Various Artists - Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 131, October 2017.

Various Artists
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.

Oumar Konaté - Live in America

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 131, October 2017.

Oumar Konaté
Live in America
Clermont Music (48 mins)

Over the last few years, Oumar Konaté has been making his own place on the Mali guitar scene, his guitar-bass-drums trio mixing traditional Songhai grooves with raucous Jimi Hendrix-esque solos.

For this album, three performances were recorded from Konaté’s US tour back in 2014. Given the year, it is no surprise that there are no as-yet-unheard tracks; all the pieces included are from his first two albums, 2014’s Addoh and 2016’s Maya Maya. Normally for a live album, that would be no problem, except here, although everything was recorded in-concert, it’s difficult to tell that just by listening. The high-quality recordings and the barely-audible crowd noise remove that electric atmosphere of being at a great concert, and make the album feel more like a set of alternate takes from past work.

Musically, Konaté’s skills as a guitarist are not in doubt, and he pulls off the different styles with ease, but what is lacking is any great originality that would take these particular performances from proficient to exciting. Maybe you had to be there.

It’s probably a better move to check out Konaté’s earlier studio albums and wait for some new material instead.

Massa Dembele - Mezana Dounia

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 131, October 2017.

Massa Dembele
Mezana Dounia
Izniz Records (34 mins)

Massa Dembele is a Mandinka jeli (griot) from Burkina Faso who plays the kamalengoni. It’s a bridged harp not dissimilar to the kora, but with significantly fewer strings and a more twangy sound. It’s not a traditional jeli instrument, but in Dembele’s hands, it sounds perfectly natural.

This album – and especially the title track ‘Mezana Dounia’ – are lovely examples of his stripped-back, minimalist sound, often featuring just his multitracked and interlocking kamalengoni lines and haunting falsetto voice with occasional percussion.

There are guests on two pieces playing the balafon (xylophone) and folikan flute, which, like all else here, are used simply but effectively. Apart from these, though, Dembele plays all of the instruments on the album. While his skills as an instrumentalist are obvious, a griot’s real trade is their stories, so it’s very useful that this release has gathered English translations of every song, available to view online. The songs – which are all self-penned – are tales of changing cultures, emotional ponderings on the modern world, and calls for social justice.

This is a very short album, only just passing the half-hour mark, but it is nevertheless a very impressive debut from a musician putting his own spin on an ancient tradition.

Takeifa - Gass Giss

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 131, October 2017.

Takeifa
Gass Giss
Keyzit (36 mins)

Takeifa keep it in the family: the five members are all siblings. Four brothers and a sister of the Keita family from Senegal bring together guitar, drums, bass, voice and a bit of rap to create a mix of pop, soul and what they call ‘Afro*Rock’.

Gass Giss – Wolof for ‘Whoever Searches Will Find’ – is the band’s third album but it doesn’t offer much to help it stand out in the crowd, even with special guest Baaba Maal providing vocals on ‘Ndanane’.

The heavier the music gets, the more fun it becomes, so it’s a shame that it doesn’t flex its muscles more often. The track ‘Fire’ has a heavy beat and distorted guitar melting into a blasting flute solo, but falls back into bland pop before too long. There are enjoyable moments here and there – ‘Supporter’ has some cool raps, for example – but if you want cheerful and cheesy Afro-pop, there are many better examples to choose from.

Various Artists - Pop Makossa - The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 129, July 2017.

Various Artists
Pop Makossa – The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984
Analog Africa (67 mins)

Makossa united the tastes of a divided Cameroon, not least because it was a musical style that could bend around almost anything the country’s musicians threw at it. From super-tight funk to full-on drum machine and synthesiser disco, makossa embodied it all. There were also healthy doses of rumba thrown into the mix, the Congolese influences plain to hear.

The focus of Pop Makossa – as with many releases from Analog Africa – is on rediscovery. The album presents the lost hit-makers from the genre’s defining era, who have too often fallen into obscurity – sometimes out of choice, sometimes not.

This album does a good job of spanning the diversity of the style, and even includes some gems that have never seen an official release, such as Dream Stars’ ‘Pop Makossa Invasion’, a piece recorded for a radio station and promptly forgotten until now. The accompanying booklet is also filled with great stories of the artists and the Analog Africa crew’s adventures in tracking them down.

A clue to the popularity of makossa is in its name: the word means ‘I dance’ in Duala, and when you listen to this compilation, you won’t be able to argue with that.

The Heliocentrics - A World of Masks

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 129, July 2017.

The Heliocentrics
A World of Masks
Soundway Records (46 mins)

The Heliocentrics rose to prominence through high-profile collaborations with old masters such as Ethiojazz king Mulatu Astatke, Afrobeat saxist Orlando Julius and pianist and santur player Lloyd Miller. A World of Masks sees the ensemble continue their own journey.

These collaborations haven’t been left in the past, though. The influences from these pioneers can still be heard in the group’s own sound, together with vibes of Congotronics, raga, gamelan and more from across the world. This album also introduces a new aspect for the band, as they include a permanent singer into their fold for the first time: Slovakian vocalist Barbora Patkova provides warm, dreamy melodies over the various soundscapes.

It’s all held together convincingly in the group’s own brand of jazz that mixes vintage film noir tones with bop, free jazz with Headhunters-era Herbie Hancock. It works without contrivance, because above all else, the Heliocentrics deal in atmospheres. In fact, although the medium is jazz, the way the group build up their soundworld has perhaps more in common with psychedelic rock.

The best way to enjoy this album is to lie back and let its sound wash over you – let the Heliocentrics take you to their hip island among the clouds.

Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu of Ethiopia

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 129, July 2017.

Mulatu Astatke
Mulatu of Ethiopia
Strut Records (58 mins)

Mulatu of Ethiopia is the record where the ‘Father of Ethiojazz’ really solidified his signature sound and earned himself that weighty title. Studying jazz at Berklee and splitting his time between Boston and New York, Mulatu Astatke created and honed his new style as a unique blend of jazz, Latin and Ethiopian elements.

This is a reissue of Astatke’s third album, recorded in New York in 1972. Astatke directs the action from behind his vibraphone and electric piano, with a band made up of American and Puerto Rican musicians – their identities have sadly been lost to time. Luckily the album hasn’t been, and the music slinks along, mixing playful dissonances with a solid groove and top-notch solos from all involved.

This new CD includes the album in its originally-released form, as well as a mono mix-down of the original tapes, providing two distinct experiences of the same album. The mono mixes have a drier, there-in-the-room feel, a contrast to the original’s more ethereal production. Unfortunately, there are also production errors: one track cuts abruptly at the end – it’s jarring and not a hold-over from the original album, either.

That aside, it’s a fun gaze into the origins of a style now considered one of the coolest out there.