I’ve been meaning for some time to post some kwaito music from South Africa. I couldn’t find the discs I’d bought while down there, but I picked up a couple more recently so we’ll do some sampling.

Kwaito is sort of a mix of dancehall, house and hiphop that emerged out of the South African townships after apartheid. It’s now the unofficial sound of South African urban youth, and one of the truly original new musical sounds coming out of the continent.

The track I’m posting is a touch old – late 2000 – but still sounds good and is representative of a lot of what you’ll hear. If you’re interested in a more modern sound I’d recommend checking out Zola. I’ll see if I can dig some of his music up for a post this week, or just go buy it.

You can find today’s track on the 2001 EMI South Africa compilation Ezimtoti Kwaito Hits.

Tokollo – Indlovu Iyangena

As promised, I’ll post a track today from the Club Africa 2 compilation. Quickly, because it’s Friday and beautiful outside – I want to get the hell out of the office.

Today we’ll hear some music by Afro-funk pioneer, Senegal’s Wasis Diop. In the early 70s Diop moved to France where he formed the group West African Cosmos with Guinea-Bissau musician/producer Umban Ukset. They released their one and only album in 1976 on CBS. The recording brought them instant fame.

West African Cosmos – Wuyé Wuyé

Before listening to this track, please get in your car and start driving. Put on some large sunglasses. Drive slowly.

In 1999 a new label called Strut released a great afro-funk compilation called Club Africa. It was assembled by British DJ and promoter, Russ Drewbury. The album sold pretty well, so Strut they released a second (even better) volume which we’ll sample tomorrow.

The track we’ll hear is by a Ghanaian funk-soul-highlife group from the 70s called The Ashantis. I read a review in the All Music Guide which likened this song to an afro-ized Allman Brothers.. in a negative way. Why would that be a bad thing? I say, bring it on.

Unfortunately Strut went under a little while ago, as you can see by their now non-existent web site, so we won’t getting a Club Africa 3.

The Ashantis – Everybody’s Groove

I wrote a post a while back about Mar Seck, un des rois de la musique salsa au Sénégal. The song I posted was called “Diongoma”, which I explained means something like “large, dominating Senegalese mother type” in Wolof. The classic image of the diongoma is of a rather chubby woman with one baby strapped to her back, draped in brightly coloured wax print cloth, bargaining and/or yelling at someone while chewing feverishly on a tooth cleaning stick. Read more about “la beauté XL” here.

Anyway, today I was listening to a great 2002 compilation by Stern’s Africa called The Music In My Head 2: Guitars Are From Mars Balafons Are From Venus when an old Thione Seck song came on, also called Diongoma. For some reason I hadn’t ever stopped to listen to this song, or notice it on the compilation. I love old Thione Seck, and this is a classic example.

Thioine Seck is still going strong in Dakar, hosting great live mbalax nights at his club, Kilimanjaro, beside Soumbédioune fish market. The bar beside Seck’s club, Le Soumbé, is also a good spot, except when there’s a downwind from the nearby canal. Seck’s old stuff is best, however, as is true for most of the older generation of Senegalese mbalax musicians. How I wish I could’ve been there during Senegal’s musical golden age during the 1970s.

Thione Seck – Diongoma

I’m in London today. No time at all for a long post, but I’ll put up a good track from everyone’s favourite ex-British colony, Nigeria.

Here’s a little afrobeat from the popular 2004 Soundway compilation, Afro Baby: The Evolution Of The Afro-Sound in Nigeria 1970-79. Soundway are the UK label also responsible for the great Ghana Soundz compilations that I wrote about here and here.

Tunji Oyelana & The Benders – Ipasan