Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2021 Thread (Often African bands)

This thread is mainly for polyrhythmic, international sounds that aren't big enough to get threads of their own. I lean toward south of the equator sounds here that are sometimes less club-oriented than those of artists highlighted on Afrobeats, dancehall, soca, etc. threads. Sometimes, but not always, the artists are older than those on those other threads. More old-school bands too. Often less digital programming but if it includes such playing/programming it is usually less popular

Here's last year's thread- 2020

Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2020 Thread (Often African bands)

Still catching up on 2020 music slowly ( other things keeping me from listening)

Saw an Awesome Tapes from Africa email about a Mail release that looked promising; once I find time

https://jonathanbogart.substack.com/p/50-songs-of-2020-14

Jonathan Bogart in part re his top songs of 2020 : I dare say that just about anyone could find something to love in there, even if they don’t speak Spanish, Portuguese, French, Swahili, or Zulu (the most common non-English languages throughout the playlist).

Bogart ranked 50 songs and did a Spotify list plus a 626 song YouTube playlist. A lot of it is more Afro thread material but since he has Caribbean and Brazilian and more , I posted it here

Breastcrawl may even know already about many of the above artists.

cool, I only just saw this. reservations about JB aside, I’m looking forward to do some digging in. (rest assured, if last year’s list is anything to go by there will be lots I don’t know)

Chouk Bwa & The Ångstromers
Vodou Alé
Haitian Drumming and Singing with Touches of Electronica and Dancehall Music

Just finally listened to this 2020 effort. Not bad but doesn’t consistently wow me. Critic Ted Gioia had it in his long year end list

https://afropop.org/articles/catch-up-on-tiny-desk-globalfest-2021

https://afropop.org/articles/albums-from-2020-highlights

album titles in the link

Rocky Dawuni
Songhoy Blues
Elida Almeida
Aricia Mess from Putumayo presents Brazil-Samba, Bossa, and Beyond
Hailu Mergia
Groupe RTD
Gordon Konang
Linos Wengara Magaya & Zimbaremabwe Mbira Vibes
Modeste Hugues & Kilema
Artists for Peace & Justice- Let the Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol. 1
Ali Bilali Soudan
Herb Alpert
Andal Sukabe from Music from Saharan WhatsApp 7 Sahel Sounds
Penny Penny
Nahawa Doumbia
Ballake Sissoko
Oumou Sangare - Acoustic
Monty Alexander

This rips (Ugandan drum group on Nyege Nyege):
https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/ejokawulida

Still catching up on 2020-- the Al Bilali Soudan (not Ali as I mistakenly typed earlier) album has great North African desert guitar work. Maybe not anything new at this point, but done really well.

Actually that's ngoni on that and maybe not guitar

https://www.clermontmusic.com/tombouctou

Malian singer Nahawa Doumbia also on above list has a powerful, passionate voice . She's from southern Mali. in the Wassoulou region. This area is well known for generating some of the best female singers in Mali, including Oumou Sangaré.

https://earthbeat.nl/artist/nahawa-doumbia/

Modeste Hugues & Kilema is pleasant afro-folk from Madagascar .

Still more there to go through.

The Oumou Sangare acoustic album from last year is nice. She's still got a great voice. One of those many fantastic southern Mali vocalists

I don't think the kora album by Ballake Sissoko that afropop.org listed is available yet. He is a good player. Saw him duet with French musician Vincent Segal live, and they also were together on Tiny Desk

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

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/26/kyrgyzstan-ballads-okinawan-folk-ugandan-hymns-the-album-rewriting-global-music-history-excavated-shellac?fbclid=IwAR1bKpkJrd2_MAmkb85GeWq3eQ5fLEV1CZBb7i7JZhqtXf4PynrAsMuBhpY

New digital only collection with e-book of global 78s put together by Excavated Shellac and Dust to Digital

thanks for posting that tiny desk concert! I watched it last night. I know their albums together already, but it was a real treat to be able to see them playing with each other. This is basically what I imagine heaven would sound like.

I skipped a kora concert summer '19. I don't even remember who was playing, but I've regretted it ever since, particularly in the past year.

That shellac collection sounds amazing, I kind of want to convene a group project to listen to the whole thing.

Good description.

Good description.