Aug 22/07
Benga in America
A while ago the people at ThrillJockey got in touch about the band Extra Golden, collaboration between the Nairobi-based benga band, Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and the a Washington D.C. rock group named Golden.
I was happy to find that I quite like their music, especially since there really aren’t that many American bands that work African music into their sound with any great success. It usually sounds forced and incongruent, with few exceptions. In contrast, Extra Golden’s sound works well to my ears.
Extra Golden got its start when Ian Eagleson was doing doctoral research in Kenya on the history of benga music between 2002-2004. Orchestra Extra Solar’s guitarist, Otieno Jagwasi, was helping Ian with his research.
Ian returned to Nairobi in 2004 and the two finally starting putting some music together. They recruited local drummer, Onyango Wuod Omari, and Ian brought along a Golden band member, Alex Minoff.
Most of the album was apparently recorded during a single whirlwind session in a Nairobi nightclub. The result is a spontaneous-sounding record with a fresh Western rock-Kenyan benga fusion that actually works.
Extra Golden’s second album, Hera Ma Nono, is coming out on October 9th. It’s as good as their first – check-out the track Obama posted below. My favourite off their first release is the title track, Ok-Oyot System. The song title comes from the Luo expression, ok-oyot, which means “it’s not easy”.
It certainly wasn’t easy for the members of Extra Golden. During the recording process Otieno Jagwasi fell sick and eventually died of complications related to HIV. At around the same time Ian Eagleson had a run-in with the cops in Nairobi and apparently had to pay large sums of cash to stay out of jail.
Despite all this the band persevered and continues to play and record. I’m hoping to catch them live at some stage following their upcoming release.. sounds like they’d be fun live.
Extra Golden – Ok-Oyot System
Extra Golden – Obama
Hi Matt,
Here’s a feature I did on Extra Golden:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/2006/artcov0519.html
And here’s some bonus material from the article:
http://www.christopherporter.com/2006/05/postrock-and-hard-place-you-think-its.html
Best,
CP
Thanks.
Yeah, it’s true: Suburbs are killing us often beats me to it! In my defense on Thrilljockey’s request I was waiting until closer to Hera Ma Nono’s release to do the post.
Cheers
Matt
Extra Golden’s Alex Minoff wrote an interesting and thought provoking article about authenticity in African music and African-”Western” collaborations.
http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_15.html?page=14#1207
Doug, thanks for the link to that article. Great stuff- I couldn’t agree more.. what he’s talking about has always been, in a way, the whole point of Benn loxo du taccu.
[...] Kutoka kwenye blogu mashuhuri ya Benn Loxo soma kuhusu kikundi kimoja kinachochanganya mitindo ya benga na rock kwa jina Extra Golden [...]
thx for the music and the article in the comments, which got me thinking
there are really some post-fela afrobeat/african music, bands from USA like Nomo, which are really good.
Thanks for the introduction to this group – these are some fantastic tracks. I will be on the lookout for new material from them.
- Steve
Enjoying the songs, thanks!