Tag Archives: mbira

NGOMA MIX 13 – Juju-Juke

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Ever since drums were banned on most slave plantations in N. America during the 1600s, after the masters discovering that the slaves organized revolts with their talking drums, the expression of poly-rhythms in N. American popular music has primarily been through use of the voice.  This is the reason music in the US is typified by the simple 1-2 “dupple” rhythm, in contrast to more complex beat patterns in South-America or the Caribbean (which kept their drums).  Thus the evolution of all subsequent Afro-North-American music was profoundly shaped, from Blues to Funk to Disco:  kick on the 1, and snare on the 2; all the way down to the late 20th Century – complex poly-rhythms in hiphop is produced with rap, and the drums remain a skeletal, minimalistic boom-bap, as if just to mark time.

Now in the 21st Century a renewed sense of rhythmic complexity returns to  Afro-North-American dance music in the form of Juke/Footwork in Chicago: interlocking 2s and 3s form intricate beat structures, unmistakeably related to many forms of percussion styles in the motherland (but still often keeping that N. American hard snare on the 2).

OR: STREAM: MIXCLOUD //// DOWNLOAD: SEPARATE TRACKS OR SINGLE TRACK

This NGOMA volume demonstrates this reconnection, after centuries of separation, between African tradition and Afro-Diaspora:  between Nigerian Juju/Fuji music and Chicago Juke/Footwork, between Ethiopian dance styles and Detroit Ghetto-Tech, between Iberian trad-modern street sounds and American R’n’B/Pop, between Afro-Punk and Club Music, between Congolese Mbira workouts and Hiphop, between Ghanaian and Senegalese drumming and Urban Bass Pressure.   Let us pump up the volume and remember the power and spirit of rhythm which survives every hardship, cruelty, and oppression, and rejoice in the timeless Music Of the Drums.

big thanks to Keith Jones for knowledge passing, Itzi Nallah, Sonic Diaspora and states side massive for making the Juju-Juke tour possible, my B-girls Jessi and Maya for support.Juju-Juke Tour kick off in Belgrade

I have played this set a few times now during the Serbia, Germany, and US East Coast tour  a few weeks ago, and crowds have gone completely BONKERS as the energy went straight through the roof: 500 screaming people and massive MOSH PIT at 3AM during Mikser Festival Belgrade; club crowd which refused to leave, clapping and hollering for 20 minutes after lights went up and sound was turned off at The Shrine Chicago.  I guess the world is more than ready for 160 BPM Afro-Footwork pressure!!!

and here is that adrenaline fueled misanthropic juke edit of South African punk rockers Koos by itself (download and drop into your set if you are wo/man enough :D):

Konono – original 2+ hours cassette

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I have seen this band twice now, the first at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, around 2009, where they played a long-form, track-less continuous set where the unbelievable ecstatic energy just kept building and building — just when you think it can not possibly get any more hype, the drummers would kick it up another notch – the electric mbiras sending out ever greater waves of rhythmelody.

Second time i played after them in Leipzig, Ut Connewitz (photos), Feb. 2011.  This time it was songs, and they had a deeper, lower register and lower tempo, almost rock’n’roll sound, with the amplified mbiras sounding at times like the epic overtones of RHYS CHATHAM’s 1000 electric guitars.

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this 1 hour long sound-board recording from Stadtgarten Cologne May 14th 2010 is truly delicious: great quality and fully capturing their magic –  i like it better than their studio albums (for sure Konono needs to be experienced live to truly understand their unique power and finesse)

sorry, link taken down at Crammed Disc’s request.

instead, i will upload the mother lode: the first recording of this music ever, the amazing and super rare original 2+ hours long double tape release of the various groups which are closely related to and later became today’s version of Konono No. 1, recorded in 1978 and released in 1985, from which the legendary Ocora CD (73 minutes in duration) was culled (which, at the time of release, re-ignited interest in the group and made possible their international success today).  The CD has always been one of my favorite albums in any genre, and now we have the much longer original recordings! (thanks to the one they call Bolingo).

original tape cover and back below.  but in addition to the 4 half hour long tracks listed, the version we have here, for an unknown reason, has a great extra 15 minute long 5th track!

01 Animation Bana Luya 28’50 Orchestre Bana Luya
02 Animation Kifuti 28’33 Orchestre Bambala
03 Kuata Nkuaka 28’16 Orcheste Sankai
04 Mungua-Muanga 28’41 Orchestre T.P. Likembe Konoko (sic!)
05 Animation (unnamed) 15’14 Orch. T.P.Tulu Lisanga Banganga (extra track!)

Vincent Kenis the producer of Konono and the Congotronics CD’s:

“I first heard the group in 1979 on a France Culture broadcast and was blown away. Soon after I played the music to Congolese musician Ray Lema, claiming rather provokingly that this was “the Congolese music of the future.” … The France Culture recordings, produced by Bernard Treton, came out in 1985 on Radio France’s label Ocora (Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa). Only 15 years later did I finally get a chance to see the group live.

In 1989 I went to Kinshasa & looked for Konono No. 1 and Muyamba Nyunyi (also featured on Treton’s tapes) but couldn’t find them. I did meet Swede Swede, another “tradi-modern” group with whom I recorded the album Toleki Bango in Brussels the following year — this was my first job as a producer … In Kin again in 1996 I was told that Konono No. 1 had ceased their activities and were scattered between Congo and Angola. Then in 2000 the president of their fan club told me that the group was expected to return from Angola soon. I left a note and promised I’d be back in a few months. In July Le Tout Puissant Likembe Konono No. 1 was ready for an audition, complete with 3 electric likembes, a drumkit made of hub caps, and a PA system made of two “lance-voix” (“voice-throwers,” i.e. megaphones used by the Belgian colonizers before independence to diffuse radio broadcasts in the streets) which were probably the same ones featured on the 1978 recordings. I like to think that Konono No. 1 partly owes its resurrection to me — but I suppose this is a favorite fantasy of all producers!” (continue reading here.  and even more here)

DOWNLOAD: Musiques Urbaines de Kinshasa (ORIGINAL DOUBLE CASSETTE)

seriously doubt anyone will have a problem with this share, as monolithic and golden as it is, since this tape was soon out of print after release, and the CD version by now as well, after the great museum of Ocora went out of business (another sure sign of our certain collective doom).

and here are 2 excerpts from the documentary film, thanks to Crammed:

 

FUSION 2 – Ancestral Dubient

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Traditional and contemporary music from 5 continents, 25 countries, mashed up, refixed, and dubbed out.

Whereas the first Fusion volume was global traditional music fused with Dubstep and Grime, this second one clocks in at 105 BPM and explores the marriage of ancestral sounds and mid-tempo dancehall/moonbahton/hiphop derived beats.  Some of the juxtapositions include Mongolian Throat Singing with screwed Techno, Uzbek vocal pop with Norwegian Skweee, Tribal African chanting over Hiphop, and Brazillian tinged percussion with Angolan Urban Beats.  The mood is often overcast and cloudy with occasional bursts of heavy thunderstorms.

The FUSION series is decidedly more for listening compared to the dancefloor oriented NGOMA series, but there are certainly some bangers in here for you to  scrunch up your face to, alongside more tripped out and lyrical numbers.

OR: STREAM: MIXCLOUD // 1 TRACK DL: MEDIAFIRE // SEPARATE TRACKS DL: MEDIAFIRE

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01 [Ghana] Gordon Odametey – Flying Gods (Zhao Edit)
02 [Liberia] Seku Bundah, Troupe, and Townsmen of Jonjah – Topical Song (Zhao Edit)
03 [Cameroon/France] Francis Bebey – Binta Madialio >< Agoria – Solarized (dub mix)
04 [Turkey/UK] Yaşar Akpençe – Dreams >< Demdike Stare – Haxan Dub
05 [Unknown Africa/SA] Unknown – Patricia >< Sibot – Famon Nigiri
06 [Malaysia/Germany] Anggi anak Alang, Entirong Bayang , Enggang anak Sandom, Kira anak Rabong – Serunal/Taboh >< Log – Out 2
07 [Colombia/Spain] Cumbia Moderna De Soledad – Shacalao >< Lerosa and Donato – acid snake
08 [Algeria/USA] Flûtes-gasba du Nord-Est de l’Agérie – Hwa Mrabet Did Chabbi >< Omar D – Busaru Beats
09 [Nubia] Al-Nûbatiyya – Mann Koudoud Toa Yaa Naas (Zhao Edit)
10 [Morrocco] Unknown – Unknown (Zhao Edit)
11 [Egypt] Ahmad Adaweya – Salametha Omm Hassan (Zhao Edit)
12 [Algeria] Unknown – Danse Bédouine (Zhao Edit)
13 [Nigeria/Angola] Guem & Zaka – Nostalgie >< Dj Maginho – TarraxO 100 percent Agressivo
14 [Brazil/Angola] No Sapatinho – Batugue >< dj nuxito – nova inspiracio
15 [UK/Japan] Ian Middleton – Cycle AND Sakuteiki – Viewing Infinite Space
16 [USA/Japan] Dubadelic – Rise of the Fall >< Sakuteiki – Viewing Infinite Space
17 [Syria/UK] Lena Chamamian – Sariri Hovim Mernem >< King Midas Sound – I Dub
18 [Mongolia/Spain] Black Horse – Chingges Khaanii magtaal (with huumii) >< Lerosa and Donato – Gas Snake
19 [Uzbekistan/Sweden] Yulduz Usmanova – Schoch Va Gado >< Daniel Savio – Tough Guy Music