I was trying to think of something to post today when a search on Calabash brought me to Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy.

The track is appropriately titled, but beyond that it got me thinking about the “creepy” nature of instrumental Egyptian music, or rather how the melodies and scales often sound, well, scary to my Western ears.

For example, the tunes on Mahmoud Fadl’s album, Umm Kalthum, sound like they could accompany the scene where the blonde girl gets killed in any good horror movie. Listen to today’s track and tell me you don’t picture Dracula lurking in the shadows or murderers, clutching daggers, creeping up on their prey.

Trick-or-treating in Cairo would probably be a pretty wild experience if you worked the right angle. Ben, Murial, you got your pumpkins carved and faces painted? You know I do here in costume-unfriendly Paris.

Happy Hallowe’en!

Hossam Ramzy – Halloween
Mahmoud Fadl – Siret el Hobb

Guest post today by Benn loxo listener, Michael, in memory of the late Lebo Mathosa:

The second time I became aware of Lebo Mathosa was when I saw her picture in a New York Times article about the launch of MTV Africa. The picture showed the blond-maned Mathosa being carried on stage by a bunch of burly men in black suits. The image fascinated me and I Googled her name only to discover I had bought one of her records during a visit to South Africa in 1999.

Back then, she was part of the Kwaito group Boom Shaka where she shared the lead vocals with Thembi Seete. I’ll admit it was the cover with two cute blond-wigged singers that basically sold me on the CD, but when I got it home I was even more impressed with their sound – which to my ears sound like a more organic version of house music.

Mathosa went solo in 2000 and released a handful solo albums among the aptly-titled “Drama Queen.” In South Africa, Mathosa was widely regarded as the natural-heir to the late-Brenda Fassie, who died of an apparent overdose in 2004. So when I learned that Mathosa had died on Oct. 23 at age 29, I wondered what could have killed her. AIDS? Drugs? No, the car she was riding in overturned and hit a tree, the kind of stupid thing that could happen to anybody.

I’m including Gcwala from the Boom Shaka CD to honor her memory.

Boom Shaka – Gcwala (Halo remix)

Almost a year ago Benn loxo listener, Tim, sent me a guest post. It got buried in a heap of e-mail and only re-surfaced the other day:

“You may know Mbaraka Mwinshehe’s music already. A Tanzanian, he was one of East Africa’s most popular musicians of the 1970s, first with the Morogoro Jazz Band and then in his own group, Orchestra Super Volcano. His career came to a tragically premature end in 1979 when he was killed in a car crash in Kenya.

The Morogoro years were covered in the CD Masimango issued by the German Dizim label in 2000. Plans to issue a second volume covering Mwinshehe’s later work were announced in the sleevenotes of that release, but this has yet to happen. A shame this, because many of his songs with Super Volcano highlight Mwinshehe’s propulsive guitar style and impassioned vocal style. It’s the sound of somebody taking a Congolese model and making it his own.

The track I’m sending to you, Shida, was a huge hit. It has been rescued from a cassette I bought in Nairobi 25 years ago and, as you will hear, the sound quality is only so-so.

[...] The sound balance is just the way the tape sounds. In particular, the horns send the dials into the red every time. Maybe the the song would benefit from being cleaned up and remastered by somebody with the technical know-how to do it, but I’ve come to love its ragged edges.

East African music of this era was often recorded for radio and then pirated on cassette. Very little of it has made it onto CD – or at least ones available in Europe and America. Groups such as the Orchestras Super Volcano, Les Wanyika and Les Mangelepa are little known yet deserving of a wider recognition.”

Thanks, Tim. Great tune and an informed post. And yes, I know that’s not the right cover but I don’t exactly have a huge stock of Mbaraka Mwinshehe images at the ready.

Mbaraka Mwinshehe – Shida I & II

The 2006 Wagram compilation that reminded me to re-listen to Thione Seck yesterday, Radio Afrique, is a great compilation for anyone wanting a contemporary, mainly West African mix. I was going to post a track by Cherif Mbaw anyway today.. but instead I’ll focus a bit on this compilation. Definitely worth a buy.

Isn’t Majojo a cool song? I heard this at a couple friends’ houses while in Dakar. It’s the kind of tune that perks up some music-aware heads at dinner parties. Makes me want to lay into an organ.. there’s something so sexy about the wurlitzer-esque sound.

Cherif Mbaw’s 2005 release, Demain, is good all-round. That track Kollère is what first made me give it a listen last year. The Sally Nyolo track on Radio Afrique, Tilma, is also a great make-Monday-easier tune.

Nyolo is from Cameroon which is where my friend Marta is getting married at the end of the year. Congrats again, Marta.. I’ll try my best to make it down!

Cherif Mbaw – Majojo
Sally Nyolo – Tilma

I have a great in with the Xhosa – I can pronounce the name of their tribe. While in Namibia a few years ago I spent some hours trying to perfect the various clicks and pops of the Xhosa language and it’s paid off.

I was just at a great brunch in Paris and there was a guy there who was born in Lesotho. What a great conversation starter: “one of my favourite African authors is Zakes Mda, a X(-pop!-)hosa author from South Africa…” See? Languages get you places, even if you only know a few syllables.

Today’s track has nothing to do with the Xhosa people, brunches, Paris or Zakes Mda. It’s off an album that many of you may have, but that I’ve recently rediscovered. I’m still riding the Dakar nostalgia after my week there.. memories of dancing late at night at the Kili to Thione Seck. Unfortunately the construction along the Corniche has killed the Kili and Soumbé vibe a bit these days.

Seck’s 2005 release, Orientation, is the result of his travels to Egypt and India. On the album he unearths oriental influences in his local Senegalese mbalax style and adds new Egyptian and Indian sounds to the mix. The result is mixed but some of the tunes, such as the one I’ll post today, are amazing.

I’ve had a lot of champagne and orange juice so I’ll keep it short. Have good Sundays..

Thione Seck – Doom