Buenos Aires is shrouded in smoke these days. It’s sort of appropriate for today’s post since we’re going to ROCK OUT.

Sorry, I just wanted to write that. But really, if we’re going to “hear” Buenos Aires it’s certainly not by chilling out to some Martha Argerich piano music. While stunningly beautiful, Argerich isn’t exactly playing what the Argentinian kids are into these days.

Argentina is, after all, a rock nacion. A rock nacional nation.

I’m not going to attempt anything comprehensive here. We’ll just listen to bits and pieces of Argentinian rock, or rather rock-ish music that I like from over the years.

Let’s start back in the 1980s. After his buddy Ian Curtis of Joy Division-fame died, this Italian guy named Luca Prodan decided to kick his heroin habit by moving to Argentina. After a while he got some musicians together and formed the group Sumo.

The 80s weren’t exactly a hot cultural time for Argentina thanks to its military dictatorship, but Sumo managed to gain a large fan base and release a bunch of albums. Their music is heavy on the reggae and ska.. no surprise since Prodan was coming from 1980s London and Manchester.

Next we’ll hear something from a band you probably already know: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. They rose to fame in Buenos Aires in the mid-80s and hit their peak around the mid-90s with the release of Matador, which you’ll hear today. You can see the video here.

Up next is music by Argentina’s hardest to pronounce rock band, Bersuit Vergarabat. These guys are big-time in the Spanish-speaking world, having cleaned-up numerous times at MTV América Latina Awards and VMAs. The album that today’s track is from, Hijos del Culo, went double-platinum. Great cover.

Now we go rocking into the now with some “garange punk” from Los Peyotes. These guys definitely have a great look, and I find myself charmed by their music. ..much in the same way I love The Monks. You can see some of their videos on YouTube.

I see that Los Peyotes are playing with the New York Dolls in Buenos Aires today, April 18th. That’d be fun.. bit of a long flight for me, though. If you go, tell us how it is!

Next you’ll hear something a little different: some country/folk rock by Los Alamos. I don’t know much about these guys except that I read about them on Argentinian “indie rock” web sites. I like their sound.

Same goes for Rosario Bléfari. She’s a Buenos Aires musician who appears to be really into jumping around in bathing suits.. I guess I like that in a woman. Her music is great, too. Today’s track comes off her 2004 release, Estaciones.

Before we leave Argentina it’s only fair that I slip in one, just one, contemporary tango track. I know, I know. Rock fans probably would hate the mix, but I’m over it, and La Chicana’s track is appropriately named Dolor Wolof.

Hasta la próxima.

Sumo - Kaya
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Matador
Bersuit Vergarabat - El gordo motoneta
Los Peyotes - Cry Baby
Los Alamos - Cola de cascabel
Rosario Bléfari - Cartas
La Chicana - Dolor wolof

Wait.. just.. one.. more.. or maybe two. These two covers are too funny to skip:

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Strawberry Fields Forever
Los Peyotes - Fuego

The Rail Band’s Belle Epoque Vol. 1 is another compilation that arrived in the Stern’s box last week.

Mali’s famous Rail Band is the name given to the many groups who worked at the Buffet Hotel in Bamako, Mali, situated in an old colonial building just off the railway. The band was initially made famous by the singing of Salif Keita, but over the years included other great Malian musicians like Mory Kanté, Tidiani Koné and Djelimady Tounkara.

The track you’ll hear today is from the Rail Band’s “second period” in the mid-70s. At this stage Salif Keita had left the band and one of my favourite Malian musicians, guitarist Djelimady Tounkara, had just joined. Magan Ganessy was the new singer. The track also features some great drumming by Pacheco.

The lyrics translate to, “Mali, our dear country, is now independent. We have to enforce democracy, power cannot rest in the hands of a single party.”

Rail Band - Fankanté Dankélé

I’m back, again. This time from a couple weeks in Canada for my brother’s wedding. Congrats, Ben.

And what better way to return than with some Nigerian 70s rock. That’s what this web site is all about, after all. Remember the beginning?

Today’s tracks come courtesy of the good people at Soundway Records. You should all know and love their Ghana Soundz releases, plus Afro-baby and that great TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo release put together by Miles Cleret.

Soundway have a new double-disc compilation coming out in a few days called Nigeria Special: Modern highlife, afro-sounds and Nigerian blues, 1970-6. Pre-order now - fantastic hard-to-find classics, nicely cleaned-up.

This quote from the liner notes sums up the sound: “The early to mid-70s was the last time you could step out in Lagos, Onitsha, Enugu, Kaduna, Jos or Port Harcourt and see both old-style highlife bands dessed in crisp, matching suits; and then leave and visit a club up the road with young bands in their early twenties, dressed in Cuban heels, T-shirts and flares, and playing psychedelic rock and pop songs.”

ps - check-out the fansite at http://nigeriaspecial.info.

The Hykkers - I Want A Break Thru
The Funkees - Akula Owu Onyeara
Semi Colon - Nekwaha Semi Colon

Guest post today by Benn loxo listener, Matt:

Vikings feat. Al Bentley - Kansas City
Recently I discovered that my second cousin was South Africa’s “king” of rock and roll. After some digging amongst family members and some web research and requests I managed to get a CD-R of his hits. The music is mostly derivative of the imported rock and roll songs and no original material appears to have been written until much later in the decade. This particular tune is taken from the first South African rock and roll LP Rock Party at the Club Pepsi with the Vikings, RCA Victor

Dark City Sisters - Shala Shala Twist
On the other side of the tracks, in musical hotspots such as Sophiatown and elsewhere, black musicians were also taking on the American sounds they were hearing. Only this time they seemed to take ownership of them. A good example is Shala Shala Twist by the Dark City Sisters. This is sung inthe urban lingua-franca of the day - tsotsitaal, an urban mix of Afrikaans, English and Zulu - where they ask “Sonny, come look, we play Shala Shala Twist. Mother, oh, please come judge us doing the Shala Shala Twist”.

The music on this home compiled CD-r was made possible by two other compilations long since deleted. These are “Flying Rock - South African Rock ‘n Roll 1950-1962 (Global Village)” and “Money No Be Sand -1960s Afro-Lypso, Pidgin Highlife, Afro-Soul and Afro-Rock from Nigeria and Ghana (Original Music)” (which was featured here a while back on Benn loxo)

Links:
South African rock and roll archives
South Africa - The Hidden Years
South Africa - Music Styles

The Vikings feat. Al Bentley - Kansas City
Dark City Sisters - Shala Shala Twist

The Manhattan Brothers dominated the black South African musical scene during much of the 1940s and 50s. They recorded, toured and performed under difficult circumstances given the political climate of early-apartheid South Africa. Despite occasional jailings, troubles getting visas and general discrimination they managed to attain great success.

They played with many greats over the years and inspired a whole generation of black South African musicians such as Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim. Among others, Miriam Makeba got her start singing with them.

Their style is simple, catchy and straight-up representative of the time. They borrow from American jazz and soul influences but still come off with a distinct sound.

Throw these tracks on this Valentine’s night after a few glasses of wine, and then twist real close to that lady…

You can get both of these songs on their greatest hits album that came out in 2000.

The Manhattan Brothers - Yaku Yaku
The Manhattan Brothers feat. Miriam Makeba - Ntyilo Ntyilo

I’m in the mood for some more old-school pop-Africa sounds on this (finally) quiet Friday evening. Nothing like a glass of wine after work and some Kenyan twist from the 1960s to ease you into the weekend, eh?

As far as I know John Amutabi Nzenze is still alive today, around 65 years old and living in Nairobi, Kenya. Until recently he was still touring the country with his group, Wazalendo Eagles Band, playing the good old stuff for his Kenyan fans. Nzenze’s real fame came during the 1960s when he released Angelica Twist, a jangly guitar pop song that made the kids dance a mean twist.

There’s not much to say about this kind of music except that it’s dead simple and fun, but still somehow cooler than your mom’s Dixie Cups albums. Nzenze sings in Kiswahili, which I’ve always thought is a great-sounding language when sung.

You can grab this track and more from The Orchard’s Kenyan music sampler.

John Amutabi Nzenze - Angelica Twist

Happy new year, Benn loxo listeners. I know it’s been a while (again), but I’m over it.. and so are you once you listen to today’s selections. In fact, why don’t I do a few posts to play catch-up. I’d rather do this than clean-up my apartment. You see, last night was games night and there are cards, whisky glasses and poker chips everywhere.

South African pop music started hitting Western ears when the marabi sound emerged in the early decades of the 20th century. Marabi mixed American-style blues and jazz with some of the traditional forms popular at the time with black youth in South African urban centers.

To keep the post somewhat seasonal: at some stage during my family’s Christmas party someone inevitably busts out some Elvis’ Blue Christmas, sung or recorded. It’s a personal favourite. So it’s with great pleasure that I bring you some Elvis imitation post-marabi South African 1950s pop music from Benoni Rocket. Not only does Rocket have a great name, but his voice is smooth and the guitar jangle jangles just the way I like it on a Thursday.

Zim, thanks as always. Ms. Irish and the TristeOne, this music may just motivé me up to Gambetta for that late night dance afterall…

ps- that’s not Rocket in the photo, but instead Kool Keith from his album, Black Elvis.

Benoni Rocket - I’m Gonna Rocket
Benoni Rocket - I’m Gonna Shake Rattle and Roll
Benoni Rocket - Last Night

Something about living in a sand-blasted region filled with ex-empires makes the various peoples of the Sahel want to rock-out. Musicians like Ali Farka Toure have popularized the Malian “desert blues” sound, while others like Amadou and Mariam are spreading the sub-Saharan rock love.

Tinariwen is another one of these groups who blend solid electric guitar with local rhythms and song in a successful mix. Their music falls somewhere between North African traditional music, Malian blues and contemporary sub-Saharan rock n roll.

The ten members of Tinariwen are Touareg, a stateless nomadic people from the southern Sahara who have historically been caught somewhere between the borders of the Sahel and North Africa. Many of them are based in present-day Mali where they’ve been oppressed and/or ignored by the Malian government for years.

When time came for the Touaregs to give the finger to Mali and fight for independence Algeria stepped in and promised weapons and support. Ghadaffi also promised them their own state, or at least some form of autonomy in the south of his country and the north of Mali, following a successful revolution. However, always one to make a hollow promise, Ghadaffi duped the Touaregs. They quickly realized that he was just using them as pawns in his own pursuits to gain more territory.

Tinariwen’s music has become the unofficial soundtrack for the Touareg revolution against both Algeria and Mali. Their music has been banned in both countries. They sing about resistance, exile and future independence, and also play a mean guitar.

Formed in 1982, Tinariwen have just recently started to record albums for wide-release. Their 2001 album The Radio Tisdas Sessions did very well, giving the group as well as the Touareg’s plight much media attention. This year they released a second album, even better than the first in my opinion, Amassakoul. You’ll find a track from each in today’s post.

Tinariwen - Chet Boghassa
Tinariwen - Afours Afours

We’re back! Thanks for your patience.

We managed to chew-up over 81GB of bandwidth last month. I’m both flattered and determined not to shut-down early again this month. I’m going to limit my posts to 1-2 songs per day from now on. Please try not to download songs more than once. This means that you shouldn’t stream songs nor add them to playlists as URLs - yeah, that means you, Windows Media Player people.

Basically, please save the files to disk only once and play them locally afterwards. If we all play nice it means more music per month for everyone.

I can’t believe it’s December. Don’t know about you but here in Dakar the sun is shining and the winds are rolling in at a pleasant 28 degrees celcius. Last year we threw some Chinese ornaments on a mini-baobab and called it a Christmas tree. I went surfing on Christmas day in a Santa beard and hat, no joke. I think I might get a Christmas palm up this year.

Anyway, a Benn loxo reader, Todd, put me in a great mood the other day when he sent me a copy of Money No Be Sand. Unfortunately Todd doesn’t have enough time at the moment for a guest post, but I send some respect his way for a great early Christmas (or late Ramadan) present to all Benn loxo listeners.

It’s another odd-ball collection of West African rock and funk put together by the same guy who came-up with the Africa Dances compilation I featured a few posts ago. I can’t tell you how much I love this album, and it’s appropriate that we re-launch the site with some Nigerian 60s rock since a) it’s my favourite, b) that’s how it all began.

I’ll do two days of posts from the album since it’s worth sharing. Today you get some music from The Junkers out of 1965 Nigeria. If you could surf in the murky waters off Lagos Island you might put this in your boombox at the beach party.

Incidentally, “The Junkers” are also a group of planes used by the Luftwaffe during WW2 to bomb the crap out of various allied targets. I wonder if that’s what those guitar-playing dudes in Nigeria were thinking when they named their band…

ps- check the first track to see why I chose the title to this post.

Clint Eph. Sebastian & The Junkers - Jane
Jimmy Solanke & The Junkers - Eje Ka Jo

I started this site out with some old-school West African pop rock. We’re way overdue for some more.

The Super Eagles from The Gambia (yes, the “The” is officially part of the country’s name) aren’t really a rock band. They’re more accurately a pop, soul, afrocuban, rumba, highlife and rock group from the jubilant West African 60s. The song I’ll feature today, however, could be summed up like this:

“There’s an oddity called Love’s a real thing that attempts to blend Beatles and Cream guitar riffs and reminds me of garage bands I was in as a teenager.” (ref)

Perfect.

The second song is an obscure 11-minute bit off a 1976 Malian 45. (Anyone have the B-Side, “Wanri”?) It’s by Moussa Dombia and his sister? wife? Mimi, and I promise that this isn’t the same Moussa Dombia aka Tiken Jah Fakoly. I love the soul grunts in this tune; they remind me of an Ethiopian funk tune that I might have to post tomorrow. And what’s with the freak-out at the 8th minute? Anyone understand Bambara? Classic.

You can thank one of our readers, sufi, for kindly passing these tracks my way. Both can be found on a compilation called “World Psychedelic Classics Volume 3: Psychedelic Sounds from West Africa”. Who knows where you can buy that one, but The Super Eagles track can also be found on a compilation of their music on Retroafric called Senegambian Sensation.

Super Eagles - Love’s a Real Thing
Moussa Dombia - Keleya (Keleya is a small region in Mali)

It’s the last day of Nigeria 60-80 week. Hope you had fun. Next week is Mali, alright?

Fela Kuti doesn’t need an introduction. If you don’t know who he is get your ass over here and find out.

Here’s part two of my favourite Fela track that he recorded after his 82-year-old mother died from being thrown out the window of his Kalakuta compound by police. Apparently that’s what you get for fucking with Nigerian president Obasanjo.

And since this is the end of Nigeria 60-80 week I’m upping the ante. I can’t resist putting up some more solid tracks by a bunch of Igbo boys on that Flashback 70-80 disc I featured in my first posting. There are just too many good songs that many of you might not otherwise hear.

Fela Kuti - Coffin For A Head Of State Pt. 2
The Funkees - Dancing Time (also available on Nigeria 70)
Founders 15 - Be My Own

One of my favourite compilations and the best starter I’ve found for Nigerian afrobeat and funk is a 3-disc set called Nigeria 70. The third disc is a good audio documentary and the first two are packed with Lagos classics. Fela Kuti, Bongos Ikwue, Tony Allen and much more. A must have, worth it even for the cover - respect the boots.

The Bongos Ikwue’s “Woman Made The Devil” is a classic on all fronts. I can’t describe its graceful Fela mysogeny in words so listen for yourself. Ofo & The Black Company’s “Allah Wakbarr” is what I’d like the guy at the mosque near my house to sound like on Friday afternoons.

Bongos Ikwue - Woman Made The Devil
Ofo & The Black Company - Allah Wakbarr

I love Nigerian music. I occasionally love Nigeria. Lagos may be one of the shittiest (read: interesting) places I’ve ever visited, but it must have been a great place to dance in 1970. In honour of my favourite/least favourite neighbour nation I’m devoting the inaugural week of my audioblog to Nigerian music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. By far the best sounds to come of West Africa since the studios started recording here.

In the few times I’ve been over there I grabbed a bunch of bootlegs out of the $1 bins at the markets in Lagos and Abuja. Everyone thinks of Fela Kuti and afrobeat when they think of Nigerian music from the 70s, but the stuff that really rocks me these days is the imitation pop. Seems there was a whole generation of Nigerian musicians dead-set on becoming Monkees sound-alikes.

I was looking for some albums by a personal favourite called the Bongos Ikwue when I came across a burned copy of “Flashback - A Decade of Hits 1970-80 Nigeria”. I have no idea if this is some Nigerian 419-er compilation or an album you could get elsewhere, but it’s fantastic - especially if you’re into that Nigerian imitation American pop sound.

Strangers - Nobody Called Me
Semi Colon - Slim Fit Maggie