Been busy with the French elections and enjoying the out of control amazing French weather of late. I’m back, though, with about 600 new tracks to dig through, select and post for the Benn loxo crowd.

In 2003, Ben Herson and Daniel Cantor of Nomadic Wax headed to Dakar with a mobile studio. They spread the word that anyone who wanted to lay down a rap track could come record with them.

Three years of post-production later we finally have the second African Underground release from Nomadic Wax, Depths of Dakar.

You might have heard the first African Underground volume on Benn loxo back in May, 2005. This first release was the product of Ben’s 2000 thesis on the influence of hiphop on Senegalese culture. Until recently, it was the easily one the best produced compilations of Senegalese hiphop available.

Since then the production quality of West African hiphop has stepped-up a notch, particularly in places like Senegal and Nigeria. That said, Depths of Dakar continues Nomadic Wax’s tradition of showing us how amazing West African hiphop can sound with the right attention. Many of the rappers featuring on both volumes are previously unknown, young talents on the Dakar scene who shine when mixed with Ben and Daniel’s beats and productions.

Check-out africanunderground.com for more information.

Sen Kumpa - Niawal

Ben Herson, aka Benny Beats, founder of Nomadic Wax, took his mobile studio down to Dakar a few years ago in search of unknown Senegalese MCs.

His African Underground and Mapito recordings are fantastic collections of Senegalese and Tanzanian hiphop. I’ve already featured some on Benn loxo, and I’m sure many of you had a listen. Nomadic Wax’s Democracy in Dakar project about hiphop’s role in the Senegalese elections was also really well put together.

Turns out Ben is a friend of a friend. Hopefully we’ll be linking up this week as he’s coming through Paris to explore the immigration issues surrounding next week’s French elections.. particularly amongst the Senegalese community here.

You can find today’s track, Ben’s mix of a previously unknown Senegalese rapper, Pato, on WorldMusic.NationalGeographic.com’s release, GeoRemixed: Big Beats for a Small Planet.

Pato - Keep It Real (Benny Beats remix)

During all the Kuduro hype started up by Benn loxo contributor, Boima, several people noted that French electro musician and producer Frédéric Galliano has been really active on the Kuduro scene lately. His MySpace page is full of music from his latest project, Kuduro Sound System. (Love that picture of him arm wrestling Dog Murras.)

Galliano’s interest in African music is wide-ranging, and definitely not limited to Kuduro nor Angolan music. He’s traveled and recorded all over the continent and other parts of the globe, including several solid projects with his own label, Frikyiwa, and its mobile studio in Senegal, Guinea and Mali.

This morning I dug-out one of Galliano’s Frikyiwa projects from Senegal, Ali Boulo Santo. This Dakarois musician, son of respected kora player, Soundioulou Cissoko, is part of that new generation of Senegalese musicians sticking to their acoustic, native instruments and then remixing the results.

Ali Boulo Santo - Dame Fall

Quick post today from the golden age of West African salsa. Guinean salsero, Amara Touré, was part of a group of pre-independence salsa pioneers in Guinea and Senegal. Touré along with others like Laba Sosseh and the Star Band de Dakar kickstarted a West African salsa musical movement that enjoyed widespread success until the 1980s.

There are still a few good salsa bars in Dakar and elsewhere around West Africa. I squeezed in a dirty whisky salsa night in Dakar a few weeks back, though there wasn’t as much dancing as times past. Regardless, that particular house band has improved a lot since I last saw them. In other words, they weren’t just performing Guantanamera on repeat all night.

I wonder what would happen in Paris if, after a particularly good saxophone solo, I went up to the musician and shoved a 5000 CFA note in his suit?

Amara Touré - Cuando Llegare
Star Band de Dakar - Caramelo

Positive Black Soul was one of the first Dakar hip-hop groups to break onto the international scene. They’re universally respected by hip-hop kids in Senegal, and helped inspire a whole generation of new rap groups. Thanks to PBS and those early years of Dakar hip-hop’s rise there was suddenly underground rap fans in places like NYC and Paris whocould rhyme-off a half-dozen Senegalese rap groups, from Pee Froiss to Pacotille to BMG44.

Since PBS’ heyday Daara J has emerged as the new popular Senegalese rap group. However, PBS’ members are still recording and releasing successful albums.

One of the PBS stars, Awadi, recently came out with a new album, Sunugaal, that was all the buzz in Dakar while I was there. After giving it a few listens I was a bit let down. His first record was pretty solid, and while it didn’t quite have the freshness of PBS’ earlier stuff, it was still well worth a listen. The new one is too.. I don’t know.. unoriginal?

I look to East Africa now for new rap releases. In my opinion the Dakar hip-hop scene is trying way to hard to sound like 50 Cent instead of focusing on their biggest musical advantage: a rich local musical heritage that they could draw-on to create their own brand of creative, Senegalese hip-hop.

That said, I’ve never posted Awadi on this site from either his new or old album so we’ll hear some today. Both tracks are off his first album since in general I think it’s a better release. The first track reminds me a lot of Reflection Eternal so I’ll also post their track, African Dream.

Awadi - Le cri ou peuple
Awadi - Neye Leer
Reflection Eternal - Africa Dream

Many of my friends here have had a relatively rough rainy season. Despite the sun, surf and mean brochettes there are occasional downsides to living in Dakar. One friend has typhoid, another has malaria, a few are stressed for reasons best described by financial stamps and rubber cachets, and others are contemplating leaving and how to make that happen. For these reasons and more I picked a mean mbalax tune entitled Solidarité for today’s post.

Not to start-off on a downer or anything… for me at least things are going great here. Freshly-squeezed orange juice and a Walf Fadrji newspaper in the morning, a spicy ceebu jën at lunch, work all day and then sweaty bars with JB and Gazelles at night. The nightlife is near dead because of Ramadan, but it creates a kind of eerie-but-pleasant ambiance in the fluorescent-lit restaurants, bars and clubs.

The sun is hiding behind a thick veil of hivernage clouds but I think it’ll clear up by the weekend. Then there’s the beach, maybe some diving and maybe even a trip down south to enjoy. In the meantime I’ll try to hit the markets tomorrow and Friday and pick-up some more music.

This song is really popular in Dakar at the moment. You’ll hear it in taxis, bars, nightclubs and hissing out of tiny radios held closely to the ear by the thousands of property guards scattered around downtown.

ps- my brother is getting married! Ben, I’ve been raising Flags and Gazelles to you all week. Congratulations.

Nder - Solidarité

I’m finally back in Dakar for a week after nearly a year and a half away.

I got home at 6:30am this morning after a fantastic Paris Nuit Blanche. There was just enough time for about an hour of sleep before I had to leave for the airport.

During the flight the skies were clear so I got a beautiful view of the Saharan dunes 12000m below as we flew over Morocco and Mauritania. Feeling very tired and with a mean hangover, I can’t tell you how good the humid, hot Dakar air felt when it hit my face as I stepped off the plane.

The city hasn’t changed too much since I left. There are more generators humming outside of hotels and market stands (a sad testament to Dakar’s dying electrical infrastructure), the Cathedral and Corniche mosque got makeovers, the roads are a mess from major construction projects, but Dakar is still Dakar.

There are dudes lying out on mats in the street, exhausted from the heat and Ramadan fasting, that smell of diesel, sweat, smoke, Maggi and okra hanging in the air, Lebanese dishing out tasty midday burgers stuffed with fries, onions, meat, eggs and who knows what else, rabatteurs trying to follow me around as I shop for records, street kids playing football in front of fast-moving, rusty and beautifully painted public buses… I could go on and on. I missed this place.

I’m about to meet an old friend for Gazelles and dibi at a great maki up in Castor but I wanted to get a quick post in as a way of welcoming me and, by extension, the Benn loxo community, back to Dakar.

Two tracks today. One live Youssou N’Dour track that really shows the incredible energy that he has on stage, and another mbalax tune that most likely not at your local record store. Mbalax is, after all, the unofficial national music.

Youssou N’Dour - Ndakaru
Assane Ndaye - Baye laye

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 find traces and hard evidence of West African muscial influence pretty much everywhere I travel. Tiken Jah cocktail bars in Palestine, Serere taxi drivers in Argentina, Wolof hiphop fans and Burundian dance parties in Canada, not to forget the frequent concerts, cultural events and random encounters in my current home, France.

I mentioned in my last post that there are a lot of similarities between Paranda, an African-Carib-Spanish fusion music played by the Garifuna-speaking people in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the music of many contemporary West African musicians, notably those in the acoustic mbalax scene in Senegal.

When I first listened to Aurelio Martinez I immediately thought, “Pape & Cheikh”. Acoustic mbalax musicians such as these guys, Cheikh Lô and others from Senegal and nearby West African countries, use “latin” guitar techniques fused with local rhytms played on West African traditional drums such as djembe and tama. Their singing style is similar to Paranda, too. Something about Garifuna - most likely its West African language roots - gives it a rough-edged quality similar to Wolof that makes it sound great to my ear when sung.

Anyway, I’m not going to dive into a big study of musical and linguistical crossovers, mostly because I know little about them. What I do know is that Aurelio Martinez’s 2004 album, Garifuna Soul, is a must-have if you’re into this sound, whether you’re hearing it in Dakar or Punta Rosa. His album and many other great Belize releases can be found over at Stonetree records. You can also buy it and much of the other music you hear at this site over at Calabash.

Aurelio Martinez appears on that Paranda album I posted last time. He represents the younger generation of Parandero musicians. He still lives and records in his native Honduras where a good-sized community of Garifuna continue to live, speak their language and play their cool music.

I’ve posted a couple contemporary Senegalese acoustic mbalax tunes from Cheikh Lô and Pape et Cheikh to give you an idea of why Paranda strikes me as “so Dakar”.

Aurelio Martinez - Nuwerun
Pape & Cheikh - Kamalemba
Aurelio Martinez - Nirau Hagabu
Cheikh Lô - Dokandeme

Following aduna’s comment I went out at lunch at picked-up Cheikh Lô’s latest. I have to say that at first listen I wasn’t really impressed. Much of it sounded over-produced and featured some rather cliché ‘world music new millennium!’ chord progressions and instruments. I swear, whoever brought the Casio keyboard and wind chimes to Africa should be tried and jailed. I’m also a firm believer that you can’t just tack a little talking drum onto an otherwise unimpressive tune and make it great.

That said, I got home and gave the disc another couple listens because I really like Cheikh Lô, with a particular respect for the way he performs live. Also, while his last album, Bambay Gueej, wasn’t a masterwork, his first album, Né La Thiass, is a true classic and one of my favourite contemporary West African recordings.

With some good headphones on the production is often worth it and after a few listens I caught lots more of the background rhythms and other sounds going on in the music. I can now honestly say that there about four or five tracks I get a good kick out of, and this number certainly depasses what I need to like an album. So yeah, final verdict: give it a few listens before you decide, but definitely worth a buy especially if you’re into the acoustic mbalax scene out of Senegal.

The in-thing to do these days for West African musicians is to combine Senegalese music with sounds and instruments from the Middle East, South America and Asia. Cheikh Lô’s sitting on that bandwagon with Youssou, Thione Seck and the others, and came up with a couple interesting results. As I’ve been on a bit of a Brazilian binge lately (during my African music off-time) I thought I’d feature Lô’s track, Senegal-Brésil alongside my favourite tune to come out of Brazil by the great Jorge Ben.

ps- at the end of Lô’s track you’ll hear them chanting, “Sénégal, jamm rekk.” Jamm rekk translates literally into “peace, only” and is one of my favourite expressions in the Wolof language. Try it yourself: next time someone says to you, “hey man, how’s it going?” look them in the eye all serious-like and reply, “peace, only.”

Chiekh Lô - Sénégal-Brésil
Jorge Ben - Ponta de Lança Africano

After a rather riotous weekend it’s definitely time to take it down a notch. As many of you already know, some of my favourite music coming out of West Africa at the moment is acoustic guitar folk blended with local rhythms, languages and musical styles. Omar Pene’s Myamba, Cheikh Lô and Pape et Cheikh come to mind. Today’s track is right up that alley, and appropriately soothing given my heavy head tonight.

Les Frères Guissé are Haalpular folk musicians originally from the Fouta in north-eastern Senegal. They now live in Dakar and have recently toured in Europe and the States. Today’s track comes from the Acoustik M’balax compilation now available at your local Sandaga market CD stand.

Thanks and a shout-out to Astrid for the fresh, nice-sounding import.

Frères Guissé - Démocracie

A lot of people have been sending me some great, harder to find stuff lately. Benn loxo fan and nice guy, Dominique, ripped a copy of his Super Jamono de Dakar Geedy Dayaan LP the other day and sent it my way. I spliced the album up into tracks and picked my favourite to post for you today.

Super Jamono is another Dakar-based mbalax band from the 1970s and 80s. I’m 90% sure that’s Omar Pene on vocals, and most of the other band members also played in Super Diamono at the time. You might have been able to guess that if you can pronounce a French-spelled Wolof dia-. The sound is classic early mbalax, though this album has a hint of psychedelia tossed in on a few tracks.

One of these days I’ll make it out to one of the Parisian Sunday mbalax parties, but up until now I’ve at least danced a couple sabars at the Jokko and others, Flag in hand.

ps- my Wolof is a bit rusty now. What does muugn mean?

Super Jamono - Muugn

I wrote a post a while back about Mar Seck, un des rois de la musique salsa au Sénégal. The song I posted was called “Diongoma”, which I explained means something like “large, dominating Senegalese mother type” in Wolof. The classic image of the diongoma is of a rather chubby woman with one baby strapped to her back, draped in brightly coloured wax print cloth, bargaining and/or yelling at someone while chewing feverishly on a tooth cleaning stick. Read more about “la beauté XL” here.

Anyway, today I was listening to a great 2002 compilation by Stern’s Africa called The Music In My Head 2: Guitars Are From Mars Balafons Are From Venus when an old Thione Seck song came on, also called Diongoma. For some reason I hadn’t ever stopped to listen to this song, or notice it on the compilation. I love old Thione Seck, and this is a classic example.

Thioine Seck is still going strong in Dakar, hosting great live mbalax nights at his club, Kilimanjaro, beside Soumbédioune fish market. The bar beside Seck’s club, Le Soumbé, is also a good spot, except when there’s a downwind from the nearby canal. Seck’s old stuff is best, however, as is true for most of the older generation of Senegalese mbalax musicians. How I wish I could’ve been there during Senegal’s musical golden age during the 1970s.

Thione Seck - Diongoma

After yesterday’s smooth mbalax from Omar Pene, I thought I’d post one of his more typical mbalax tunes. Sa Jikko Ji was one of Pene’s big hits and it appears on Myamba as well, but as a slower acoustic song. The version I’ll post today is the original, featuring mbalax chanteuse extraordinaire Coumba Gawlo on backup.

I love Gawlo, so maybe I’ll post some of her music tomorrow. For me, her stage presence and singing style captures the in-yo-face-don-fuck-with-me attitude of the impossibly beautiful and impossible to get Dakaroise girls.

On this track you’ll hear Pene’s backup band, Super Diamono. They’re a mainstay on the Dakar scene, both with and without Pene. Their recently-released best-of,
Tey 30 Ans Déjà, is a great buy if you’re into that synth-rhythm-dance mbalax sound from the 80s and 90s.

Omar Pene & Super Diamono - Sa Jikko Ji

I’m back to daily postings now that I’m settled in Paris. Sorry for the blackout.

Omar Pene’s new album, Myamba, has been getting heavy rotation at my new apartment. On this album Pene takes his mbalax style, slows it down and then applies it to an acoustic base. The result is beautiful.

I’d normally associate mbalax with Dakar clubs filled with young, hot and sweaty 6ft-tall women, all shakin’ ass at an incredible speed. Pene, however, offers up a whole different take on the genre: almost latin, very chill and yet definitely West African.

Pene and his band, the Super Diamono, have dominated the Senegalese scene for decades. Only Youssou N’Dour surpasses this guy in energy and local reputation. I had the chance to see Pene a couple times while in Dakar - his shows are consistently great, filled with classic and enthusiastic posturing, dancing and drumming.

ps- in case your Wolof is a little rusty, saï saï translates roughly into “lady’s man” or “playa”.

Omar Pene - Saï Saï

I’ve mentioned many times how Senegalese salsa music used to be the big thing in Dakar in the 60s and 70s. Aside from Youssou N’Dour, the Orchestre Baobab is probably the most well known Senegalese group. The other day I posted some Mar Seck, a big name among the older musical generation here.

Laba Sosseh is another great salsa musician. Born in The Gambia, Sosseh moved to Dakar in the early 60s where he started to play with the Etoile de Dakar, Youssou N’Dour’s first band that Mar Seck also sung with. In the 70s Sosseh worked in NY and Cuba with groups like Orquestra Aragón and Aboudou Lassissi.

Today’s track is off the album, El Maestro: 40 ans de salsa. If you’re using this site to learn a little Wolof, the title means “Give me your hand.” If you understand this much you’ll get most of the lyrics, with the exception of “xale bi.” In Wolof this literally means “a child” but is more commonly used to refer to a young woman or your girlfriend. One of my favourite expressions in Wolof is, “xale yi dangay waaru,”which roughly means, “The ladies, they’re nuts.”

Laba Sosseh - Diokma Sa Loxo

On this busy Tuesday morning I’m happy to say that I stumbled upon a random musical find: Dakar’s Moussa Sissoko playing with jazz pianist Joachim Kühn.

Ala Tamala, the track I’m going to post today from the 1999 album of the same name, is an amazingly energetic fusion track for the workday. Djembe, conga and piano on fire.

You can learn more about the album and order it at the label’s site (if you speak German), blueflame records. If you prefer to shop for downloads you can grab a copy on emusic.

Moussa Sissoko - Ala Tamala

Damn, what the hell happened? I used to have all the time in the world. Now I’m at work and it’s 5:40pm and all I can say is this:

If you couldn’t look to Benn loxo du taccu for your Senegalese hip-hop needs, what then? Here’s some Dakar-area old school hip-hop. Well, old school in Dakar hip hop terms: a couple tracks off Jololi’s year 2000 compilation, Da Hop.

ps- Sorry about the skip or two. Scratched CDs are tough to rip.

Posse & Doudou - Africa Lakalé
Boul N’Baï - SIDA

After the last post’s sounds it’s high time for a kora remix.

Today’s first track comes off Hadja Kouyate and Ali Boulo Santo’s 2003 album, Manding-Ko, recorded at Dakar’s Studio 2000. Hadja Kouyate is the daughter of Guinean griots who, as far as I can tell, most people believe is Malian. Ali Boulo Santo isn’t Malian either - he’s Senegalese, a Dakarois even. Regardless, the album is a collection of nice Mandingo kora music accompanying Kouyate’s beautiful singing. Pan-West African, Malian sounding at times and generally good all ’round.

The remix bit comes off an album on the same label, Frédéric Galliano’s Frikyiwa, called FKW 016: Electronic Experience in African Music. The title sort of describes what the album is all about - definitely worth a listen.

My copies of both albums are courtesy my good friend, Alex. Happy birthday, Alex, and cheers for some great new additions to the collection.

Hadja Kouyate & Ali Boulo Santo - Agne Tolona
Hadja Kouyate & Ali Boulo Santo - Agne Tolona recontructed

I’m finally heading back to Dakar today after over six weeks of work and vacation in Canada, the US and France. In honour of this I’m going to answer my most frequent request at Benn loxo: Senegalese rap.

Here’s a relatively recent (mid-2004) release from a group of several Senegalese up and comers (”nouveau talent”) in the Dakar rap scene, Le Collectif. I can’t tell you who they all are, but the second-half of the first rap verse is definitely Fou Malade. He has one of the most distinctive sounds on the scene, as you may have heard on his great track Taxi Man with Vivianne N’Dour that I featured here a while back.

Anyway. I’ve said a lot about Senegalese rap already on this site so I’m going to cut it short today. But enjoy. I like this track, and it’s a great example of well-produced Dakarois-Wolof rap.

ps- if you haven’t already, check out the great Ayub Ogada track over at Akwaaba Sound System.

Le Collectif - SIDA