Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa
Ostinato Records (80 mins)
Sweet as Broken Dates is a collection of Somali-language pop recorded in Somalia, Somaliland and Djibouti from the 1960s right up to the 2000s. Somali music has a very distinctive personality. Many of the tracks on the album are based around an interplay of synthesiser and voice, a tradimodern take on the traditional kaban (oud-like lute) music. But as with any pop music, it has absorbed what is popular at the time – it’s dripping with soul and funk, as well as influences from Ethiopia, the Arabic peninsula and even Bollywood.
The most fascinating selections here come courtesy of Radio Hargeisa, which in 1988 managed to protect thousands of tapes during the civil war by sending them into neighbouring countries or burying them in the ground. They were eventually retrieved and now many of those tapes are kept as part of the 10,000-strong archive, the Red Sea Foundation in Hargeisa. Archaeological musicology, indeed.
The CD comes with a 32-page booklet featuring several essays and interviews with the artists. It’s very detailed and informative, and a great addition to the music. This is a wonderful album for both listening and learning, serving as a jumping-off point for people wanting to start their own journeys into Somali groove. It will be interesting to see if any other compilations – or perhaps full albums – come from the Red Sea Foundation’s amazing haul in the coming years.