I’m surprised that there haven’t been more people writing in to say, “hey Matt, what’s up with you? Haven’t you ever heard of North Africa??”

Truth is I’ve never been there. Yeah, I know. I swear I’ve tried to visit Morocco a hundred times and at various stages had elaborate trips planned to Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. My old Dakar roommate and good friend, Ben, is even based in Cairo. Pete is soon moving down to Casablanca, too, and the airfare from Paris can be very cheap. I’m running out of excuses. I’ll be there soon…

In the meantime let’s listen-up to some Amina Alaoui. Her music straddles Andalusia (yeah, that’s you) in southern Spain, down through Morocco. It’s a gentle way to ease our way into the northern reaches of the African continent. Interestingly, the Alaoui album I picked-up, Alcantara, is all about the “golden age” of Moorish Andalusia. Alaoui expresses her desire for a more open and tolerant contemporary society in terms of race and sexual equality through an exploration of 10th century Andalusia, where these values were celebrated.

She also has a great voice. Benn loxo listeners will know already that I’m a sucker for the beautiful tones of an African female vocalist. Rasha and Zainaba are two of my favourite finds since I started this site, for example.

Amina Alaoui’s Alcantara was released in 1998 on Auvidis.

Amina Alaoui - Ya racha fattan

I’ve written before about Abdel Gadir Salim, specifically about how he’s a Sudanesian who sings about the good thing in life, contradicting the generally sad stereotype of Sudan. His wonderful oud playing could make the meanest rebel smile. Indeed, he’s a political figure despite his apolitical lyrics who helps to bridge the Christian/Muslim divide in his country by promoting peace.

Abdel Gadir is the man in northern Sudanese music. (I’m smiling as I write this because that won’t mean too much to all but the most hard-core African music fans.) The album you’ll hear a sampling from today has been described to me by two regular Benn loxo readers as one of their all-time African musical favourites. While it’s not quite in my top 10, the 1999 release, Le blues de Khartoum, is certainly a classic and often pops-up on my playlists.

Which reminds me - I’ve been meaning for months to pick-up a copy of Emmanuel Jal & Abdel Gadir Salim’s 2005 release, Ceasefire…

Shout-out to that lady among the gorillas in the depths of Rwanda and also to several of you who have sent me some great music lately. Don’t worry - I’ll get to it soon! When special events season is done in Europe work will be a lot calmer and life will become once again be filled with long listening sessions and new disc dicoveries.

Hey, any of you live in Germany? I should be in Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich in the very near future. Culture and nightlife tips appreciated.

Abdel Gadir Salim - Qidrechinna

I installed amaroK the other day and it’s changed my home music listening life. I’d used previous versions before, but this one integrates a musical “mood” scanner, last.fm, lyrics from multiple sources, band information from Wikipedia and much more.

I know I sound like an ad here, but I really love that I can pick a genre, say West African funk music, sort the playlist by mood and then have it auto-populate the list with new tracks it’d think I’d like. And it usually gets it right. If you use Linux and have a large music collection then give amaroK a try.

…so I was listening to Nuru Kane this morning and an album was “suggested” to me from some forgotten corner of my collection.

Lobi Traore is a Malian who plays that style of Malian blues that I’ve always liked. There’s something about the Bambara language and rhythms that mixes so well with electric guitar and that driving blues sound. The repetitive nature of Bambara music with slight changes in melody over time, scattered snare/calabash hits and occasional talking sections mid-song are all musical elements familiar to the ears of the blues listener.

Both of today’s tracks come of Traoré’s 2004 release, Mali Blue, on World Village.

Lobi Traoré - Sadiourou
Lobi Traoré - Anun ka ben

Once and a while on Benn loxo I like to remind listeners that African music isn’t all about koras and djembes. There are lots of sounds coming out of the continent these days and not all of them are strictly related to “traditional” music, nor do they all sound like they should filed under “World” at your local Virgin megastore.

I’ve featured quite a bit of hip-hop from Senegal, South African and Nigeria over the past couple years. It’s been a while, so why not listen to some more. Today we’ll hear some contemporary hip-hop and drum’n'bass sounds from Tanzania.

I know that many of you already know the Xplastaz track, but I’ve never featured it on my site and it’s one of my favourite hip-hop tracks to come out of the continent. This song has particular resonance for me. When I first arrived in Paris a little over a year ago I went to this house party near Opera Garnier. A Benn loxo listener, Olivier, had invited me. I walked into what I thought would be a small gathering to find a multi-room dance party in a partially constructed building filled with a few hundred people all busting up the dancefloor to… Tanzanian hiphop? What a great way to start off a city.

The other two tracks are off Mapito, the Tanzanian Mix Tape Remix Project. This compilation really reflects for me how far East African hip-hop has come over the past few years. Both production and musical quality has really, really improved since the scene started opening up during the late 90s and early 2ks.

Both Xplastaz and Mapito are on the excellent African hip-hop label, Nomadic Wax. You’ve heard stuff here already off their release, African Underground Vol. 1: Hip-Hop Senegal. Much more info on African urban sounds at Africanhiphop.com.

X Plastaz - Msimu kwa msimu
Owen Saunders & Mike Freear feat LC, Bennamo, Yega & Mr. Soo - Self Destruct
Mr. Soap - Niwachache Tu (Timebomb Remix)

Lately I’ve really been into Nuru Kane’s latest album, Sigil. My father sent it to me a few weeks ago after reading a bunch of good reviews. As I’ve been really busy lately it’s great that others have picked-up the crate digging slack for me.

I absolutely love both of today’s tracks. The first one reminds me of whipping through Parisian streets late at night on my bike, on my way to some African music concert in a shady bar. The second has been stuck in my head for a while.. always puts me in a good mood when I blast it down my earphones on the walk from the metro to my desk. When that accordian kicks in.. shivers.

Nuru Kane grew-up in the Medina, the main “quartier populaire” in central Dakar. He mixes Moroccan Gnawa which he plays with the three-stringed, bass-lute hybrid instrument, the guimbri, with his native Senegalese styles, plus some splashes from the West. The band he plays with, Bayefall Gnawa, pretty much sums this all up in their name. The lyrics are in Wolof which means I get a kick out of partial comprehension.

Kane is playing in Paris on the 17th. Unfortunately I’m not in town but I heavily encourage any fellow Parisians to check it out.

Nuru Kane - Niane
Nuru Kane - Diarama

I have to be in the right kind of mood to listen to highlife. Drunk on palm wine? Yeah, bring it on. Earphones in, on a beach, sipping a coconut? Absolutely. Slightly hung-over late Sunday afternoon with a glass of Chablis after some modern ballet? Fuck yeah.

Old-time Benn loxo listeners know the deal about highlife, so I won’t bore you with too many details. The genre is still enormously popular both in and outside of Africa. It’s easy to see why; its laid-back rhythms, simple melodies and happy feel give it a universal good-vibe quality.

Highlife music makes me think about my friend Dulue in Lagos, Nigeria. When I was but an African music pup I would pepper him with questions about Nigerian music. He’d lean-back and his eyes would glaze-over as he remembered his highlife music past: Jim Lawson, Celestine Ukwu, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe… These are some of the older kings of the genre, while more contemporary highlife musicians usually just copy the music of the elders. That’s fine by me since the sound ages well. If I play some hard-core fuji to my kids in 10 years, however, they might look at me kinda funny.

Today’s track comes off one of the stronger highlife compilations out there, The Kings Of Highlife, put together by Wrasse Records. It’s a good survey of 1960s and 70s highlife music from Nigeria and Ghana. Paulson Kalu from today’s pick is an Igbo from Nigeria who played with the best of them during the golden age of West African highlife music. If you like what you hear you can get some of his albums at Stern’s.

Have a nice, lazy Sunday.

Paulson Kalu - Okwudili

Spring is here, the weather is good, I’ve been travelling to some great places lately, I’m enveloped in white ginger, work is fun, people are visiting, concert season is in full force, I just ate some mean French toast, this coffee is great…. May in Paris makes me want to dance around my living room to, among other things, Angolan samba. Windows open, I’m likely to be found bothering the neighbours with today’s track on full volume.

Belita Palma was a politically active musician in Angola during the turbulent 60s and 70s. At this time Portuguese colonial hold-outs and Angolan militias were still embroiled in a struggle for control of the country. When first written in 1973, today’s track, Manazinha, was not allowed to be sung in public.

Unlike many Angolan musicians who were murdered by the Portuguese and later by power-hungry local militias, Palma escaped the revolution(s) in her country unscathed and lived right-up until 1988. Even so, it’s a shame that she never saw her country emerge from the bad years. Angola is just now starting to shake-off its past and get on its feet. I’d love to visit some day soon.

Today’s track comes off the amazing Buda Musique compilation, Angola 70’s: 1974-1978.

ps- spent last weekend in Istanbul. Any Anatolian listeners out there? I love your city.

Belita Palma - Manazinha

Hey, sorry I haven’t been writing lately. May is busy with all the special events at work, visitors to Paris and terasse apéros. That plus a rather depressing computer crash. Didn’t lose any music but my photos took a slight beating. Oh well, I’m over it. And none of this means that I’ve been slacking on concerts or music. Lots of good stuff to share your way in the next few weeks.

I went to the Toumani Diabaté and The Symmetric Orchestra show at Cabaret Sauvage in Paris last night. While it was a touch heavy on the extended Mande shout-out ballads, the show was great overall. I like Cabaret Sauvage as a venue, even if the acoustics aren’t the best. Good crowd, easy access to the bar, enthusiastic performance. I’d never seen Toumani Diabaté live, too, so I was in a great mood.

Toumani Diabaté is the last artist to record with Ali Farka Touré before his death and was at his deathbed three hours before he passed away. He told us last night that the last album Touré ever listened to was the Symmetric Orchestra. That’s some pretty serious praise, West African musical master-wise. That and Diabaté and Touré’s last release, In The Heart of The Moon, was one of my favourite West African releases in the last couple years. Everything this guy touches is gold as far I’m concerned.

Before the release of Boulevard de l’Indépendence, The Symmetric Orchestra had never played outside of Africa as a group. It’s comprised of several well-known solo artists from across West Africa. If you’re ever in Bamako they play every Friday at the Hogon. Was anyone else there?

Two songs today picked by none other than my brother, Ben, who’s visiting Paris this week. Africa Challenge is a Senegalese-Salsa styled “fetish” piece, the second a slow-jam about “accepting death as we do birth.”

Both of today’s tracks are off the recent Symmetric Orchestra album available all over the place.

Toumani Diabaté & The Symmetric Orchestra - Africa Challenge
Toumani Diabaté & The Symmetric Orchestra - Tapha Niang