Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2024 Thread (Often African guitar led bands)

They had an earlier IG post on how relieved they were to finally get visas approved for this tour, although the process was expensive, involved multiple languages, Gregorian and Ethiopian Ge’ez calendars, translation work, lawyers, and clunky government websites

Listening to Egyptian singer Mohamed Hamaki now . He's doing a short US tour. In suburban Washington DC Saturday

North American tour I mean. He did a Toronto show

Awesome Tapes From Africa and Sahel Sounds are offering digital albums for "Name Your Price" on Bandcamp Friday (today!):
https://awesometapesfromafrica.bandcamp.com/
https://sahelsounds.bandcamp.com/

Did you get anything? I got busy and well, maybe next time

Kaethe Hostetter, American violinist from Ethiopian group Qwanqwa , who lived in Addis for 11 years, but is now based in Brooklyn has been doing some solo violin and electronics gigs playing music influenced by her time in Ethiopia. Alas, I missed her Baltimore gig. Saw a video clip on Facebook that looked good. Qwanqwa are starting a north American tour March 31

Music from Saharan WhatsApp 04
by Alkibar Junior

"We've made this release available again as the band was recently a victim of radical extremists who destroyed all of their musical equipment. The band is currently raising funds to bring music back to Niafounke, and all proceeds to to the band"

https://alkibar.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-saharan-whatsapp-04

more info here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-alkibar-junior-bring-music-back-to-mali

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk4mn4CKVXA

curmudgeon asked: "Did you get anything?"

I got these, all are wonderful:
https://awapoulo.bandcamp.com/album/poulo-warali
https://hailumergia.bandcamp.com/album/pioneer-works-swing-live
https://lesfillesdeillighadad.bandcamp.com/album/les-filles-de-illighadad
https://lesfillesdeillighadad.bandcamp.com/album/at-pioneer-works

I was already familiar with the Awa Poulo and first Les Filles albums and threw down some cash to keep myself honest.
Love love love Hailu Mergia and will buy anything he puts out.

Nice haul

Sahel Sounds Go Fund Me fundraiser to get instruments for for Alkibar Jr , still going

So this old-school promoter who doesn’t plan well in advance or research well is booking the Bassekou Kouyate tour ( that is skipping DC because she insists band wants a guarantee in advance and no venue will do that) and she’s booking the Mokoomba tour . For Mokoomba I have now given her a list of clubs and contact information. Hopefully she will be successful

She means well.

https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/13/el-wali-the-shapeshifting-voice-of-saharan-struggle?fbclid=PAAaY3Ka6zGNehxSS4q6_8tb39tkjrPsJ028zRSuHhuCpq5roj4E2aEz6jY8c_aem_AUK1BEloS0B1zNJD_lchzx8mhISkqEq1-LvBLpqR-I355qNIiKXgqyXGE3W5W5VLi5Q

El Wali from Saharan Sahel

Florence Adooni debut album is on its way on Philophon, new single is wonderful:

https://florenceadooni.bandcamp.com/album/uh-ah-song

...and this is a different song from a festival appearance last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypv0_LM4c60

pure heat

Yes to Florence Adooni and she and her band’s frafra music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR51MWK_o2M

South African singer Thandiswa Mazwai on Tiny Desk Global Fest .

Christopher Kirkley of Sahel Sounds has a nts show coming up on Thursday called Autotune the World

https://www.nts.live/shows/christopher-kirkley

Qwanqwa are going to put out a live album soon I hear.

Cute South African kids band Biko's Manna are in the US doing some gigs now. They've gone viral on tiktok and Instagram reels, and Jennifer Hudson loves them

https://foxydigitalis.zone/2024/04/08/video-premiere-tidiane-thiam-yewende/?fbclid=PAAaZT3YdXx5SX0fYFCIAMr8TyeD6CcKqQslr1JpPpBTfKmS79GHx9iLlEa1g_aem_AdIfu64s3SSibzALmp-Ybr5c3u8L2MZD-dQ3oDxFKeUlSeirtqxCBWxjG11CIH-fz3I

Tidiane Thism from Senegal getting mellow on Sahel Sounds

Thiam

https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/rail-band

Mississippi records has reissued on vinyl an old 70s album from Mali’s Rail Band

Was out of town and missed recent gigs by Sona Jobarteh, and Blick Bassy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt3BYPw-3uk

1 hour performance of a special collaboration between Sunken Cages ( Ravish Momin), dragonchild ( Ethiopian sax & keyboard player DA Mekonnen) , Faraway Ghost ( Iranian Dc area percussionist Kamyar Arsani) & guest dancer Amirah Sackett , at the Kennedy Center

Ethiopian music band Qwanqwa, most of whose band members are based in Addis, were great tonight at little Makeba in Alexandria , Va just south of DC . Crowd was mostly dc area based Ethiopians . The singer of Qwanqwa can sing powerfully with melisma; as well as ululate and do that Ethiopian shoulder dance

Oumou Sangare , Malian singing great, is doing some US gigs again, but it doesn’t look like she’ll be near me in the Washington DC area

https://occidentalbrothers.bandcamp.com/album/likambo-te

Jordan noted on the Rolling Jazz thread that the Chicago-based Occidental Brothers are back and have a new highlife album with drummer Mackaya Macraven. Circa 2009 I was a fan of their a bit gimmicky highlife cover of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle

Reyna Tropical were highlighted by Rob on the Afro-Latino, Latin Pop etc thread, but the occasional use of soukous guitar & some other touches might intrigue folks on this thread too. I like the new album a lot

Saw on Facebook a great video clip of Malian singer Oumou Sangare guesting with Colombia band Rancho Aparte from Colombia at the Blue Moon Saloon in Louisiana as its festival time down there

Mokoomba from Zimbabwe got a US date in June in DC

Apologies if there's a specific nyege nyege thread I can't find but loving this
https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/izigqinamba

Interesting contrasts there between the vocals and beats

Ghana special 2 arrived in the post today but it might wait bcz that can't stop with that new Mdou Moctar album

Ghana Special 2 sounds good so far to me (decided to check it out before the Mdou Moctar )

Yeah very much looking forward to getting that one, soundway comps never disappoint

Meridian Brothers are more for the Latin thread, but they're hyping this new one for adding some Congolese soukous guitar

https://meridianbrothers.bandcamp.com/album/mi-latinoam-rica-sufre-2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIQPfT_MiXs

Ballaké Sissoko (kora) and Derek Gripper (guitar) are putting out another album. Gripper is on tour in US now (In DC Monday night the 13th ) . Mellow but good

Absolutely loving Ghana Special 2, listened to it about 4 times straight through yesterday. I knew a few of these tunes beforehand but there is so much more great stuff on it. Kwasi Afari Minta - Barima Nsu is possibly my favourite new thing, but that MC Mambo song is super fun too. Top work Soundway!

It's definitely a good Ghana comp-

Sahel Sounds just announced a listening party for Africa Yontii by Tidiane Thiam:
Africa Yontii Listening Party with Tidiane Thiam!
The event is scheduled for:
Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 6:00 PM EDT

More details via label bandcamp

I could have sworn we had a dedicated Mdou Moctar thread. Anyway, I was already a huge fan, but the new one absolutely rips. "Imouhar" is the one I keep coming back to most.

X-post - that Tidiane Thiam album is mellow but beautiful guitar playing from Senegal

https://wapo.st/3UQ292T

gift link should hopefully work- Washington Post article title--With Europe’s support, North African nations push migrants to the desert

A year-long joint investigation by The Washington Post, Lighthouse Reports and a consortium of international media outlets shows how the European Union and individual European nations are supporting and financing aggressive operations by governments in North Africa to detain tens of thousands of migrants each year and dump them in remote areas, often barren deserts.

European funds have been used to train personnel and buy equipment for units implicated in desert dumps and human rights abuses, records and interviews show. Migrants have been pushed back into the most inhospitable parts of North Africa, exposing them to abandonment with no food or water, kidnapping, extortion, sale as human chattel, torture, sexual violence and, in the worst instances, death.
Spanish security forces in Mauritania photographed and reviewed lists of migrants before they were driven to Mali against their will and left to wander for days in an area where violent Islamist groups operate, according to testimony and documents.
In Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, vehicles of the same make and model as those provided by European countries to local security forces rounded up Black migrants from streets or transported them from detention centers to remote regions, according to filmed footage, verified images, migrant testimony and interviews with officials.
European officials held internal discussions on some of the abusive practices since at least 2019, and were flagged to allegations in reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Frontex, the E.U. border agency.

The E.U. provided more than 400 million euros to Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania between 2015 and 2021 under its largest migration fund, the E.U. Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, an initiative to foster local economic growth and stem migration.

That's just some context for the music that I try not to overlook

guitar led band Etran de L'Air touring Europe in May and most of June, then touring North America in end of June and July

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2024/g:african-music/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2exzm9r043o

RIP Zakir

Zakir Hussain, one of the world's greatest tabla players, has died at the age of 73.

The Indian classical music icon died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, at a hospital in San Francisco, his family said in a statement.

Hussain was a four-time Grammy award winner and has received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award.

Through his performances, he transformed the tabla into a globally loved solo instrument that was the star of the show.

The tabla - a pair of drums used in Indian classical music - was historically viewed as an accompaniment to the main performance.

Former ilxor Keith Harris has this in his best-of list for Racket , his Minnesota site

19. Sisso & Maiko, Singeli Ya Maajabu

Sisso is among the better-known producers of singele, a Tanzanian dance music style supposedly derived from Zanzibar’s taarab (a style I know even less about) and so wildly sped up it should be measured in beats per second. Jamming live to Singele’s beats on keys is Maiko, who vamps with ostinatos, doodles wildly on top, and occasionally runs a finger along the keys till he reaches the highest note, just to be funny. I’m told singele is often tough-guy music, but the effect here is comic, even cartoonish. During the nearly six minutes of the frenetic, dayglo “Kazi Ipo,” I feel like a paper cone that’s been stuck into a cotton candy machine.

More from Keith -

2. Various artists, Kampire Presents: A Dancefloor in Ndola

A compilation of mostly decades-old Afropop? Isn’t that… cheating? Well I make the rules here, bub, and despite two familiar Congolese names (Samba Mapangala and Tshala Muana, their great ’90s records are streaming, check ’em out) all these tracks are new to me and—don’t front—you too. Yet to Kampire, a Ugandan DJ and part of the crew behind the Nyege Nyege festival and label (they put out the Sisso & Maiko album) these have nostalgic appeal, as they might to a queer party thrower in a country where gay sex is a capital crime. Sureshot opener Princess Aya Shara’s “O Wina Tienge” sets the tone with soukous guitars from Zaire trading elegance for the frisky, chattering melodies that appealed to Kenyan audiences, though the comp also dips into South African for added sass (the Township bubblegum of V-Mash’s “Naughty Boy,” the early kwaito of Di Groovy Girls). Artifacts of a simpler time? Not if you know your history. More like reminders that the beat goes on, in good times and bad.

On Keith's runner up list --Les Amazones d’Afrique, Musow Danse;

This is all over the internet at the moment. An African Country Gospel song, by (I think) SDA Youth Songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh2v_CYMayo

or maybe those are the publishers. The artist is MAOMBI SAMSON

Seems like a TikTok viral thing too.

Less viral things I have been enjoying watching are Sahel Sounds on Instagram sharing Instagram stories and posts from a rural Fulani area of Senegal by an ethnomusicologist I think who has an IG page called blind.in.1.eye

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDfy3lnIYbg/?igsh=MTY0MDRnNTlkZHo3YQ==

Very pretty dreamy gamelan pop from Java:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMoo2mNC98

Les Amazones d’Afrique, “Musow Danse (Bonus Edition) which was mentioned above , is the latest from a Malian supergroup that mixes traditional female afropop vocals with a mix of modern and traditional beats . There's a few older mentions on ilx for their previous releases. I like em

Oh I like that Deni Kristiani gamelan pop from Java too

* Sad to hear about Zakir Hussain. I'll probably never see a greater tabla player - the guy was absolutely mind-blowing. I was looking forward to seeing his "Masters of Percussion" show at the 2025 Big Ears Festival.

* FYI Awesome Tapes from Africa has digital downloads on sale...albums for $1 each until Dec. 25: https://awesometapesfromafrica.bandcamp.com/

Oh I like that Deni Kristiani gamelan pop from Java too

― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 December 2024 21:16 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

me too! That's from last year but after a bit of research I nominated this chill jam for the EOY poll:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDIDEFKqals

this one's all about the percussion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95d3bXs3jYk

Journalist/ author Michael Azerrad has Phelimuncasi & Metal Preyers album Izigqinamba on his top 10 (they're a South African duo who were /are ? on Nyege Nyege

Also on his list is Mdou Moctar ; & the Nascimento & Spalding album

digging these javan tunes

2025 thread time -

Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2025 Thread (Often African guitar led bands)

Nice to see that Deni is making such an impact. Thanks for the nomination - we'll see how she does in the top 100.

https://www.voaafrica.com/a/7882793.html?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabGvZldgZ-IhD1Ti-lyFqGuhqR64jfcJdhXGVRRh9_T3SsiXOB2uU5L114_aem_R7JcOPS6_lZJgRd8ppwxgQ

VOA’s Music time in Africa best of 2024 program