Wow, now that’s an amazing photo. Serge is definitely in margaritaville.

I’m going to devote the last post in this Mauritius series to Serge Lebrasse. Once again this music comes from the collection of Benn loxo listener, DR. Thanks again, DR, for all the music.

Serge Lebrasse brings us, in DR’s words, “standard hotel entertainment sega, made charming by the passage of the years and an extremely competent band.” He also has an amazing collection of colourful shirts.. just Google Images the guy if you don’t believe me.

I positively love the first track you’ll hear today, Maurice Mo Pays. The second is more of that “standard sega” sound, albeit in an old school way that gives it a nice feel. Makes me want to blend-up a daiquiri. Maybe I will…

The last track, Cyclone Carol, is based on real events – Carol was the worst weather ever to hit the island.

ps- Before we sign-off Mauritius Week #2 I’d like to give a shout-out to Caroline, without whom DR never would have traveled to Mauritius. We can thank her by extension for much of the great music we’ve heard this week!

Serge Lebrasse – Maurice Mo Pays
Serge Lebrasse – Madame Euzene
Serge Lebrasse – Cyclone Carol

How would you characterize this music? Rootsy sega? “Traditional Mauritian”? Who knows.. but whatever, I like the rhythm.

Two tracks today with a similar beat. We’ll call it roots sega until someone educates me.

The title of the first by Ras Mayul, Ras Carosin and Zotsa translates into “the heritage of our ancestors”. Say no more.

The second by Cassombo. This is one of these tracks that I could see easily folded into a hiphop track by Madlib, or maybe a wide-angle opening shot in a movie set in a stereotypical tropical African locale…

I have to admit that I’m only half into Mauritius tonight because I just received a copy of Analog Africa’s African Scream Contest in the mail. I can’t wait to give it a listen. All Benn loxo fans with even the faintest interest in African popular music should get over to Analog Africa and buy a copy when it’s released in March.

Ras Mayul, Ras Carosin ek Zotsa – Leritaz nu Ancet
Cassambo – Mo zeneration dan sega

Today we’ll hear some more reggae-ragga urban island music from Mauritius, courtesy of DR.

Jean Clario Cateaux, a.k.a. Blakkayo, is now a member of the Otentikk Street Brothers who I featured a couple posts ago.

Today’s tracks come from another cassette submitted by Benn loxo reader, DR: Blakkayo’s 2000 release, Tcheck To Life.

I love the description of Blakkayo given on OSB’s MySpace page: “In everyday life a rather calm appearance, with the first notes of the first riddim on stage Blakkayo transforms into a beast.”

As for the music, well, I wouldn’t characterize it as “beastly”, but I have to say that I find it pretty catchy. Seriously, next time you’re making breakfast on a Sunday morning, play today’s two tracks. They’ll make your girlfriend dance – I promise.

You can see Blakkayo live with Monaster over at YouTube.

Blakkayo – Man dir mwa
Blakkayo – To Bam Bam

Benn loxo reader, DR, came through huge with a collection of cassettes that he picked up in Mauritius a few years ago.

The first music we’ll hear from his collection is by another leading Mauritian rap group, MonAster.

Today’s second track, Bikini, is more your standard tropical hiphop outing, while the first, Pour Toi, has them rapping over a sega-esque beat. Nice stuff.

Also, in DR’s own words,

“here’s a slightly surreal YouTube video of them rapping about telecommunications over a ‘zoukous’ soundtrack, with footage of some ladies in very short skirts…”

Amazing. But personally I prefer their Japanese samarai work. Plenty more vidoes over here, too.

DR warned me that some of the tracks are a little heavy on tape hiss since they were dubbed without “Dolby”. Man, if there’s one reason to keep collecting African music it’s gotta be that I get to keep using terms like Dolby A, B and C. Ah, the mixtape memories…

MonAster – Pour Toi
MonAster – Bikini

You see that picture to the left? All Mauritian. Aside from the dozen albums I’ve received digitally, those are the tapes and CDs that people have lent me or that I’ve picked-up over the last couple weeks. Obviously I can’t afford to buy 30 albums for every X country week, so these kinds of contributions are invaluable for Benn loxo. Thank you!

On that note we’ll start Benn loxo’s second Mauritius Week with an album I got in a little Amazon envelope yesterday: Otentikk Street Brothers‘ 2007 release, Revey Twa.

OSB Crew, as they’re known, are easily the most popular group amongst Mauritius’ younger generation. Their reggae-hiphop-ragga-sega fusion is wildly popular on the island.

Unfortunately I missed their live show in Paris a few months ago but I’ll try to catch them next time they’re in town. Were any of you at that show?

You can grab the album at emusic or over at Amazon.

The title of the first track, Ki Si Sa Sa, reminds me of a bit of African popular music history: did you know that the name of the dance, “kwassa kwassa”, came from the French, “c’est quoi ça ?” In English that means “what’s that?”, as in, “what are you doing with your feet?” So obvious, but I wonder if Vampire Weekend, who are directing tons of traffic to this site lately, knew that..

Otentikk Street Brothers – Ki Si Sa Sa
Otentikk Street Brothers – Kreolite (Dub version)