=27161 (some samples)

I would highly recommend Fela/Tony Allen/Orchestra Baobab as everyone else has mentioned.

I've been listening to the early years comp of Etoile De Dakar (Youssou N'Dours 1st band) on Rough Guide which is incredible:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Guide-You ... 619&sr=8-4

The early years comp of Salif Keita set is also really good.

For more afrobeat there have been some great reissues on Honest Jons, and there are also 2 great Nigerian comps with a great variety of tracks (Soffry Soffry Catchy Monkey is awesome!):

http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid ... elID=14815
http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid ... elID=14815
http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid ... elID=14815
http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid ... elID=14815

brooksy · Post by **brooksy** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:52 pm

surprisingly the 'rough guide to music' series are pretty good - esp the zmbabwe and ethiopian. Theres a great comp of old stuff out called 'roots of rhumba' For some ripping s.african gear there is a great comp called 'indestructable beat of soweto'. Im a big fan of the four brothers and bhundu boys from zim and shalawambe from zambia... listen to andy kershaw on r3 for lots of good african stuff...

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:59 pm

got a comp i did from vinyl picked up in west africa couple years ago ... i'll post a link in a few days, it's all deep 70s stuff: amadou balake, super rail, star band, early ali farka etc.

mrjo · Post by **mrjo** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:06 am

anyone knows teh congotronics?
kinshasa likembe noise trance…
out on crammed discs

http://www.congotronics.com/

strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa, Congo. World music, electronica and avant-rock aficionados have been equally amazed by this otherworldly music which has driven the international press to come up with extremely surprising comparisons (from Can and Krautrock to Jimi Hendrix, Lee Perry and proto-techno ...

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL223gV4 ... Fkonononr1

ekstrak · Post by **ekstrak** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:50 pm

You definately want to be tuning into some Mulatu Astatke:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatu_Astatke

Absolute DON. He's pretty much the Ethiopian Jazz original

flipw · Post by **flipw** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:57 pm

just listening to some nice African sounding music on 90.0 fm (in SE London).

think some of it is from Ghana. Any ideas where would you look for new African releases and is any usually available on vinyl?

j_j · Post by **j_j** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:58 pm

FELA !!!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=4

you need to watch this !!!!

ifp · Post by **ifp** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:08 pm

this was mentioned in the old Other Music thread, but

K'Naan - somalian hip-hop via canada. played some new tunes at glastonbury which were sick too. can't recommend him enough!

also, etran finatawa and tinariwen. if i can see these guys at the festival in the desert, i will die happy...

[b]racket · Post by **[b]racket** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:11 pm

Anyone for African Techno?

Check out the mad DIY instrumentation!

http://www.crammed.be/konono/

7" · Post by 7" » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:17 pm

Toumani Diabaté
Konono Nº1
Ali Farka Touré
Fela Kuti
Baaba Maal

Even Björk did some collaborations with some african artists on her latest album.

dentoe · Post by **dentoe** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:20 pm

check this blog: http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

metalboxproducts · Post by **metalboxproducts** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:17 pm

It's one of the many styles of music i've been putting off listening to for years. Just don't seem to get around to it.

The bit's that i have listened to are fuckin top though.
I had an African music festival across the road from my house in Hackney last year and for the whole day there was a five peace percussion band out side my house. I sat out there and recorded it to dat. I'll have to convert it and up load it at some point. Fuckin ace. There is a really nice contrast between the band and the sound of the busses screaking to a stop in front of them. wicked.

ifp · Post by **ifp** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:04 pm

dentoe wrote:check this blog: http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

cool site! just checked out the burkina faso hip-hop, who'd have thought!

oh, and one for all the fela fans - tony allen, the guy who used to be his drummer, has loads of great solo stuff.

and mali music is very good too, despite my expectations!

flipw · Post by **flipw** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:50 pm

Thanks for all the ideas

Fela Kuti - interesting, sad documentary and powerful music
Saw K'Naan supporting Damian Marley at Somerset House last year. Was right at the front and it was all quality. Like Etran Finatawa sounds too.
Konono sounds were mad but is maybe better listened to at a dance.
So much to download at that blog link. I'm on it.
Will check the rest soon.
Thanks.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:31 pm

dentoe wrote:check this blog: http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

Awesome! Always love new blogs. On a world tip may I also recommend:

http://magicofjuju.blogspot.com/

While I'm not always too keen on filesharing, this shit is so obscure it's more like an education!

On a completely separate note, anyone round here into Kuduro?

Anyone know about African Music?

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