Jan 16/08
Memories, not mystery
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

BBC Sound System are a Senegalese hiphop group based in Paris, France. Their 2003 release,
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.
Ben Herson, aka Benny Beats, founder of
During all the Kuduro hype started up by Benn loxo contributor, Boima, several people noted that French electro musician and producer 
It’s interesting to hear how West African musicians have changed their style over the years. The melodies remain the same, but gone are the synths of yesteryear. World music audiences these days are all about acoustic guitar, djembe and double-bass. They don’t dig the drum machine like they used to.
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.
I thought after all the buzz around the
The 2006
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. 
The last of my Dakar dispatches is yet another track from the Sénégal Flash series, this time off the Ndar edition.
When I first moved to Dakar a few years ago we would often go to this tiny bar up in Sacré Coeur III to see Soulaymane Faye play. He’d sit there in the corner in his leather pants, strumming his guitar as we sipped sweaty Gazelles at the bar, sometimes chewing on tasty grilled fish. Souleymane has since moved on to bigger and better things, but I’ll always think of sitting in this bar with my friends on Thursdays whenever I hear his music.
More music from the Sénégal Flash series today, this time off the Kaolack compilation.
I stumbled upon a nice compilation by the Parisian label and production house,
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 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.
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.
I’m finally back in Dakar for a week after nearly a year and a half away.