We’ve been hearing a lot of classic Congolese music lately. Time to move to other countries and other decades for a few posts.

We’ll head back to contemporary Senegal today. Benn loxo du taccu is a Wolof proverb, afterall…

The other night my friend Laurent, who lived in Senegal for about a decade, gave me a couple mbalax compilations. Most feature songs that were popular while I was living in Dakar and hitting up a lot of mbalax clubs- that’d be around 2002-2004.

Mbalax is always a little shocking for first-time listeners. Laurent and I only brought it out the other night after numerous bottles of wine had been consumed. We’ve discussed many times before on this site how it sounds cheesy at first. Heavy on the synth, frenetic rhythms.. yet strangely addictive and impossible not to dance to once you’ve learned to love the Dakar nightclub scene.

So three tracks today: first a mega-hit by Fatou Laobe that I’m sure you’ll know if you visited Senegal anytime during 2003-2004. The second is a nice one by Sidy Samb, just to show you another style of mbalax (video here). The third is a live recording of Mbaye Dieye Faye with a guest appearance by Youssou Ndour. The crowd really loses their shit over this one.. I love it.

All three come from Mbalax Tarkhiss compilations. They’re some of the better collections of popular music in Senegal. If you hear it at the club, in the taxi or on the radio you’ll soon find it on one of the frequent releases.

ps- check-out the great mbalax dancing in this Fatou Laobe video.

Fatou Laobe - Labat
Sidy Samb - Askan wi
Mbaye Dieye Faye - Deugeula

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

I think the last time time I was in Louga was when a sept-place (think Peugeot station wagon that somehow fits seven passengers) broke-down on the way back from Saint-Louis. It was late at night so I decided to stay a while rather than sit by the car, waiting for the small, motor oil covered kids to finish fixing the engine. I wandered into some downtown bar with a take-away chawarma and ordered a Flag. They were playing warped casettes full of old music just like this.

I’m not sure why I haven’t stumbled upon the Sénégal Flash compilations before, but they’re amazing. They’re great collections of older, sometimes hard to find music usually only available on bad quality casettes. Each is named after a different city in Senegal or The Gambia, though I’m not entirely sure why since the music on each disc is mostly by groups from Dakar.

Either way, I love it. More Sénégal Flash cities to come…

ps- the title is an obvious shout-out to the good people over at Awesome Tapes From Africa.

Star Number One - Faran Tamba
Guelewar - Wartef Jiggen
Baobab Gouye Gui - Yen Saay

I’m finally done a week of work so I have some time to hit the markets, wander Dakar by day and pick-up lots of music. Today alone I bought 23 albums, all of which I’ll share with you over the next few weeks.

The other night I was having drinks at Just4You and saw a great group of young guys comprised of a percussionist, a couple kora players and a singer/rapper. The tempered Wolof rapping mixed with more traditional, mandigue-style singing sounded amazing overtop of the talented kora play. Unfortunately they didn’t have any music to sell.

That’s ok, though, since today at one of my favourite music shops up near Cité Claudel I discovered a new, young Senegalese musician named Alune. He’s a Dakarois bass player whose father was a symphonic orchestra conductor. By the age of 13 he’d picked the bass and five years he was selected to play in Ismael Lo’s band.

Alune’s first solo release, Mbolo, is a well-produced mix of many musical styles. I just noticed that he played at the Sattelit Café in Paris a couple days ago and was featured on RFI. This guy looks set to get big if he keeps it up.

Alune - Mame
Alune - Sokhna ci

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

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 promised the other day that I’d post some more Senegalese mbalax music.

Mbalax star, Ndongo Lô, has a hard, classic mbalax sound filled with swift and complex percussion and enough synth to make any Casio hater cringe. His music is currently really popular at Dakar nightclubs and on the local radio.

Lô grew up in one of Senegal’s most dynamic - and poorest - neighbourhoods, Pikine. In 2000, when he was 25 years old, he released his first album, Ndoortel. It became an instant hit and Lô went on to release three full-length albums during the next four years. Lô appeals to the Senegalese masses because of his strong Mouride beliefs and his humble background. He sings only in Wolof about things your average guy from Pikine can relate to.

Unfortunately, Lô died this past January at the young age of 30 of some unspecified illness. Apparently after getting word of his death, thousands of his fans from Pikine and elsewhere tried to storm the hospital where he was being kept. The police had to dispatch a large group of armed gendarmes to protect the hospital from Lô’s grieving fans.

Lô was buried in Touba following a big ceremony attended by many prominent Senegalese, including lutteur exceptionel, “Tyson”, and big marabout, Serigne Mbacké.

Ndongo Lô & Papa Ndiaye Guewel - Deg Deg

I’ll soon be leaving Senegal and I’m starting to get pretty reminiscent. Dakar is a great city, one that you should try to visit at least once in your life. Horrible for tourists, known for its filth and street hasslers, it’s also home to some of the nicest people, best nightlife and cosmo meets traditional in all of West Africa. From the dive bars of plateau to the nightclubs of Pikine, it’s a wonderful place that, after nearly two and half years, I’m only beginning to understand and appreciate.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised when a Benn loxo reader, Dominique, wrote me a nice e-mail asking me to post some mbalax music. I have so many great memories of sweating my ass off at 4am in Dakar nightclubs, shaking it as best a white boy can in an impossible attempt at sabar to the mbalax rhythms.

For those not in the Senegalese know, mbalax is the music in Senegal. Popularized by the likes of Youssou Ndour, Thione Seck, Omar Pene and more, it has become the unofficial national sound. I’ve written before about how it never ceases to amaze me how local mbalax sounds dominate all aspects all aspects of nightlife - and taxi radio listening - when in other West African countries I’ve visited European and American influences run wild.

Last year Abdou Guité Seck’s album, Coono Evolution, was one of the big hits. Seck’s most successful single, Modou Modou, was repeated almost as much as Youssou Ndour’s 2003 single, Sa Ma Yaye.

Abdou Guité Seck hails from St-Louis, Senegal, a city on the Mauritanian border in northern Senegal. It’s one of my favourite spots in the country aside from the Casamance. You can get a good feel for the city in a great book I bought recently, Albin Michel’s Saint Louis du Sénégal. The picture on today’s post is also one I took in St-Louis a couple years ago.

Now, please, when you listen to this song there is a serious chance that your first reaction is going to be “what is this cheesy crap?” That’s the classic Western first-time reaction to mbalax music. But give it a few tries, and while you’re listening close your eyes and picture a beautiful Senegalese woman dancing the ventilateur. This was the big dance last year where Senegalese women present their jolies marmites to the men and shake them at about 200 rpms. Then, and only then, will you understand what the sabar is all about (and why it was banned at one time in some countries).

Abdou Guité Seck - Modou Modou

Cheikh Lô (pronounced “Shekh Low” with a throwty finish on the “kh”) may look like a Jamaican Rastafarian, but he’s actually a Baye Fall. Dressed in colourful cloaks and sporting mad dreads, Baye Falls are religious disciples of this guy named Cheikh Amadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride sect of Islam. (Depending on who you ask, Bamba got his followers to make him a fortune digging peanuts in return for the promise of eternal salvation.)

Now, those of us who live in Dakar really know that 95% of Baye Falls use the cult (oops, did I say that?) as an excuse to shake-down tourists for change, smoke lots of weed and drink alcohol with the supposed continued blessings of the Prophet. But though shunned by conservative muslims and reviled/loved by your average French tourist sporting “Africa pants”, Baye Falls are usually pretty nice guys. And generally they tend to be good musicians, too.

Enter Cheikh Lô. Ok, ok, he’s Burkinabé by birth and not Senegalese. But he’s lived in Dakar since the 70s, plays a latin-infused, mellow mbalax and is synonymous with the music scene here. You can catch him every Friday at Just4You in Dakar, or you can sample him here today. I’ve selected my favourite tracks from his two full-length LPs, Né La Thiass and Bambay Gueej .

ps- Rumour has it that the reason Cheikh Lô’s first full-length LP, Né La Thiass, made it to the US so late is because of a falling out between Lô and the album’s producer, Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour. Personally I like Lô’s music better that N’Dour’s so maybe Youssou had a jealous reason to hold back the sales? Ooh - Sahel gossip!

Cheikh Lô - Boul Di Tagale
Cheikh Lô - Mbeddemi

You see that girl? The one shaking her ass for the tamar player beside the logo up top? She’s dancing a mad sabar. If there was a soundtrack for that cartoon it would be mbalax. If mbalax has a king, it’s Youssou N’Dour.

Yeah, yeah. I know - 7 seconds with Neneh Cherry is a very annoying song. Worse still are Youssou’s forays into incomprehensibly cheesy Casio-based music over the last few years. But I promise that he really rocked in the early 80s.

I like mbalax music in small doses or when I’m wasted on a Dakar Friday night at 4am. But Senegalese popular music was best in my opinion around 1983 when Cuban rhythm roots were still present and the synthesizer hadn’t yet arrived in the port containers. Listen below and tell me that Youssou wasn’t better in the old days.

If you can find this song on CD I’ll be damned. But straight from Touba K7 in Dakar, here’s a hard to find Youssou 80s hit that’ll get those asses a shakin.

Youssou N’Dour - Massamba Thioul Anta