Rolling Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2014 Thread Formerly Known as World

also i heard this on npr this morning and it's gorgeous:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/02/11/274686955/monastic-life-at-the-top-of-the-charts

Hailu Mergia was good but more jazzy than psychedelic with a band live last night at the Kennedy Center

Congratulations!

Thanks to you and 535 other backers, Akounak: The feature film of a Tuareg guitarist in Agadez has been successfully funded.

Awesome. Have you seen "The Last Song Before the War," a doc about the Festival in the Desert? It's pretty good, and has shown in various film fests.

i haven't. i can't really get out to movies these days bc babbies but if it's available for home viewing i'm def there

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/17/277004752/ladysmith-black-mambazo-on-a-mission-to-preserve-culture?ft=1&f=1039

due to The 'Five Years Music Game' ILM Version thread i've been listening to albums from 1984 that i've never heard before and put together a little playlist of 'outernational' (african mostly) on spotify (nb there is non-world stuff on the playlist too): http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/1E3vWYMvNmNgqIsw5BKRuX -- i used a few sources to compile this list and not all dates were consistent so i adopted a liberal approach. if anyone cited an album as being from 1984, i included it.

relevant albums i've never heard before but caught my attention (btw so many cool album covers from this year i thought ilx could use a thread on super cool african covers from the 80s):

Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Zulu Rock (France/South Africa)
Sam Fan Thomas - Makassi (Cameroon)
Fela Kuti - Live in Amsterdam (Amsterdam/Nigeria)
Johnny Clegg & Juluka, Sipho Mchunu - Musa Ukungilandela (South Africa)
Alpha Blondy - Cocody Rock (Ivory Coast)
Ini Kamoze - Ini Kamoze (Jamaica)
Youssou N'Dour - Immigres (Senegal)
Samba Mapangala - Virunga Volcano (Congo)
Mbilia Bel - Ba Gerants Ya Mabala (Congo)
Toure Kunda - Casamance Au Clair De Lune (Senegal)
Souzy Kasseya - Le retour de l'As (Congo)
Johnny Dyani - Afrika (South Africa)
Ebenezer Obey - Solution (Nigeria)
Thomas Mapfumo - Mabasa (Zimbabwe)
Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe - Osondi Owendi (Nigeria)
Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Titibitis - No Palava (Nigeria)
Nass El Ghiwane - Maroc Chants d'espoir (Morocco)
Bopol Mansiamina - Bopol (Congo)
Simaro Massiya Lutumba - Maya: L'Album des Albums (Congo)
Super Jamano De Dakar - Geedy Dayaan (Senegal)
4 Stars - Les quatre etoiles (Congo)
Super Diamono - Ndaxami (Senegal)

a few more that are not available on spotify:
Juluka - Stand Your Ground (South Africa)
King Sunny Ade - Aura (Nigeria)
Francis Bebey - Akwaaba (Cameroon)
Hugh Masekela - Techno-Bush (South Africa)

tons of great stuff on here that i'm really digging.

acc to http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/1984.html "New Musical Express Compiled Other Lists This Year Including… African Albums" -- i'd be interested seeing that list!

will hunting for it, i did find this Vivien Goldman (i love "launderette") essay about fela kuti that NME ran originally that year:

http://books.google.com/books?id=QVjQ07b1GPAC&lpg=PP7&ots=yRZn9kZcOW&dq=%22Resurrection%20Shuffle%22%20New%20Musical%20Express%201984&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false

i guess it's not a surprise to me to find out that fela kuti was playing charity events in north london in 1984 - i know thru honest jon's really thorough compilations that the nigerian diaspora musical scene has always been pretty huge in london. the other major strand is all this african music in french which is obv a product of colonization as well (Congo particularly dramatic in this regard), but while there is some fela kuti music in english (or things that combine english along w/ other languages), nigerian artists don't seem to embrace english quite like the congolese embraced french (linguistically speaking more than musicologically). is this impression accurate, and what accounts for it? was english lingual intervention in nigeria not as impactful as french in the congo? and did paris ever have a large diaspora music scene like london did?

VA [2007] African Virtuoses - The Classic Guinean Guitar Group ----- Joyously beautiful music recorded mostly in the 70s yet utterly timeless
VA [2013] Angola Soundtrack 2 ------ mid 20th century martists recording music when it was outlawed top do so
VA [2014] From Another World A Tribute to Bob Dylan ---- the only Dylan covers album i've ever enjoyed
VA [2014] Longing for the Past; The 78rpm Era in SE Asia ---- Dust to Digital box, nuff said
VA [2013] Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM --- another beauty from D2D, not included on the 2013 list
VA [2013] Mirror to the Soul Caribbean Jump-Up, Mambo and Calypso Beat 1954-77 ---- Delightful; and it smells like summertime (not on 2013 list)
Lo, Ka Ping [2002] Lost Sounds of the Tao Chinese Masters of the Guqin in Historic Recordings ---- i feel smarter already
VA [2010] Noh-Biwa-Shakuhachi ---- Quite a document of traditional japanese music from 1941

Correction: this is not a VA album, it's a proper group

African Virtuoses [2007] The Classic Guinean Guitar Group

xps,

As far as i know English in Nigeria and French in Congo are in broadly similar positions - about 10-15% of people speak it fluently, another 20% or so speak a bit and the rest speak domestic languages. May be wrong, though.

France definitely had / has a big Congolese diaspora scene. I'd guess that someone like Papa Wemba was a bigger star in France than Fela was in the UK. Belgium, for obvious reasons, also has a big Congolese influence.

Re that 2013 National Wake reissue I was enthusing about upthread: more of them and a whole scene new to me:

Punk In Africa
Available on DVD on March 11th

Three chords, three countries, one revolution...

PUNK IN AFRICA is the story of the multi-racial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

In these societies, the punk subculture represented a genuinely radical political impulse, playing out against a backdrop of intense political struggle, economic hardship and even civil war.

PUNK IN AFRICA traces this until-now untold story from its roots in the underground rock music of early 1970s Johannesburg, the first multi-racial punk bands formed in the wake of the Soweto Uprising and the militant anti-apartheid hardcore and post-punk bands of the 1980s to the rise of celebratory African-inspired ska bands which sprang up from Cape Town to Maputo in the democratic era of the 1990s. Today, an emerging generation of bands continue to draw on this legacy to confront the political challenges of contemporary Zimbabwe and the uncertain identity issues of the Afrikaans minority in South Africa.

Featuring music, interviews and rare and unseen archive footage of Suck, Wild Youth, Safari Suits, Power Age, National Wake, KOOS, Kalahari Surfers, The Genuines, Hog Hoggidy Hog, Fuzigish, Sibling Rivalry, 340ml, Panzer, The Rudimentals, Evicted, Sticky Antlers, Freak, LYT, Jagwa Music, Fruits and Veggies, Swivel Foot and more...
http://www.punkinafrica.com/?utm_source=Punk+In+Africa+traces+multi-racial+punk+movement+within+political+and+social&utm_campaign=Punk+in+Africa&utm_medium=email Trailer for this doc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DzadzH1Tc0

Select Press Quotes:

"Interesting companion piece to doc hit Searching for Sugar Man...this aptly raw, energetic survey of a very DIY scene should appeal to programmers looking for an arresting intersection of music, politics and underground culture."

- VARIETY

"...bursting with the heyday of the multiracial punk scene...with a loving emphasis on the surprising - and often overlooked - role that punk music played in Africa."

- NAT GEO MUSIC

National Wake had the punk spirit and para-genre appeal (they were into ska, dub etc.), rather than hardcore purism; hopefully that will prove true of these other bands, in their own way (though some hardcore purism can work too).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ-_HIoEBE8

Misogeny, autotune and herb back in the saddle again.... oy vey

Autotune has been used internationally for a few years now. Misogyny and herb have always been around

x-post

France definitely had / has a big Congolese diaspora scene.

Yes, a big African diaspora in general, although there's a backlash now from some.

i thought it sounded very happy + upbeat and it's dreary here in philly - i did not anticipate its divisiveness!

That Haiti Direct comp mentioned upthread is fun,I'm hearing influences fela picked up plus even some garage rock in the organ sounds on some cuts

Angelique Kidjo had a great guitarist the other night live, Dominic James, who is NY-based but African-born I think and can play multiple styles like Congolese rumba/soukous, funk, and more in a non-flashy but very effective manner.

x-post- wished I had seen the reunited National Wake (with maybe 1 original member or 2) performing in DC followed by a showing of that Punk in Africa movie. Saw mixed reviews of the film but it still sounds interesting

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/travel/where-tanzania-taps-its-feet.html?_r=0

Long article with various bands mentioned I need to check out

wanted to share some recent additions to my 1984 playlist of outernational rock:

Sourakata Koite - Sourakata Koite: Kora music from Senegal
Woubeshet Feseha - 1976: swinging addis ababa music - 1976 in the Ethiopian calendar = 1984 in the gregorian one.
Alhaja Queen Salawa Abeni and her Waka Moderniser—India Waka: Nigerian fuji music waka waka
Mashina - Mashina 1: Israeli rock
Yehudit Ravitz - Deresh haMashi: Israel female singer-songwriter - cowrote 16th sheep which i think is a Hurting fave
Sezen Aksu - Sen Aglama: Turkish pop
Omar Khairat - Fatma: Egyptian film music
Klezmer Conservatory Band - Klez!: self-explanatory
WITCH - Kuomboka: we intend to cause havok was a fantastic multidisc comp that came out like last year or the previous - more tracks from this funky Zamrock band
Karantamba - Ndigal: Gambian shuffle
Arik Einstein - End of Time: Israeli rock
Dissidenten - Sahara Elektrik: german band records in tangiers w/ local sha'abi band Lem Chaheb
Mandingo - Watto Sitta: Gambian funky electric kora music from Foday Musa Suso
Sankomota - Sankomota: from the Kingdom of Lesotho
National Percussion Group of Kenya - Roots!! - African Drums
Dina Bell - Blow: Cameroonian Pop
Dr. Oliver de Coque & His Expo '76 Ogene Sound Super of Africa - Mbuluba Uwa: Nigerian "ogene" highlife
Foday Musa Suso - Hand Power: see Mandingo above
Chris Hinze Combination - Saliah
Nohkis - Nohkis
FRanco and Tabuley - Omona Wapi
Sonny Okosuns - Which Way Nigeria?: I love this LP so much, such a great sound
Bebe Manga - Amie: female Cameroonian makossa singer
Bonga - Marika: folk and semba singer and songwriter from Angola
Dimension Costena - De Que Suda Suda, Palo De Mayo: Nicaraguan supergroup
Franco and His All-Powerful O.K. Jazz - Sorcerer of the Guitar: Congolese jazz that transforms u into a frog
Ismael Lo - Xalat: Senegal harmonica music!
Mangunga Cley - Kazi Saza Amelia: congolese soukous
Mory Kante - A Paris: kora harpist from Guinea
Nyboma - Double Double: congolese soukous
Orlando Julius Ekemode - Dance Afro-Beat: nigerian highlife + afrobeat
Oku & AK7 - Pressure Drop: Jamaican dub poetry
VA - Viva! Zimbabwe: early comp after fall of rhodesia, including artists like The Four Brothers, Devera Ngwena Jazz Band, and especially Thomas Mapfumo. There also are treats from Nyami Nyami Sound, New Black Montana, James Chimombe, and Super Sounds
Zao - Ancien Combattant: http://www.musiques-afrique.com/frames/art_zao.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PfjqEY2c8IU/TNg1d28yqNI/AAAAAAAAAG4/OtGBQ7GSAgo/s400/Ancien+Combattant_C_A_1000A.jpg

in more contemporary news, new tamikrest vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8j3jFN4NA

I was listening to some African music in 84. I can second

FRanco and Tabuley - Omona Wapi

Sonny Okosuns - Which Way Nigeria?: I love this LP so much, such a great sound

Bonga - Marika: folk and semba singer and songwriter from Angola
Ismael Lo and Mory Kante too

I was in my 20s when I liked that stuff. I hate when folks think only old folks burned out on popular stuff embrace African music with guitars

i'm in my 20s (barely) now! but there is something very refreshing about this kind of music idk.

I obviously agree, and that's not a dis of current programmed beat African stuff.

5 yr old article on international autotune - http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/pitch_perfect/

Just saw Kronos with Malian group Trio de Kali, and it was a great show (their first public show together). I liked Kronos better live than I did a year ago. They did 2 compositions themselves first-- a short impressive kinda noisy one and then a longer one that was dedicated to their friends in Ukraine. After the intermission they were joined by Trio de Kali- a great southern Mali female vocalist; a Malian balafon player, and a Malian bass ngoni player. They adapted Malian tradionals plus a Mahalia Jackson song. All very nice.

― curmudgeon, Sunday, February 23, 2014 9:09 PM (3 minute

Posted this on the Kronos quartet thread

Yeah, and their recording of "White Man Sleeps No. 1" got me into modern South African composer Kevin Volans. The two Orchestre Poly-Rythmo reissues I've heard topped my Pazz & Jops; hopeful about the current line-up's latest album, first in 20 years, with guests incl. A.Kidjo and a couple of Franz Ferdinands:
http://downloads.openimp.com/tid/d62c573341364d0153fabbbea6f9adc30fc350d4/eniqiwe/bgotvclhte/6801031430054.jpeg
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Cotonou Club

The greatest band in Benin's history, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, is back. After a year of illustrious comeback live dates including New York's Lincoln Center, WOMAD festival and Barbican London, the band releases its first studio album in over twenty years, 'Cotonou Club', on Strut / Sons D'Ailleurs in March 2011.
Produced in Paris entirely on vintage analogue studio equipment, this new album refreshes Poly-Rythmo classics such as 'Gbeti Madjro' (featuring Angelique Kidjo) alongside a firing selection of brand new compositions. The album also features a special bonus track, an exclusive collaboration between Poly Rythmo and Franz Ferdinand's musicians.
Tracklisting
CD Album (STRUT077CD)

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ne Te Fache Pas
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Pardon
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Von Vo Nono
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Koumi Dede
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Gbeti Madjro feat. Angélique Kidjo
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Oce
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Tegbe
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Mariage / C’est Moi Ou C'est Lui feat. Fatoumata Diawara
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Holonon
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ma Vie
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Lion Is Burning feat. Paul Thomson & Nick Mccarthy From Franz Ferdinand

12" Vinyl Double Album (STRUT077LP)

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ne Te Fache Pas
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Holonon
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Von Vo Nono
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo featuring Angélique Kidjo - Gbeti Madjro feat. Angélique Kidjo
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Oce
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Koumi Dede
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Pardon
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo featuring Fatoumata Diawara - Mariage / C’est Moi Ou C'est Lui feat. Fatoumata Diawara
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ma Vie
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo|Paul Thomson|Nick Mccarthy From Franz Ferdinand - Lion Is Burning feat. Paul Thomson & Nick Mccarthy From Franz Ferdinand
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Tegbe

Download Album (STRUT077CD)

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ne Te Fache Pas
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Pardon
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Von Vo Nono
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Koumi Dede
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo feat. Angélique Kidjo - Gbeti Madjro feat. Angélique Kidjo
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Oce
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Tegbe
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo feat. Fatoumata Diawara - Mariage / C’est Moi Ou C'est Lui feat. Fatoumata Diawara
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Holonon
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Ma Vie
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo feat. Paul Thomson & Nick Mccarthy From Franz Ferdinand - Lion Is Burning feat. Paul Thomson & Nick Mccarthy From Franz Ferdinand

saw some early names for summerstage in nyc; some of y'all are gonna be pretty hyped

also: did we cover jeri-jeri last year? just found that album, so good.

Not sure if we did. Just checked 'em out on Youtube. Love those handheld Senegalese drums

I repped for Jeri-Jeri but I think it got lost in the flow of time.

Dunno if this is the thread where we talk about archival releases but the new Haiti Direct comp on Strut is a very good time.

― a man with legs made of sausages - that's not real! (seandalai)

This is really wonderful music; while it's Caribbean pedigree is certain, it definitely sets itself apart from the rest of the Antilles.

....and this vocal sounds like it could have come from Can's Damo Suzuki...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4umnxnMmQ1Q

great track!

i've never seen this doc, but this clip makes me want to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jl4IOSLX-o

Been enjoying Mamani Keita's Kanou album, especially the track Fanatan (Spotify link). Sent me back through her back catalogue, which contains some really fantastic stuff.

New album sounds nice. Wiki reminds me where I sorta vaguely remember her:

was a backup singer for Salif Keïta.[2] She is best known in English speaking countries for her album with Marc Minelli, Electro Bamako.

And I like both that relaxing Haitian track video and the thumb piano one with Bela Fleck (even though I'm not a fan of his)

I like the way Bela plays on that - he really tries to give himself over to the style and not overplay

True

i think he gets a lot of knee jerk "lol npr" hate, but bela is a helluva musician

dude, LIJADU SISTERS live in NYC doing the music of william onyeabor
http://nyc.redbullmusicacademy.com/#william-onyeabor
can't get too excited about the rest of that lineup but damn

Lijadu sisters live sounds like it would be great

Nigerian rapper Davido who Mordy posted a video of upthread is touring North America (some of it)

Tour Schedule (Part 1):
1, New York March 28th
2, Washington March 29th
3, Minneapolis March 30th
4, Dallas April 4th
5, Toronto, Canada April 5th

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/16/288687538/first-listen-yasmine-hamdan-ya-nass

Hamdan is the groundbreaking co-founder of the duo Soapkills, which was billed as the first indie electropop band in Lebanon, and certainly one of the first in the Middle East. Then, performing as Y.A.S., she collaborated with Mirwais Ahmadzaï (of Madonna's Music fame). Now performing under her own name, Hamdan has perfected a very particular kind of disaffected cool, like a less effortful Lana Del Rey, as you can see from the video we made with Hamdan at this year's edition of globalFEST in New York. It's no wonder that Jim Jarmusch cast this super-charismatic singer in his film Only Lovers Left Alive, starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, which is set to open in the U.S. next month.

She sings pop in Arabic

But:
Hamdan often proclaims her love for iconic Arab singers of the 1920s through the '60s, and her track "La Mouch" is a smart, dark reworking of "Laa Mech Ana Elli Abki," a classic tango by the Egyptian legend Mohammed Abdel Wahab.