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

Thanks

There’s Only like 2 comments on his thread!

Oumou Sangare is on Beyonce’s visual Black is King album and Burna Boy and Beyonce holding a Robert Farris Thompson book on Yoruban art. Lots of other cool guests too. It’s a bit flawed but I like the ambition.

Just noticed I have missed out on some new Mdou Moctar mixtapes plus new Saharan Whats App ones

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5807750

Some Hassan Hajjaj photos of Moroccan musicians and others

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/arts/hassan-hajjaj.html

The ongoing series “My Rock Stars” is Mr. Hajjaj’s homage to his cosmopolitan crowd. (A sampler: the American artist Hank Willis Thomas; the Moroccan filmmaker Meryem Benm’Barek; the French-Algerian musician Rachid Taha, who died last year.) Some are famous, but styled by Hajjaj
In the Shoreditch shop, the grime M.C. Afrikan Boy, the Gnawa drummer Simo Lagnawi & the soul singer Bumi drifted in to rehearse. Mr. Hajjaj was developing a multimedia stage show, “My Rock Stars Experimental,” w/ video projections & live performance by musicians styled by him

Buscabulla’s tropical Puerto Rican synth pop w/ some r’n’b is nice enough

Whatever the fuck is going on here is the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLF7JzUeVOY

They definitely have a vision:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOcJIIU_5I

okay, i am very into this

perhaps predictably.

They play all the hits! Mainly Brazilian ones, but some foreign ones as well, including a mean “Billie Jean”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHSEJpsquis

They are Fundo de Quintal OFC btw
(please tag your musical links for searching and Posterity reasons, folx!)

ha that's classic

their YT channel has dozens of videos!

they’re basically called The Backyard Boys.

https://tab.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2020/07/23/fundo-de-quintal-ofc-jovens-do-maranhao-conquistaram-brasil-na-quarentena.htm

GoogleTranslating this key quote:

“The name Fundo de Quintal was given in reference to the very scenario in which the quintet originated, and not in honor of the famous pagoda group of the 1990s. According to Simão, the inspirations for recording the first videos came from the boys' own will, and not from any prior influence of anything they have seen. The originality of Fundo de Quintal also caught the attention of producers and major YouTube players. On July 13, the video of the group interpreting the song "Na Raba Toma Tapão" by MC Niack, the most viewed of the channel - with almost 5 million hits -, was used on Kondzilla's Instagram to celebrate the 30 million hits views of the original version. The channel, by the way, is today the third largest in the world in the music segment on the platform.”

(icymi that Niack track is one of ILM's official Summer Jams of the year)

Brilliant bit of historical context, again through GoogleTranslate:

“This structure, created by the boys from Centro dos Rodrigues, also finds parallels in other artistic movements of great importance, such as the so-called "happenings" - a term used for the first time in 1959 by the American artist Allan Kaprow, and defined by the composer John Cage as " spontaneous and plot-free theatrical events ". In this type of scenic work, some element of spontaneity or improvisation is incorporated, which never happens in the same way with each new presentation. Considered performances, happenings were very popular during pop art in the United States.”

good background

Wow

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/08/12/admass-sons-of-ethiopia-how-a-great-lost-album-is-finding-new-fans/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/admas-sons-of-ethiopia-interview

In 1984 some Ethiopians living in the DC area borrowed some $ and recorded an album as Admas and pressed a 1000 copies. Decades later they were selling for a lot on Ebay. A Danish collector living in NYC tracked them down after he bought a copy on Ebay, and he reissued the album. 3 of the band members are back in Ethiopia. 1 tours as Teddy Afro's keyboardist, one is a producer, the other is a music educator.

The album is mostly instrumental and starts with a loungey golden era Ethiopia type track, and has one track with a reggae feel, another with a Brazilian jazz samba portion, and funkier one and one has vocals.

As described, Admas are influenced by golden era Ethiopiques, but incorporated 80s influences as well, that they heard both in DC & back home in Ethiopia

nice find

Acclaimed Malian artist Afel Bocoum's new record Lindé is out today on World Circuit Records. The album is executive produced by Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) and Nick Gold (Buena Vista Social Club), and features appearances by Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, Joan as Police Woman, Vin Gordon (The Skatalites) and many more.

Press release info for a new Afel Bocoum album I want to hear . Although worried Blur guy and other producer have tried to smother him with guests

that Fundo de Quintal stuff is brilliant

So, this probably has a lot of places it could fit, but I think because of its unclassifiable nature, it belongs here.

Duma- Lionsblood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd35MhHqjhc

They're from Nairobi, it's on Nyege Nyege, and is a bit metal, a bit gabber, a bit of Kenyan "slum drumming."

maximalist

I still have to get to Sharhabil Ahmed: the King of Sudanese Jazz ( Habibi Funk) and the 2 new Brazilian funky efforts from Carlinhos Brown (candyall)

X-post - that Duma video is wild.

Right? I think my main complaint about the video is that the album track is about four minutes longer, though I guess maintaining that level of simultaneously carefree and menacing atmosphere for a long period of time is a hard ask.

The online Sufi music fest at the Dc Smithsonian museum of Asian Art started nicely today with Sufi songs from Manganiyar and Langa Communities, Marwar, Rajasthan, India w/ Anwar Khan Manganiyar, vocals ; Barkat Khan Manganiyar, vocals; & percussion & string instrumentalists was great. The melancholy vocals reminded me a bit of some Jewish cantors I have heard ( or vice versa)

https://asia.si.edu/events-overview/performances/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D147377662

https://petronio.cali.gov.co/

Afro-Colombian online concerts this week

X-post - Sufi poetry online Wednesday from Freer Sackler National Museum of Asian Art

n Wed., Sept. 23, 12 pm EDT, singer Walid Ben Selim & harpist Marie Marguerite Cano join us for "Spiritual Poems from the East," for Transcendence: A [Virtual] #Sufi #MusicFestival. s.si.edu/2FyICBu Ben Selim will speak about his music and answer audience questions. 🎶

X-post - Sufi poetry online Wednesday from Freer Sackler National Museum of Asian Art

n Wed., Sept. 23, 12 pm EDT, singer Walid Ben Selim & harpist Marie Marguerite Cano join us for "Spiritual Poems from the East," for Transcendence: A [Virtual] #Sufi #MusicFestival. s.si.edu/2FyICBu Ben Selim will speak about his music and answer audience questions. 🎶

Sufi thing should be good ( and different from great first one in that series that was from India)

At the Kol Nidre service I watched via zoom earlier tonight, the cantor played oud on one song while another musician played a Qanun (like a hammered dulcimer sort of) and a percussionist held and hit a sorta Persian/Iranian daf frame drum

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

Nice new single with great vocals from The Good Ones (from Rwanda )

https://asia.si.edu/events-overview/performances/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D147377725

Wednesday, October 7, 2020, 12 – 1pm
Description
Transcendence: A Sufi Music Festival
Zainab Afailal, Morocco

Listen to Sufi-inspired Andalusian songs from southern Spain and Morocco at our concluding festival performance. Zainab Afailal will perform in the refined styles of Sufi devotional music that are based on two forms of Arabic poetry—the muwashah and the Zajal—which developed in eleventh- and twelfth-century Spain. Born and raised in Tetouan, Afaillal is one of the most celebrated female singers to perform in this mode, which for generations was believed to be an exclusively male domain. Her performance will be followed by a talk with Dr. Scott Kugle, professor of South Asian and Islamic Studies at Emory University.

DC Ethiopian band Kino Musica has a new ep out on bandcamp plus a new video for one of the songs. I like the video but haven’t heard the ep yet. Looking forward to it

X-post - the Sufi events I have mentioned are gonna be made available post-zoom on the National Museum of Asian Art ( formerly Freer/ Sackler) YouTube page

relief fund for African musicians

https://www.soulidarity.org/index.html

Mdou Moctar and band sign to Matador and release new video. Album coming soon

https://pitchfork.com/news/mdou-moctar-signs-to-matador-shares-video-for-new-song-chismiten-watch/

New Ustad Saami is sounding incredible, even better than the first one

https://ustadsaami.bandcamp.com/album/pakistan-is-for-the-peaceful

Will check it out

Pitchfork story on Discotan- performance space, site, label for music from South Asia and North Africa

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/welcome-to-discostan/

X-post - Pakistani Ustad Saami does have quite a vocal range

There’s a new Songhoy Blues album out. It’s called Optimisme

It's pretty great.

I still haven't heard more than 1 song from it. I need to dig in.

I am listening to Kino Musica, a DC based group led by 2 Ethiopian immigrants who have their new Ifaan ep out on multiple formats plus a video for their take on the song "Arke Yehuma"

Can attest to the Ustad Saami, it's incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn8e60wXbNw

Here's DC band Kino Musica melding Ethiopian and a tinge of North African desert guitar grooves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjsWgw68F2s

The Music Time in Africa radio show on the VOA that airs in parts of Africa is pushing Kenyan band Sautisol song “Brighter Days” as the “ feel good song of the year” on their Facebook page.