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

Today we have a guest post by Benn loxo listener, Wen, on Ghanaian “Hip Life” music:

Ghanaian Hip Life is a hybrid of Afro-American hip-hop and West African highlife. It is characterised by rapping over a 4/4 beat, however it differs from most traditional hip-hop with its melodic lead vocals. The rap is mostly in the local languages Twi, Fanti, Ga and Ewe, but also in the lingua franca of the Muslim minority, Hausa. The official language in Ghana is English, though due to migrant relations with the neighbouring countries French is also used. In these songs we hear a more pidginised form of English which contains old expressions from colonial times that are still used today.

The music is mostly made-up of samples of old Highlife tunes. Hiplife is created with computers and synthesizers in the studios. Live performances are accompanied by playback and are performed as lip-synchs. Live performance plays an important role and most of the hiplife performers are very good dancers.

Hip Life is a medium for the youth to express their issues, but themes affecting general society such as HIV/AIDS and malaria are also discussed.

The four members of the group V.I.P. (Vision in Progess) come from Nima, a primarily Muslim migrant community in Accra. In their songs they criticise issues within their native community, such as in “Ni Ne Naki”, the strict marriage form of auren daure, where the Muslim wife must stay within the household. This is usually not common practice in Ghana where Islam is not as as strict as in, for example, northern Nigeria.

V.I.P. rap in Hausa but also in Twi, the Akan-dialect of southern Ghana, Ewe, English and French. The press regards them as Ghana’s own Wu-Tang Clan.

Their most popular track, “Rana Sallah” (day of prayer), off their first album, “Biibiiba O” (Something will come), describes the Id el-Fitr, the festival after the Ramadan. The beat was sampled of Busta Rhymes’ “Dangerous”. Their second album “Ye de Aba” contains samples of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”. On their third album, “Ahomka Wom”, V.I.P. collaborates with other Hip Life artists such as Frank Mensah Pozo, Tic Tac, 2-Tee and Lil’ Kryz.

Wen

Thanks, Wen, for the music and background. -Matt

VIP - Ahomka Wo Mu
VIP - Ni Ne Naki
VIP - Adoley

I finally decided to put Benn loxo du taccu on its own domain, bennloxo.com

Everything should work as it did before, but if you find any bugs with the site and its new domain please send me an e-mail or leave a comment.

The old site will remain online for a month or two but all new posts will happen at bennloxo.com, not on mattgy.net. Please update your bookmarks and links to point to this new address.

Cheers,
Matt

New domain

While German and Polish fans run around throwing bottles at the police in Dortmund, the Ghanaians are dancing around fountains in Stuttgart. The Black Star fans that I’ve seen here and in Munich have great spirit.

So why not give them something to dance to? Some highbeat from one of Ghana’s great musicians, CK Mann, and some highlife from TO Jazz.

We heard CK Mann before singing one of my favourite tunes to come out of 1970s Africa, Funky Hi-Life, and TO Jazz you might have heard on this post featuring that solid compilation, Vintage Palm Wine.

Go Ghana!

CK Mann - Nyimpa Rebre
TO Jazz - Agyeman Baidoo

Les Elephants de Ivory Coast surprised me by making it to the World Cup. Senegal has traditionally been strong and having lived there for a while they’ll always have a place in my heart. (Remind me to tell you about the time my friend rejected El Hadji Diouf’s advances at a bar.) The lions of Cameroon and Nigeria are also good teams.. but Ivory Coast? Maybe my African football knowledge is just out of date.

Anyway, Ivory Coast’s WC2006 appearance is a great excuse for some Ivoirian Coupé Décalé on Benn loxo.

I admit to not being the biggest fan of contemporary Ivoirian pop music. Generally speaking the songs are repetitive and all sound the same. Ivoirian pop in particular also tends to be quite heavy on the Casio. That said, put enough lager in me and I love to dance to the stuff. Or rather I love being amidst the beautiful West African coupé décalé dancefloor ladies..

You can get today’s track and more Ivoirian dancefloor madness on the fun Ivoir Compil compilations.

Question: do players from both the north and south of the Ivory Coast play on the team? Do they ever play friendlies in Bouaké or is Team Ivory Coast really just Team Abidjan?

Côte D’Ivoire en force!

ps- yes, that’s a picture of Canada versus Côte D’Ivoire

Alexandre - Faroter gourou

LINK FIXED

As promised, today I’ll continue with my World Cup Africa series by featuring music from Angola. Nobody really expects the Angolan team to win, but it’s great that they’ve made it this far.. and as far as I’m concerned, Angola is already winning.

This country, long ravaged by 27 years of ultra-violent civil war, is finally recovering. Luanda is on the up, landmines are on the down, and inflation has dropped from highs in the mid-300s to around 10-20%. Let’s hope that Angola continues its recovery and becomes the stable, oil-rich and democratic country that it could be.

José and Moises Kafala are two brothers from Angola who sing in two-part harmony over smooth, well-played acoustic guitar. They’re one of the few contemporary Angolan groups to be heard outside of the country. They’ve released two albums since forming in Luanda in 1987, Ngola and Salipo. Both of today’s tracks are off Salipo.

Allez Angola!

Kafala Brothers - NGuxi
Kafala Brothers - Crucifiuxo

I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Stuttgart, taking a break from the football fever that’s been building here, in Berliln and in Munich. As promised, I’ve lined-up a few posts by artists from African countries that are competing in the World Cup. A friend here picked the Ivory Coast as the tournament’s sleeper hit. No way, I say. Today I feature my underdog pick, Togo.

Bella Bellow had a great name. She’s also one of Togo’s most famous musical exports. The young Togolese vocalist got her break when, at 23, she travelled to Dakar in ‘66 for a music festival. She got noticed and went on to record a bunch of successful albums. Her beautiful ballad-style brought her success both in Africa and in Europe, including performances at the Olympia in Paris and recordings with Manu Dibango.

Unfortunately Bella Bellow’s career was cut short when she died in a car crash in 1973 at the age of 27. Her music is still popular today and she remains for many the queen of the “chanson togolaise”.

Today’s track features Bellow in collaboration with Manu Dibango. I love the way the wah-wah and typical Dibango rhythmic style blends with her beautiful voice. I can picture this song accompanying the slow motion, flashback portion of a good soul-era gangster movie…

ps- Heidi in Dakar wants to know: “Someone told me there’s a Vivian N’Dour song about Senegalese men leaving for Europe and the women left behind. I’ve tried some Internet research, but haven’t come up with anything. Does it ring a bell for you?” If you know anything about this song please leave a comment.

Manu Dibango feat. Bella Bellow - Dasiko

I’m going to be driving for seven hours today. I need some good sounds for the road.

Guitar.
From the 60s.
African, of course.
Something to keep me awake.

“Eh bien, mon ami!” sings Dr. Nico. There we go… let’s hit the autobahn.

African Fiesta rocked the soukous airwaves from 1963 until they split in 1965. It was originally a collaboration between the great Tabu Ley Rochereau and the “Dieu de la guitare”, Dr. Nico Kasanda. Tabu Ley then went off to form African Fiesta National. Dr. Nico responded with his own originally-named venture, African Fiesta Sukisa.

With a name like “the God of the guitar”, however, you’re bound to get a little cocky; by 1968 this band had disbanded since the other members didn’t feel like they were getting their due.

“Eh bien, mon ami” showed-up on Sonodisc’s 1968 release, African Party. I love the way Dr. Nico sounds like he’s weeping at the mic. Lots more on Dr. Nico’s assorted recordings and checkered past over at musikfan.

African Fiesta - Eh Bien Mon Ami

Live and direct from the media center at the World Cup in Berlin, I’m back with a quick post. In a couple weeks I’ll try to do some posts from the pitch during matches involving African teams.

I remember when War Child’s first Help compilation came-out 10 years ago. I had bought it shortly before a family camping trip in eastern Canada. Amidst the beautiful mountains of Gros Morne national park in Newfoundland, I first fell for the original version of Radiohead’s Lucky, chilled-out to Portishead’s Mourning Air, and fueled my love for The Boo Radleys. What a great album.

10 years later the Help compilations are still great and still raising money for a good cause. Originally Help was brought-out by War Child to raise money for war-town Bosnia-Herzegovina. It’s amazing that the Bosnia conflict was only 10 years ago, especially when you consider that some of the countries involved are now vying for EU membership.

To quote Wikipedia, “The concept of the album was inspired by John Lennon’s comments about Instant Karma, that he wanted records to be like newspapers and be released as soon as they are recorded. Help was recorded on the Monday (4th September), mixed on the Tuesday and in the shops on the Saturday.” 2005’s Help release was recorded, produced and released in 30 hours!

Tinariwen, the Tuareg band I’ve featured at least once on this site, appears on this release. The track is typical of their style with smooth Sahel guitars, Tuareg/Western fused rhythms and laid-back singing. More on Tinariwen here and here.

ps- if any of you live in Stuttgart or Munich get in touch and we’ll meet for a weissbier.

Tinariwen - Cler Achel