Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2019 Thread Once Known as World Music

the album is about Ruben Um Nyobé, an anti-colonialist Cameroonian leader who was killed in 1958 and basically any discussion of him and his movement was repressed brutally by the government for the next few decades. it's a politically significant act that blick bassy made this album as well as being quite beautiful imo. the afropop worldwide sorta "primer" episode on it is worth listening to as a compendium for the context i liked the album the first few times i heard it but after listening to the ep i kept going back to it.

blick is good times

i mean, obviously that topic isn't so much but as a performer and artist, blick is a badass

The new album by Iranian percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi has some deep, almost Aphex-y vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu282N-6WXM

saw pejman hadadi on drums live recently and his hands were unmappably fast and the beats painfully intricate, didn't really seem possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-HBA0JqNjg

Just saw the Manginyar Seduction in DC. 36 Northern India musicians and vocalists set up in a Hollywood Squares like set w/ 9 across and 4 rows high.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gWOuYAJ1-zI

xp - wow, that guy's got major dancing hands! thanks for posting

Heh, curmudgeon, we are the same person: seeing manganiyar thursday.

Manganiyar were great. I think you will definitely enjoy

i have been making the "Hollywood Squares" comparison when discussing them too; also "advent calendar"

Am liking that Nigerian afrobeats/ afropop Lady Donli album that’s been mentioned on that other thread.

It has now been mentioned on three threads no less, it’s that good. It has a retro vibe, but still sounds real fresh and punchy.

Let me post that Fader feature again:
https://www.thefader.com/2019/10/31/lady-donli-enjoy-your-life-interview

Mauritania singer Noura Mint Seymali and her band have been to the US a bunch of times, but this time her husband guitarist Jeich Ould Chighaly and the bassist were denied entry. At Kennedy Center Seymali and her drummer were joined by her US-based brother and another guy. Not as much Afro-psych guitar but the keyboardist adds good sounds and Seymali’s vocal range still sounds impressive
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nllls4f7Png

Chighaly is a great guitarist who also gave some lessons to The 75 Dollar Bill guitarist. So lame that he got barred this time

getting them into the country has always been a deal as i understand it; unsurprising but yes, very shitty.

new staff benda bilili out today!

it's been 8 years since the last one

I wonder who’s in the group now. I thought they had broken up. Wiki notes:

In February 2013 The Guardian reported that singer and songwriter Coco Ngambali had quit, along with fellow vocalist Théo Nzonza, and a tour of top European venues scheduled for March and April had been cancelled amid accusations of mismanagement.[15] The band played some dates in Europe in the autumn of 2013 and summer of 2014. Ngambali and Nzonza now play in Mbongwana Star.[16]

Just saw Afropop Worldwide and VOA host Georges Collinet talk about his career dj’ing music. He also showed video clips from various African countries. Then Congolese singer Samba Mapangala sang with the DC based Highlife Allstars

i love georges collinet so much he has one of the alltime great radio voices

He does. I introduced myself and talked to him and he was very friendly. The live music was good old-school congolese rumba. An enjoyable night

Sometimes I think old school Congolese rumba is my favorite kind of music

That high-pitched Congolese guitar rhythm is magical

Was hoping to see Mdou Moctar, Burna Boy, Lady Donli & or a few other Afropop/ African acts on year-end lists, but I guess expecting that from American and Brit posted lists is naive.

i think mdou moctar will show up on lists

potential albums i'll put for on my year end list (that seem possibly of interest to this thread):

KOKOKO! - Liboso
Nicola Cruz - Siku
Ustad Saami - God is Not a Terrorist
Kel Assouf - Black Tenere
Saba Alizadeh - Scattered Memories
Tanya Tagaq - Toothsayer
Altin Gün - Gece
A-WA - Bayti Fi Rasi
Ikebe Shakedown - Kings Left Behind
Blick Bassy - 1958
75 Dollar Bill - I Was Real
Helado Negro - This Is How You Smile

KOKOKO! was one of the funnest shows I saw this year. Really memorable.

Amanda Petrusich has Mdou Moctar & Burna Boy on her New Yorker list. But not seeing them on others

Just discovered North African vocalist Aziza Brahim, who now lives in Spain. Her latest album is getting some attention in Europe

Still not seeing many musicians mentioned on this thread in best-of's.

https://afropop.org/articles/afropop-runs-down-2019

Stocking Stuffer list in alphabetical order

Just listened to a bit of Bantou Mentale, a Congo alternative afro-rocking band . Energetic and wild

Bantou Mentale is on the Afropop list. There are more new releases and reissues on that list I need to listen to

yeah that's one i've been meaning to check out

https://www.artistsfromabroad.org/site/news/dhs-proposes-steep-artist-visa-fee-increases-and-policy-changes/?fbclid=IwAR3hHwOjgWmJdjcgHnuRaKuXzuTu7F7Bt2hYHXXeXfDwZcs_7bS_jxUFHk8

the bantou mentale album is dope - really innovative sounds

I linked to afropop.org alphabetical list earlier, but writing it out here with brief descriptions of some :

Angelique Kidjo- Celia (Benin singer's take on Celia Cruz)
Babani Kone- Djeliya (female Malian singer re-release)
Bantou Mentale- Bantou Mentale (Congo rockin)
Bassekou Kouyate - Miri (Mali legend & band)
Blick Bassy-1958 (melancholy Cameroon pop w/ historical rooted lyrics)
Burna Boy- African Giant
Davido- A Good Time
Dexter Story- Bahir (Los Angeles led Ethiopian/East African horns & percussion )
Dona Onete - Rebujo (Brazil)
El Wali - Tiris ( Sahrawi female desert vocals)
Emmanuel Jal and Nyaruach - Naath (Sudan rapper goes pop)
Garifuna Collective- Aban (sweet afro-roots pop)
The Good Ones, Rwanda, You Should Be Loved (afro-folk harmonies)
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley- 11 Street Sekondi (Ghana afro-funk)
Habib Koite - Kharifa (Mali singer/songwriter guitarist w/ grooves)
Hama - Houmeissa (Saharan techno)
Hope Masike - The Exorcism of A Spinster (Zimbabwe singer)
Houssa Gania - Mosawi Swiri (Gnawa fusion from Morocco)
Ile - Almadura (Puerto Rican singer/songwriter from Calle 13 w/ guests)
Juan Wauters - La Onda de Juan Pablo (NYC Latin folk)
Kongo Dia Ntotila - 360 Degrees (UK Congo pop & more)
La Yegros- Suelta (Argentina electro-cumbia)
Lakou Mizik- HaitiaNola (Haiti to New Orleans)
Lazarus- Stomp the Devil (Malawi singer)
Lee “Scratch” Perry, Rainford (reggae)
Les Filles de Illighadad - Eghass Malan (female led guitar & percussion band from Niger)
Los Wembler's de Iquitos- Vision Del Ayahuasca (veteran Peru chicha, cumbia, surf)
Luka Productions - Falaw (Mali electro-folk)
Maître Gims - Ceinture Noire (Transcendance) (France-Congo rap)
Mdou Moctar- Ilana, The Creator (afro-rockin from Niger)
Oumar Konate, I Love You Inna (Mali guitar)
Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band - Obiaa! (Ghanaian highlife)
Projecto Arcomusical- Spinning in the Wheel (minimalist compositions for the berimbau)
Rachid Taha - Je Suis Africain ( late bad boy of Algerian pop)
Rocky Dawuni - Beats of Zion (Ghanaian reggae star)
Salif Keita - Un Autre Blanc (Mali’s golden voice)
Santana w/ Buika - Africa Speaks (Afro-Spanish vocals over guitar solos)
Sessa - Grandeza (Brazil)
Sinkane - Dépaysé (Sudanese-American singer/songwriter)
Steel Pulse - Mass Manipulation (UK reggae band's 1st album in 15 years)
Wuta Mayi - La Face Cachée (Congolese singer who used to be w/ Franco)
Y La Bamba, Mujeres and Entre Los Dos (Latinx-American )
Youssou N'Dour- History (Senegalese singing great)

https://afropop.org/articles/afropop-runs-down-2019

i rate from that list:
Bassekou Kouyate
Blick Bassy (top 10 aoyt for me)
Dexter Story
Hama
Les Filles de Illighadad
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley
Youssou N'Dour
Mdou Moctar
Bantou Mentale

was hopeful for the Hope Masike but didn't love it :(

Once upon a time (in 2007-8) I'd have heard every one of those. This year, I've heard three: Mdou Moctar, Rachid Taha, and Santana. I would have checked out the Kidjo, but I didn't like her version of the Talking Heads album that much and honestly, doing a whole album of tunes associated with Celia Cruz is just setting yourself up for unfair comparisons that you're guaranteed to come out on the wrong side of. I'll listen to Les Filles de Illighadad sometime before the end of the year.

Kinda liked Kidjo’s Talking Heads covers but was less wowed on my one listen to her Celia Cruz ones.

Liked the Blick Bassy and Dexter Story ones

El Wali is ok Saharan desert music on my first listen

Tanya Tagaq’s screeching out there Throat singer vocals are too avante for me

lol i love them

I wish she was weirder. I only like the chanting/grunting/screeching. Anytime there's actual words, I lose interest.

It's decidedly not my thing either, but I'm glad it exists

Kongo dia Ntotila are more my thing. Not great, but enjoyable enough Congo rumba made funkier by folks now living in the UK

Listening to the new El Wali album now and not really liking it. Too much chintzy keyboard, and the vocals are too shrill and...quiet storm-ish? It sounds like a watered-down, Putumayo version of Saharan desert blues to me.

You should gives Les Filles a listen. Mordy & I both like them.

The Pat Thomas Ghanaian highlife album is a tad repetitive, but it’s still pretty good old-school dance music. I think he and his band came through DC some years back and I can imagine him packing a dancefloor

I tried Les Filles. They're pretty good, but I think I like Tartit (who also put out an album this year) better. And as female singers in this style go, Mariem Hassan remains the queen for all time, even in death.

Salif Keita’s voice sounds exquisitely powerful on his latest album Un Autre Blanc . He has supposedly said this will be has last album ever.