Love Songs Vol. 2
Teranga Beat (46 mins)
In 1986, Yishak Banjaw sat down at home to record an album of traditional Ethiopian music, using a borrowed Casio PT keyboard, live and direct into a single tape player. What he created was a wonderful style that resembles what we’d now call chillwave or minimal wave.
The overall sound of this album is magnificent: the timbres of the melody take on different personalities, from dreamy and Hammond-like to swirling and raspy; layers of repeating patterns add a psychedelic flavour as they float above tinny electric drum beats. Combined with the slightly stretchy and sibilant tone lent by the transfer from cassette, the whole album is given that warm, washed-out vibe so strived for by today’s -wave producers.
And under all of these aesthetics lies a solid base of Ethiopian identity. The tracks are all strongly linked to the culture’s traditional soundworld, and the distinctive pentatonic scales and the melodic rhythms make it difficult to mistake this music’s origin.
With this re-release on the Greek/Senegalese label Teranga Beat, Love Songs Vol. 2 becomes Banjaw’s very first album outside of East Africa. It’s a real treat. Hopefully we will be able to hear Vol. 1 sometime soon!