Modern African music
- Darkness_Fish
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Modern African music
Just chancing my arm with a bit of a modern music thread, but is anyone else getting increasingly excited by the music that's coming out of Africa recently, especially from the Nyege Nyege Tapes label? It just seems to me that for the first time in ages there's a real well-spring of new and diverse music that's really grabbed my attention, a cultural cross-pollination that's really bearing fruit at the moment.
Some examples:
The spiky mutant disco and upbeat fun of KOKOKO!
The strange electronic ambient grindcore of Duma:
The percussive electronics of Nihiloxica (some of the latest album is fairly kraut inspired, but not this one):
The abstracted electronics of Don Zilla:
C'mon, there's gotta be a buyer for some of this stuff here, right?
Some examples:
The spiky mutant disco and upbeat fun of KOKOKO!
The strange electronic ambient grindcore of Duma:
The percussive electronics of Nihiloxica (some of the latest album is fairly kraut inspired, but not this one):
The abstracted electronics of Don Zilla:
C'mon, there's gotta be a buyer for some of this stuff here, right?
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.
- Walk In My Shadow
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Re: Modern African music
Not me, I'm afraid.
Quite some time ago there was a hype on here for that Nigeria 70 comp.
I didn't even participate in that.
Quite some time ago there was a hype on here for that Nigeria 70 comp.
I didn't even participate in that.
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- pcqgod
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Re: Modern African music
African music with programmed beats is a hard sell for me, since African drumming is some of the most complex and therefore interesting to me. Nevertheless, the one with Black Metal vocals and the Don Zilla one appealed to me.
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- jimboo
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Re: Modern African music
I will come back to this but fishy is right there is a real buzz coming out of africa. Yves doesn't like it. If that doesn't tell you it's good I don't know what does.
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- toomanyhatz
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Re: Modern African music
I do agree that something is happening, and that it's interesting. I'm also with pcgod.
I'm more into the Taureg/Tinarawen side of things, personally, but I do bet there's a lot of that I don't know about and there's probably some crossover with the rather fishy stuff that D-fish is bringin'.
I'm more into the Taureg/Tinarawen side of things, personally, but I do bet there's a lot of that I don't know about and there's probably some crossover with the rather fishy stuff that D-fish is bringin'.
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- John_K
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Re: Modern African music
I'll check those out, I enjoyed Congotronics from a few years back, be interesting to see what else left field is coming out of the continent...
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Re: Modern African music
Walk In My Shadow wrote:Quite some time ago there was a hype on here for that Nigeria 70 comp.
I didn't even participate in that.
You missed out!
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- Six String
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Re: Modern African music
pcqgod wrote:African music with programmed beats is a hard sell for me, since African drumming is some of the most complex and therefore interesting to me. Nevertheless, the one with Black Metal vocals and the Don Zilla one appealed to me.
This is my approach as well. Why use programmed beats for African music? I love a lot of music from Nigeria, Mali, Ethiopia and other countries but none of it is driven by electronic beats. My loss? Maybe so but I am content.
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- GoogaMooga
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Re: Modern African music
Nothing later than Youssou N'Dour and Salif Keita.
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- Darkness_Fish
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Re: Modern African music
For those who don't like programmed beats (although in answer to the question "why", "why not" is always good for me), there's Fulu Miziki:
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.
- Rorschach
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Re: Modern African music
Darkness_Fish wrote:Just chancing my arm with a bit of a modern music thread, but is anyone else getting increasingly excited by the music that's coming out of Africa recently, especially from the Nyege Nyege Tapes label?
I strongly suspect that you and I have rather different musical tastes.
I am intrigued by some African music I've heard recently but I wonder if it'll be same stuff you're listening to.
I mentioned this on the new music thread and I love it (although the album's half Swedish)
Does this appeal or is this the MacCartney of African music for you?
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- never/ever
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Re: Modern African music
These have been on my regular playlist for a while now. I like the crossover-styles...if it's good enough for Albarn, why not.
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- jimboo
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Re: Modern African music
Things are looking interesting in the um, African scene. It is more interesting than that awful drivel that Andy Kershaw used to champion with that reedy fender guitar sound
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- Darkness_Fish
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Re: Modern African music
Rorschach wrote:I strongly suspect that you and I have rather different musical tastes.
I am intrigued by some African music I've heard recently but I wonder if it'll be same stuff you're listening to.
I mentioned this on the new music thread and I love it (although the album's half Swedish)
Does this appeal or is this the MacCartney of African music for you?
Half Swedish? Does he not suspect that some of his children aren't his, particularly the 6ft tall blonde ones?
I'm afraid I didn't like that much at all, the vocals seem a bit kind of condescending, like it could be a languid African cover of Bobby Goldsboro's Honey with a bit of Boards of Canada floating in the background.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.
- Darkness_Fish
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Re: Modern African music
never/ever wrote:These have been on my regular playlist for a while now. I like the crossover-styles...if it's good enough for Albarn, why not.
Hmm, trying to stop me listening by invoking the name of Albarn, huh? Well, it didn't work, and I really liked those first two clips especially. One of the things I've been using a lot recently is Radio Garden (the phone app is brilliant, the website not so much), and that first track reminded me of the kind of thing that this station (Ruimbo FM, from Thika in Kenya) plays: http://radio.garden/listen/ruimbo-fm/K0GzTafQ . I've no idea on this kind of music, btw, but this station just has a constant stream of upbeat, sun-kissed tracks that I tend to dance badly around the kitchen to while cooking.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.
- BARON CORNY DOG
- Diamond Geezer
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Re: Modern African music
Cool, thanks Darkness!
Africa is such a massive place, there's bound to be boatloads of interesting sounds out there that don't make it into my very limited headspace. From the first set of clips, Kokoko is immediately winning, but there was something I liked in all of them, except for the grindcore bit, which really makes me feel old.
Africa is such a massive place, there's bound to be boatloads of interesting sounds out there that don't make it into my very limited headspace. From the first set of clips, Kokoko is immediately winning, but there was something I liked in all of them, except for the grindcore bit, which really makes me feel old.
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Re: Modern African music
jimboo wrote:Things are looking interesting in the um, African scene. It is more interesting than that awful drivel that Andy Kershaw used to champion with that reedy fender guitar sound
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- Deebank
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Re: Modern African music
Darkness_Fish wrote:For those who don't like programmed beats (although in answer to the question "why", "why not" is always good for me), there's Fulu Miziki:
Slipknot have let themselves go!
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Re: Modern African music
Not sure if it's contemporary but Kanda Bongo Man when they featured in the recent Glastonbury coverage on the Beeb sent me off down memory lane.
Back in the day I made a half-arsed attempt to launch a world music night in Brighton. The first headliners were Kanda Bongo Man and I figured I'd soon have The Bhundu Boys and The Real Sounds of Africa et al beating a path to my door to beg me for gigs... This did not happen but KBM did turn out to be an awesome mesmeric band of some brilliance.
The band flew in from Paris with no 'backline', Now I assumed backline meant amplifiers. I also assumed that drums were instruments, not backline. The band however begged to differ. They had no drums. The support bands also turned up with no drums figuring they'd borrow the headliner's percussion - stupid because many headliners get all protective if a mere support act asks to borrow their gear. I had to rustle up a drum kit at short notice. What amazed me was how fucking amazing the band sounded using this random bunch of amps and drums they'd never clapped eyes on before. I had and have many muso friends who'd shit a brick if they had to rely on whatever stuff happened to be hanging around.
I went home happy (and possibly very stoned) with their circling bass/guitar lines lodged in my brain..
Hardly a student to be seen in a hall full of social studies lecturers Probably lost a tonne of money (for the SU).
Fucking students!
Back in the day I made a half-arsed attempt to launch a world music night in Brighton. The first headliners were Kanda Bongo Man and I figured I'd soon have The Bhundu Boys and The Real Sounds of Africa et al beating a path to my door to beg me for gigs... This did not happen but KBM did turn out to be an awesome mesmeric band of some brilliance.
The band flew in from Paris with no 'backline', Now I assumed backline meant amplifiers. I also assumed that drums were instruments, not backline. The band however begged to differ. They had no drums. The support bands also turned up with no drums figuring they'd borrow the headliner's percussion - stupid because many headliners get all protective if a mere support act asks to borrow their gear. I had to rustle up a drum kit at short notice. What amazed me was how fucking amazing the band sounded using this random bunch of amps and drums they'd never clapped eyes on before. I had and have many muso friends who'd shit a brick if they had to rely on whatever stuff happened to be hanging around.
I went home happy (and possibly very stoned) with their circling bass/guitar lines lodged in my brain..
Hardly a student to be seen in a hall full of social studies lecturers Probably lost a tonne of money (for the SU).
Fucking students!
I've been talking about writing a book - 25 years of TEFL - for a few years now. I've got it in me.
Paid anghofio fod dy galon yn y chwyldro
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- cheifwhat
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Re: Modern African music
This is the kind of thing that is popular in Zimbabwe, that my wife likes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1frDfPA2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Vtwv1npRk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1frDfPA2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Vtwv1npRk
Mostly dancing sir,...