Listen and watch and dream about the sun and summer…although this song isn’t a bittersweet symphony it’s a tonic as the rain washes down the windows 🙁
Anyone know where to start with Soca, Afrobeat, modern (non phobic) dancehall 80’s onward, modern reggae and dub (if there is such a thing)? I never know where to start…
Where to start? That’s a big question. There’s CONTINENTS worth of the stuff. But as an Afro-Latin nut, esp. in the ’90s when the other kids were raving and, er, “grunging” and “Brit-Pop-ing” I could go on and on. First, there’s this:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/vintage-afropop,31956/
a good article, right down to the Putumayo diss. I could have written that. Stuff I listen to obsessively & can’t live without:
Get anything by Mighty Sparrow – he goes back to the ’50s calypso days, still kickin it with an Obama tribute, great hilarious songwriter. Arrow *was* the “King Of Soca” – lotsa fun (tho you may be quite rightly sick of “Feelin Hot Hot Hot”). Most soca is mindless party music (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but an excellent comp called “When The Time Comes” is “rebel” soca.
One of my faves singles of the ’90s was General Degree’s smash “Pianist” – classic party double-entendre dancehall.
Congolese outsider music! Konono No 1/Congotronics = incredible industrial rhumba. and Staff Benda Bilili is my fave Afro album of the year so far: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_Benda_Bilili
Must-have Afro comps, mainly ’70s funky flava: “Ghana Soundz”, “Afro-Rock”
I hear soukous described as a Vampire Weekend influence, but the real deal is furiously energetic: Kanda Bongo Man “Kwasa Kwasa”, Diblo Dibala “Super soukous” = solid albums, amazing guitar work.
The South African geniuses of mbaqanga: Malathini and/or Mahotella Queens. Best concert I ever saw. Too bad Malathini’s dead.
And Fela’s dead too, so see Antibalas, or Fela’s son Seun Kuti. Top-notch Nigerian Afro-Beat.
Scratching the surface, I know. Anyone else..?
ooh thanks – I’ll check them out!
And yes I know Feeling Hot Hot Hot – was a hit here in the UK, think like Soul Limbo it was used as a cricket theme (I assume one in the West Indies?).
You forgot Brenda Fassie in the list of sadly dead SA geniuses, she was the Queen of Kwaito.
Listening now – Femi Kuti and 1970’s Fela (Zombie) brilliant, as well as Tony Allen and Mighty Sparrow (I know Feeling Hot Hot Hot I’m sure)
Criminally Spotify doesn’t have Malathini cos listening on YouTube I LOVE that music. I know some SA music – so I knew a bit of his work, kwaito and mbaqanga (hard to type, even harder to say as it’s Xhosa and has a click in it!)
Streaming an afrobeat/soca inspired playlist from your comment above now http://spotifydj.com/dj/timbearcub
Here’s one!
http://zerogsound.blogspot.com/2006/06/rebel-soca-when-time-comes.html
The title song in particular “When the Time Comes” is super special.
Yeah, “Zombie” is one of Fela’s masterworks. Brenda Fassie! Yep, died way too young. Haven’t been real impressed with most kwaito that I’ve heard, tho – isn’t it just techno/house with Zulu vox?
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