I’m back in France after a month in Germany at the world cup. Worked/saw ten great matches and generally enjoyed Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich. Special praise goes out to that mighty Kenyan I worked with, Aki, for his flawless right-side driving, many Marias and courteous cigarette pimping. Cheers.

So I’m back in the office, working a bit late, and I need something simple and uplifting to get me through the last few sheets of paper on my to-do pile. I say back to my southern African island fetish for one more post.

Senge means “pride” in the Antandroy dialect, the language of most people in one of Madagascar’s poorest regions, Androy. Senge have managed to overcome the arid climate and general lack of chances in their homeland to achieve some international success on the world music scene, notably with their 1999 release on Cobalt/Melodie, Arembelo.

They have that distinctive southern African harmonic sound, combined with the wavering vocal styles of their native Madagascar. I love the way Malagasy voices combine and sway their way through the music. It strikes you as immediately “African” and, for me anyway, conjures up visions of vast Malagasy plains and Antandroy dance parties in remote villages.

ps- check Hugo’s ET Mensah post in honour of the departing Black Stars over at Monkey Funk.

Senge – Befere
Senge – Roapanolo

Today we have a guest post by Benn loxo listener and good friend, Caroline, in Amsterdam:

“And the Oscar goes to…..” This year the South African director Gavin Hood climbed up the stage and held the golden statue proudly above his head. The Academy judged his film Tsotsi the best foreign picture. In Amsterdam the film was shown during the Amnesty Film Festival so even more reason for me to go see it. The story is about Tsotsi, a ruthless young gang leader in Soweto. He is immersed in a world of violence which seems to leave him unaffected. He has no hope for a change or redemption until he discovers a baby in the back seat of a car he has stolen.

I was touched by the movie – it was beautifully shot and the casting was excellent. The soundtrack was wonderful too and fit perfectly with the rest of the production. Most of the songs were by Zola. Zola, né Bonginkosi Dlamini, grew up in Zola, one of the slums of the South Western Townships (Soweto) where the film was shot. It was in these backstreets where he emerged as South Africa’s Kwaito superstar.

When I listen to this music I find myself in the middle of Soweto again. I am dancing, this time not to the sounds of The Soul Brothers but to the loving lawlessness of a lost generation of hopefuls who survive on pure emotional resonance and heat.

Thanks, Caroline. Amazing post. -Matt

Zola – Mdlwembe

My friend Ben likes to tell the story of when he was in Zanzibar, relaxing in a hammock by the ocean. He had been staring at this palm tree for ages, watching it wave in the wind, when all of a sudden he saw one of its coconuts fall. A man appeared, picked-up the cocunut, chopped it open and put in a straw, and handed it to Ben to drink. The idea of watching that tree until the coconut dropped and then getting to drink the results, all without moving more than 30cm, is amazing.

Since last post we hit-up some Eurovision’esque Tunisian pop, I thought today we’d stay with the Arabic music-tinged theme and hear to some East Coast African “Zanzibara” tunes.

Mombasa taarab, a popular form of Swahili pop music, has been played for 100 years up and down the coast of East Africa, from the Comoros to Mombassa.. where I soon hope to visit thanks to my new friend here, Akmal. Like much East African pop out of Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, Taarab hit its golden age in the 1960s and 1970s. Clubs were popping up all over the place, including the venerable Ikhwani Safaa in Zanzibar, and many groups were formed.

The always creative label, Buda musique, put together two Zanzibara collections celebrating the taarab sound. Today’s selection comes off the second volume, The Golden Years of Mombassa Taarab.

Yasseen Mohamed – Ndege Kaa Ufikiri (my bird)

Benn loxo listener, David, exposed my North African musical ignorance by pointing out that I had forgotten all about Tunisian singer and actress, Amina. I think this will probably be the first (and last?) time I feature a Eurovision contestant on Benn loxo, but for the sake of not leaving Tunisia out of the African World Cup round-up let’s go for it.

Amina’s song, Ya Baba, reminds me of dancing very late at night at the Koul Graoul parties in Dakar, Senegal. From 2am until dawn we’d be blessed and cursed with a mix of Lebanese pop, Senegalese mbalax break-downs, coupé-décalé, old school hiphop, top 50 American rnb hits and North African party songs. Koul Graoul was and maybe still is always a hilarious mix of people from various parts of urban Dakar society. If I met any of you there 2003-2005 I apologize in advance for my dancing.

A Google search of Amina Annabi brings up a remarkable amount of references to nude stills from her films. However, there’s more to her than her… beautiful face. She’s recorded many albums over the years and has acted in many films. She’s also the quintessential example of a 1980s world music success story. Sometime around the mid-80s the European market started really getting into the sounds of the Middle East and Africa and Amina was the focus of much attention.

I grabbed both of today’s tracks off her best of, Nomad.

ps- Allez les Elephants! I just watched them down Serbia-Montenegro in Munich. I’m soaking wet from the rain but had fun watching all those goals. Too bad they’re out, but let’s all get behind Ghana and hope for the best.

Amina – Ya Baba
Amina – Ederlezi

I would like to post some Tunisian music today to round-off the African World Cup theme, but admittedly I don’t own much. There are only a couple Tunisian albums in my collection, both of which I’m not too into. We’ll have to wait for a Benn loxo listener to step forward with a Tunisian guest post or trade. Anyone?

I saw both Côte D’Ivoire and Tunisia play these past few days. Unfortunately both teams failed to advance. The Ivoirians played well but couldn’t seem to make the goals happen. As a colleague of mine said, it’s tough for a group of individual goal scorers to play a cohesive team game. But that said, Brazil seems to be doing fine. Tunisia blew several goal chances in the first half against Spain last night after taking an early 1-0 lead. Spain was clearly the better team, especially during the second half, so it came as no surprise when they eventually came back to win. All we can do now is rally behind the Black Stars. Go Ghana!

In the meantime let’s take a side-trip from our world cup African countries and listen to Mamar Kassey, a great Afropop group from Niger led by singer and flautist, Yacouba Moumouni.

Mamar Kassey have that cool Wassoulou sound that we’ve heard here before mixed with some modern instrumentation and a pinch of Arabic influence. Popular both at home and abroad, Mamar Kassey’s 9-piece band delivers quick rhythms and an original sound. They might just might be the perfect soundtrack to my humid, Baden-Wurttenberg day.

Both of these tracks are off Mamar Kassey’s 1998 release, Denké Denké.

Mamar Kassey – Compoulé
Mamar Kassey – Yacouba