Lately I’ve been in a bit of a Benn loxo lull. I haven’t heard much new music from Africa that’s inspired me to write. Could be I’ve reached a temporary saturation point.

Or maybe it’s the incredible 26-degree Paris spring, busy schedule at work with elections and imminent French sporting events and plain laziness on my part. Who knows. For a moment there I even considered the idea of throwing in the towel and starting a new project. Obscure and deliciously wonderful French pop from the 50-70s comes to mind.

But, as always, I woke up the other day, pounded through a playlist of several dozen unlistened albums by African artists and suddenly found myself with another 20-odd reasons to post. That and this site continues to bring me loads of new music and, more importantly, contact with a whole load of interesting people I’d never have met. So hey. I’m back.

A certain Marie Louise Congo suggested I try some new angles. Western and African musical pairings have also got lots of attention on this site, so why not go with that for a bit:

The Malagasy have always known how to rock, and D’Gary is no exception. As one of his producers it, “D’Gary is a monster guitarist.”

That riff at the beginning of one of the track’s I’ll post today, Politikinao Nahoda, is awesome.

D’Gary sounds distinctly Malagasy. I don’t know what it is most contemporary Malagasy groups share in terms of a common sound, but it’s always easy to pick one out. The scales, the rhythms and, when they sing, that amazing singing style. You might have heard what I mean here before: Tao Ravao, Senge, Rajery, Tarika and more. (I’m a self-confessed fan of music from this part of the world.)

Today’s pick comes from D’Gary’s 2001 release, Akata Meso.

Pairing this tune with a Western guitar rock song was easy. No question: Jealous Again off The Black Crowes’ classic 1990 release, Shake Your Money Maker.

ps- respect to Hatim if you’re reading this down in Madagascar. Hope all is well.

D’Gary - Politikinao Nahoda
The Black Crowes - Jealous Again

I’m finally back in Paris for a good few weeks without travel or too much going on. A little tired from a flight day and with a belly full of sushi, nothing could be better right now than some instrumental acoustic guitar music by Tao Ravao. His music makes me forget for just a moment that I have to go to work tomorrow.

Tao Ravao plays both regular acoustic guitar and a square-shaped, stringed instrument called the kabosy, or mandoliny, that originates from Madagascar. You might remember hearing the kabosy on some of the Tarika / Tarika Sammy tracks I posted way back.

Ravao was born in Madagascar but moved to France when he was 12. His music has stayed close to his roots. Those of you in France or with an interest in Malagasy fusion may know his work with harmonica player Vincent Bucher.. kabosy and harmonica make a great pair if you ask me.

Ravao’s 2005 release, Kabosy, features solo acoustic guitar performances using both. The bare-bones instrumentation, talented plucking and nice production make this album a great listen for sunny long, summer walks or laid-back mid-week evenings.

Tao Ravao - Neny be
Tao Ravao - Bazar be

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

Tell a French person that a country is bigger than France and zee eyes will open wide with astonishment as they mutter, “putain! c’est grand!” Being Canadian I always find this hilarious. Imagine if I was to do the same thing: “Senegal, it’s like, bigger than Nova Scotia!”

Well, the island of Madagascar is bigger than France. It’s also a fascinating African country that boasts some of the most interesting music of the southern half of the continent.

We’ve listened to a bit of Tarika Sammy (and just Tarika) on Benn loxo before, and of course yesterday there was champagne and fireworks for our Malagasy 200th post celebration. With that in mind I stopped by the Médiathèque musicale de Paris last week and picked-up a Magasy album that I hadn’t heard of before. I got lucky with Rajery. Great find.

Rajery plays an instrument called a valiha that’s essentially a harp made from a large, hollowed piece of bamboo. It’s not a native Malagasy instrument - it originated in Indonesia - but it’s often used by the country’s musicians. Rajery plays his valiha over drums playing Antadroy and Western rhythms to produce a really cool sound. His singing is great too, and anyone with the slightest knowledge of contempoary Malagasy music will know that the vocal harmonies are rich, too.

Today’s tracks are off the Label Bleu / Indigo 2001 release, Fanaby.

Rajery - Hanatra
Rajery - Mainte

Benn loxo du taccu turns 200 today! This is officially the 200th post since I started this site in September, 2004. I’d like to thank all of you for listening, reading and contributing. I’ve met some wonderful people along the way and discovered lots of amazing music. I look forward to the next 200.

I’m happy to say that my good friend Rob is going to step-in for a guest post on this special day. Rob just got back from a trip to Madagascar with a boatload of great music, photos and stories:

“In 1963 when my mother was 19, she taught English for a year in a Malagasy town called Soavananadriana. Her name is Rosemary which was also the name of a hit song at the time, so her more unruly students would sing it under their breath during class. When I recently visited Madagascar on holiday I asked in a little record shop whether they knew of it and everybody in the shop burst into song. So here it is - Ramahafadrahona’s Raozy Maria from the album Faly Aho which means “I’m happy”. Apparently Alphonse Ramahafadrahona still occasionally makes appearances today - his group’s music is based on the theatre, dance and debate traditions of Hiragasy.

Next up we have an accordion-fuelled Salegy track from Lego’s 1999 album Dadilahy. Salegy is the most widely exported dance music of Madagascar and comes from the northern coastal areas like Nosy Be and Diego Suarez.

Finally a track from a Kilalaky band called Tsiliva. Kilalaky is a dance which originated in Belo Tsiribihina in the 19th century. Depending on the version of the story it was a dance either that gave courage to warriors prior to pillaging, or that prisoners were forced to perform under threat of execution. Charming either way.

The Lego album is available at FNAC. You can get the Tsiliva album (and Lego) here. Don’t forget to pick up some Good Look cigarettes from the same site.”

Thanks for the music and background, Rob. That Raozy Maria track in particular is amazing. Check back tomorrow for another Malagasy installment.

Ramahafadrahona - Raozy Maria
Lego - Dadilahy
Tsiliva - Be Zesta

A little while ago I posted some Tarika Sammy. I wasn’t sure if they had released anything since their ‘96 album, Beneath Southern Skies. As several readers pointed out, Tarika Sammy split after that album due to some infighting. Luckily the two sisters in the group, Hanitra and Noro Raharimal, re-emerged as Tarika shortly thereafter and started to release new material.

Last year’s album, Beasts, Ghosts & Dancing with History, was released to mark the group’s 10 year anniversary. It’s a good sampler of what they’re good at: complex Malagasy rhythms backing up layers of kora, guitar, harp and other instruments. They mix all this with some happy-sounding harmonies with great success.

Tarika - Ankoay

You can now subcribe to a Benn loxo du taccu “new post” e-mail list.

If you subscribe, everytime I put some new music up on the site you’ll get a simple text e-mail with a link to the new post. Just toss your e-mail address in the box to the right there and click “sign up” to get going. You won’t get anything but new post notifications and your address will be safe in my personal database for no one else to play with.

Starting from today, I’m also going to podcast the songs on my posts.

Today we’re going to listen to a track by a “Malagasy Traditional Music Ensemble”, Tarika Sammy. They sing and play southern-Madagascar sounding music, making use of traditional instruments and multi-part harmonies.

The group formed in 1982 in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital city, though they didn’t release their own LP until 1996. Unfortunately they haven’t released anything since - anyone know if they’re still together?

This post’s selection comes off their one and only full-length solo release, Beneath Southern Skies from Shanachie records.

Tarika Sammy - Tsarovy (Remember)