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

This thread is mainly for polyrhythmic, international sounds that aren't big enough to get threads of their own (and often include use of old-school non-programmed instrumentation like guitars). I lean toward south of the equator sounds here that are sometimes less club-oriented than those of artists highlighted on Afropop, 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, and/or more avante.

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

2024 thread

At some point my wife wants to go back and visit where she was in the Peace Corps in the rural Venda region of South Africa. We had toyed with going in February of 2025 and then also going to this music fest in Zanzibar Tanzania. Alas, we're not going to make it this year .

https://busaramusic.org/

Sauti za Busara 2025 w/

Details on the Mdou Moctar acoustic tour--

Tears of Injustice is Mdou Moctar’s Funeral for Justice completely rerecorded and rearranged for acoustic instruments. It is an evolution of the band’s critically-adored breakout – the meditative mirror-image to the blistering electric original. Here the songs convey the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in raw and essential form.

Crown Vic’s Tropical 🌴 Pizza Box all vinyl hang at Doris in Bed-Stuy Thursday January 9 💥🪇 featuring guest selectors throughout the night rolling in with whatever wax they can fit into a pizza box! A little pre-get together for everyone before the madness of APAP, Secret Planet, Winter Jazz Fest, and Globalfest. Come warm your bones to analog tones at this fine establishment! 9pm-2Am @nyctrust @ananananant @gorintoproductions @olivierconan @barbesrecords @modrums.music ETC 💥🌴🪇

Busy time starting in NYC

https://www.rebelup.org/info/mission/

Was reading reference to Rebel Up global music radio show from Brussels and to their emails as a source for music releases

APAP (the Association of Performing Arts Professionals has events, panels , and showcases for its paying registered members in NYC from January 10 to 14th, but there are also events open to APAP and the public like Sat. Jan 11 Secret Planet NY at Drom with Yeison Landero, Lollise, Chicha Libre, Los Crema Paraiso, Miramar, Luciferin, Yallah Yallah And Djs Leon City Sounds.

And Global Fest Sun. Jan 12 at Lincoln Center w/ Akshara Music Ensemble (India music ); Bamba Wassalou Groove (Malian music); Elida Almeida (Cape Verde); Ghazi & Boom.Diwan w/ Arturo O’Farrill ( A fusion of Kuwaiti pearl diving songs and Khaleeji & Afro-Latin jazz); Mireya Ramos and the Poor Choices ( Mexican ranchera w/ American country); Maruja Limón (all-female Catalan rumba); Paul Beaubrun ( Haitian funk and Rara); Rebolu (Colombian Caribbean coast music) ; Zar Electrik (Mahgreb oud & guitar solos w/ drums and programmed keyboard beats); Hazmat Modine (American roots & global)

Secret Planet and Barbes folks also did a Sunday afternoon program before Global Fest

https://www.adelina-sasnauskaite.com/12823994-blind-in-1-eye

Lithuanian painter/photographer who moved to the UK and was in rural Senegal and Mauritania recently and has posted photos and video of musicians and more there (that I first discovered via Sahel Sounds IG stories). I now follow her blind-1-eye IG page.

https://www.instagram.com/blind.in.1.eye/

Saw South African guitarist Derek Gripper and Iraqi (& now American citizen) oud player Rahim Alhaj in DC. Pleasant show (maybe a bit staid classical folk for me but I liked when they sounded more Iraqi and or Malian) where they dueted together and then Alhaj played solo and then Gripper played solo and they then dueted again together. Gripper is able to make his guitar sound like a Malian kora and also like an ancient European stringed harpsichord or something playing Bach (who he covered and described as "someone who topped the charts hundreds of years ago"). He also spoke about his intense respect for the late Toumani Diabete whom he met in Bamako and who sadly died young last year. Alhaj asked in English at one point did anyone speak Arabic? A fairly big number of people responded yes and he smiled and said my wife sometimes says we should move (they currently live in Albuquerque). After talking back and forth in Arabic with a guy in the row in front of me, he did what sounded like a traditional Iraqi folk song and the guy in front of me chanted out the call and response lyrics. Alhaj spoke about MLK and about the need for peace and love and respect for all including Palestinians. He condemned the number of Palestinians who have died. Gripper made a critical comment about the Inauguration and one about Reagan too.

I missed this March 2024 release that critic Mike Rubin mentioned in his year-end African best of list

https://abdallahoumbadougou.bandcamp.com/album/amghar-the-godfather-of-tuareg-music-vol-1

Amghar: The Godfatdher of Tuareg Music - VOL. 1 is the first career retrospective of the legendary, late Tuareg innovator Abdallah Oumbadougou, who is considered the Godfather of the Tuareg / Desert Blues genre and was a primary influence of current Tuareg musicians like Bombino and Mdou Mocktar. Features 14 tracks, newly remastered by 5 time GRAMMY winning engineer Michael Graves, and includes 6 unreleased, never before heard originals. The gorgeous DOUBLE VINYL package also includes extensive historical liner notes from Tuareg expert & historian Andy Morgan and lyric translations in Tamashek, French and English. The cover portrait of the artist was created by Nigerian born illustrator Diana Ejaita who is notable for her extensive cover work with the New Yorker magazine.

"He was like a father to us. Like our first inspiration" - BOMBINO

This Rubin fave from 2024 also was never discussed here:

Mamman Sani and Tropikal Camel-Nijerusalem

African synth guy Mamman Sani has been mentioned a few times over the years but not this most recent album

From Bandcamp-

Batov Records presents ‘Nijerusalem’, a groundbreaking collaboration between Nigerien synth pioneer Mamman Sani and Berlin-based electronic artist Tropikal Camel.

Mamman Sani's electronic organ music, first recorded in 1978, made him a national hero in Niger, led to him writing the Niger’s new national anthem, and has long been cherished by aficionados for its unique blend of traditional Nigerien melodies and synth experimentation. Mamman's music embodies a sense of intimacy, echoing the presence of a solo artist in the room with the listener.

This album is the result of a serendipitous meeting at the Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda. Both artists shared a residency and studio space, which led to long recording sessions together over the course of two weeks, capturing the organic fusion of Mamman's synth melodies and Tropikal Camel's percussive electronic beats. Despite their divergent backgrounds and ages, Mamman at 73 and Tropikal Camel at 44, they found equilibrium in their collaborative process....

https://mammansani.bandcamp.com/album/nijerusalem

I am behind on finding new stuff to post about here.

Amghar: The Godfatdher of Tuareg Music - VOL. 1 is the first career retrospective of the legendary, late Tuareg innovator Abdallah Oumbadougou

Ok

It didn’t wow me in first listen I mean

Abdallah Oumbadougou may have been an innovator, but so far to me his Tuareg music is just decent enough to me.

Batov Records presents ‘Nijerusalem’, a groundbreaking collaboration between Nigerien synth pioneer Mamman Sani and Berlin-based electronic artist Tropikal Camel.

This one is a bit uneven

I am scheduled to see Mdou Moctar and band play acoustic tonight in suburban DC area, but show may get cancelled if predicted snow comes this afternoon

Sahel Sounds band Etran de L'Air are doing a US tour April 8 to May 11 . DC gig May 9

I missed the acoustic Mdou Moctar band gig in suburban Virginia near DC due to the 6 inches of snow. Wife and I wimped out. The club booking agent said if there had been 8 inches of snow he would have postponed it

https://linktr.ee/etrandelair?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaLkKzyFzmYmL6M-bGBflu5gUseruKvdxH1tMBosBotlakUjud-hd7vsbI_aem_N9eCDWqE5ONzA6zeMlBEeg

Etran de L’air are doing Australia and New Zealand gigs before they do US ones

Catching up on Substacks I see that critic Andy Beta also likes Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper - Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper

Malian with a South African guitarist

Andy Beta likes this nyege nyege release I haven’t heard
Yet

Ekuka Morris Sirikiti - Te​-​Kwaro Alango​-​Ekuka

US based Palestinian oud player Huda Asfour is playing at Nublu Classic in NYC wed Feb 26. I used to see her play on occasion when she lived in DC area and I like her albums. But then she went back to Egypt for awhile where she has family, and now she’s back in NYC.

Canary Records new release-To Say I Was Here: Arabic, Greek, Judeo-Spanish, and Turkish Speaking Jewish Recording Musicians, 1907-69

On Bandcamp. Plus he’s giving away free cds at a Baltimore Museum exhibit

https://jesssahbi.bandcamp.com/album/jesus-christ-ne-de-oit-pas

Awesome Tapes from Africa is pushing this Jess Sa Bi Ivory Coast guy who lives in California now and put out this laidback, Afro-twangy effort that thanks Jesus for his return to health

Brad Luen on Bluesky is posting women artists from 31 countries all March for International women's month

https://bsky.app/profile/bradluen.bsky.social/post/3lkhwo62mmc23

The Trump shutdown of VOA has put all its employees on administrative leave including Music Time in Africa host Heather Maxwell. It also has me worried about the Music Time in Africa archives with material going way back

The Music Time in Africa website was still working the last time I looked. Don't know if that just means they have lots of already prepared stuff that someone is still placing online .

I saw Pakistani Ustad Saami and his sons the Saami Brothers Saturday night outside Washington DC at a sold out Barns of Wolf Trap. The crowd was 99% plus South Asian. Ustad Saami got attention here back in 2020 I think for his 2019 God is Not a Terrorist album. Ustad led the group in the first set backed by his sons with one playing a harmonium and one on tabla. I think this first set was mostly "khayal" music-- with cosmic and ethereal humming and sounds. In the second set, just the sons were out there, and the emcee said they would be doing qawwali music (pronounced "kavali"). They had 2 harmonium players this set plus tabla. The music was more upbeat and danceable and the vocals were more soaring. A number of Pakistanis in the audience approached the center front of the stage and made hand gestures near their foreheads and placed money on a stand .

Saw him a few years back, was great! Sounds like a good show

yes very much so, love it

Pat Thomas with the Ebo Taylor and Family Band touring North America now

Considered posting this Cheikh Ibra Fam video with a young dancer on the Afropop thread, but while pop and soulful it also has a bit of a roots trad feel. He was a singer for a bit in Orchestra Baobab, but went solo recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiSoCb63jfU

Saw 89-year old Ebo Taylor from Ghana a few nights ago at the Howard Theatre in DC with a great band led by his son on keyboards. 70-something Ghana singer Pat Thomas did a bunch of songs as well with the band. Ebo Taylor was in a wheelchair and just sang about 4 songs with the band. He doesn't play guitar anymore.

Ah yes, for now at least international acts can come to Washington DC and elsewhere in the US and perform. Also, last night I saw US-based Iranians The Vahdat sisters, Mahsa and Marjan from Iran, were great last night at the Freer Gallery of the Museum of Asian Art in DC . They have such strong vocals and their mournful songs with minimalist but there rhythms were especially strong. They were backed by a pianist and a percussionist. They had fled Iran after they were charged with a crime for singing a song together on a Tehran rooftop without head coverings, and with male musicians (and posting a video of the performance on Youtube). They both now live in California . Mahsa said last night that Washington DC needs people willing to sing on rooftops.

https://4columns.org/dayal-geeta/tsapiky

Geeta D writing about Madagascar music called tsapiky

https://soundcloud.com/elpadrecordsprod/tshala-muana-vs-missy-elliot-get-ur-freak-on-like-malu-el-padrecords-mashup-mix

cool remix from several years ago of Congolese singer Tshala Muana and Missy Elliot's "Get ur Freak On"

I heard Pierre Kwenders mention it in an Afropop. org interview

Ghana's King Ayisoba and Wiyaala

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1360910731892052

I saw Etran de L'Air at Pearl Street in DC last night do their Saharan rock thing, which was fun. They just go and go. The guitars get all the attention, but the drummer's galloping beats are really great too.

Thursday night I was at the the Library of Congress and saw the NY Andalus Ensemble play music rooted in Moorish Spain with Ladino, Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish lyrics. This was a free show. There was also a speaker talking about the Abraham Pinto collection of Moroccan music and artifacts that is part of the Library of Congress. Pinot was a Jewish Moroccan who recorded Moroccan Jews and others in that country. The oud player in the group's playing was better than his voice, but thankfully they had 2 other singers , one male , one female, who had great voices. Sadly on Friday I read that Trump on Thursday night while I was there at the LOC, fired the Library of Congress librarian Carla Hayden, the first ever woman (and Black woman) librarian at the Library.

Later that night I saw NY-based Colombian percussion and singing group La Manga at Haydee's in DC (they also did a free Kennedy Center gig earlier that night that is on Youtube now)

there are two tracks from Falle Nioke's album, due in sept, out: https://fallenioke.bandcamp.com/album/love-from-the-sea

I really love the opener; not quite sure about LDN Girl yet but sounds like the album will be pretty eclectic

and in the curmudgeonly spirit of the thread: I saw Palestinian violinist, oud player, and composer Simon Shaheen last month in Brooklyn. The music was fantastic though the night was marred by a disturbing incident in the audience directly in front of me and my friends: some guy had a violent outburst, yelling at his girlfriend and basically freaking out and ranting incoherently. there was no security at the venue and Shaheen ended up intervening directly! He also ably resolved the tension after the guy had been taken out of the hall but it was still pretty unsettling.

Wow

I know Putumayo albums were often corny but was just reading an interview with the label founder who just died of cancer and saw this. How he got music to bigger name musicians who then spread the word and collaborated with the less known musicians (for better or worse) -

One day, Dave Letterman was going to the same acupuncturist as I went to, a South African guy, and I had given him Oliver’s CD, and Dave said, “I love this African music you’re turning me onto. Anybody else?” And he gave him the CD that I gave the acupuncturist, and Letterman freaked out, called him the next day, “Who is this? I gotta get him.” and I started getting calls from the girl that I had dated saying, “When can you get Oliver on the show?” So, it’s the funniest thing how just one song can somehow make its way. That’s what that Manu Chao thing did on NPR.

B.E: It’s like Bonnie Raitt turning onto Oliver’s song “Hear Me Lord.” That triggered a whole string of interesting events, leading to her coming to Mali with us!

https://afropop.org/articles/dan-storper-1951-2025

D.S: I gave her Habib’s album, and she said, “You know, I love African music,” but she didn’t really know Habib. And so I gave her the album and she went like six months later, three months later, she went to Mali to hang out with him.[/i]

might be an interesting if challenging project to work out when exactly country fell out of favor in non English-speaking places (c.f. my mother growing up in Malaysia and being able to sing a bunch of Jim Reeves songs with ~50% accuracy)

https://bsky.app/profile/bradluen.bsky.social/post/3lpwmk55ikc2f

Saw Takaat last night. That's Mdou Moctar's band without Mdou. Noisy and rocking without the hybrid metal aspect that Moctar brings in. The drummer was the star for Takaat hitting the drum set hard and offering galloping beats at times, and machine gun like bursts other times.

phrases with terms I have seen lately: The dj will be playing SWANA music.

"faaji nights w/ dj "

The term 'SWANA' represents Southwest Asia and North Africa, a decolonial term challenging Eurocentric labels like 'Middle Eastern' and 'Islamic World.

Faaji is a Nigerian word for having a good time, party or celebration

https://www.jonathanbogart.net/blog/2024/11/28/50-songs-2023-fs5c2

Jonathan Bogart just posted his 2024 best recently. Caribbean and tropical dance music and more largely chosen via Youtube

I'd heard of SWANA but not faaji

Xp what an amazing list!

It sure is .

Unboundable:
BDS Mixtape Vol. 3
Out on all platforms July 9, 2025 – the twentieth anniversary of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS). Proceeds from BDS Mixtape’s sales support cultural initiatives in Palestine.
Unboundable gathers over 20 celebrated musicians to engage this question on a double album with 13 improvisational tracks that braid jazz, Indian classical, and Arabic music (SIDE A) with experimental voice, avant electronica, and instruments from nature (SIDE B).

https://www.amplifypalestine.org/bds-mixtape-vol-3?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwLJCK1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp-0epVeabGZK3jW7S5SLxzjEzL1td12iU9M0jlMbbyjSBpakPc101R0DDKod_aem_IM_l1au-Z_D-3kAJhSFLGw

Unboundable gathers over 20 celebrated musicians to engage this question on a double album with 13 improvisational tracks that braid jazz, Indian classical, and Arabic music (SIDE A) with experimental voice, avant electronica, and instruments from nature (SIDE B).

Some of the folks on that upcoming release: From rabab virtuoso Qais Essar and violinist gabby fluke-mogul to interdisciplinary artist Muyassar Kurdi and The Dwarfs of East Agouza (Maurice Louca, Sam Shalabi, Alan Bishop, Huda Asfour

So this 2024 DJ Edna Martinez special on her Champeta episode featured Congolese to Paris guitarist Diblo Dibala, and earlier this year someone sent a cdr of it to Robert Christgau who enthused about it in his Substack.

I saw Dibala over the years with Loketo and later Matchatcha ( sp?)and maybe before that with Kanda Bongo Man. Anyway, his speedy soukous guitar sounds good in doses.

https://soundcloud.com/user-643553014/champeta-w-edna-martinez-diblo

The Wazumbians from Ghana are @ Le Mondo in Baltimore July 11. They have a Fela influenced old school afrobeat sound

https://www.wazumbians.com/about

Raboday is a genre of Haitian music that originated in the late 1990s. It is a fusion of traditional Haitian compas music and hip-hop, and is characterized by its fast-paced rhythms and heavy use of synthesizers. The lyrics often focus on social issues, such as poverty, violence, and politics.

Heard on public radio Toumani Diabaté, the Malian kora player with Iranian kamancheh (spike fiddle) master Kayhan Kalhor from the 2023 album The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere. The dj then told Kalhor's story that I didn't know.

When Kayhan Kalhor first left Iran, at age 17, he walked — more than 2,500 miles, to Italy. He carried only two items with him: a small backpack and his main musical instrument, the kamancheh.

This was during the Iranian Revolution. Kalhor was the only one of his family — who are of Kurdish descent — to leave the country. His parents, fearing the worst for him, decided there was no other choice. They stayed behind, along with Kalhor's beloved brother...Four years after Kalhor left Iran, his parents and brother were killed in a missile strike that hit their home during the devastating Iran-Iraq war that followed the Iranian revolution...

Kalhor found the anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. so difficult that in 2002, he decided to return to Iran, despite his native country's strictures...It was then that Kalhor met Zohreh Soltanabadi, his great love. She shares Kalhor's other passion: horses. That's what brought them together; not long after his return to Tehran, a friend invited Kalhor to go horseback riding....Not long after the couple got married, Soltanabadi's father died. Soltanabadi's mother back in Iran needed her, she says, and as an Iranian daughter, it was her duty and desire to care for her mother. With Kalhor gone so frequently on tour in any case, Soltanabadi returned to Iran.

In the spring of 2017 — just months after President Trump's initial ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, went into effect — Soltanabadi finally had her an appointment at the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey for her green card interview. Kalhor had already had his application for U.S. permanent residency granted. Just as Soltanabadi had feared, her green card application was denied.

[so I think to see his wife they have to be together in Iran or perhaps other countries, but can't be together at the horse farm he bought in California]

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/955787443/after-u-s-immigration-battle-musician-kayhan-kalhor-returns-to-iran

There's also a whole doc about Kalhor and his wife that I haven't seen

Yes to Florence Adooni, Ghana highlife ( and Ghana gospel) artist who has her own ilx thread

Florence Adooni "Queen of Frafra Gospel" (Ghanaian highlife)

Cool music fest in Berlin I noticed on Sahel Sounds IG story. Alas I am far away across the Atlantic. But I have seen some of the acts when they traveled my way

https://www.humboldtforum.org/en/programm/event/concert/durchluften-2025-145664/?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwLkpyBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpzhNxUBqFHhj4TDtpQRg7mHJcjOY2q4vOoaqKdIs2wCTf8ObpLoeFIJv2zuL_aem_3idFDoV7IribKrbOKoIATg

There's a playlist on that Berlin fest link too-- it's got African, Latino, Asian and more groups that draw from the past but seem modern if not pop

https://www.songlines.co.uk/features/label-of-love-canary-records?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwLnRz1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpw6wxA18n4A4BuDeUJdLp2gvEwZZjOOf7G0Z3hQLwCSyCyc1SLhIMxrwQgUp_aem_AFuYpKi7EvMvA88_APcfdg

Profile of Canary Records, Ian Nagoski’s label that puts out archival releases of older music from around the world

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Ejk8QP5n/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMPFfh0s0jN/?igsh=MXNhMG4zY2txbm5uaA==

Gazan Alaa Azam liked to sing in a high toned mournful way and recite the Koran. Israel just blew up he and his family.

Cheikh Ibra Fam, former member of Orchestra Baobab is doing a free 6 to 7 us et show at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage that will also be livestreamed and archived

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9LMeKpwXc0

250 plus Ethiopians and a few others ( hi says my wife and I) at Hemen’s lounge for reunion gig by Admas, a band formed in early 80s dc by Ethiopians who later moved back to Ethiopia, but just came back to dc for a few weeks

I liked their Ethio-jazz songs more than their fusiony-jazz ones. They also covered Miles Davis "So What" and backed the guitar's daughter on her cover of "Stand by Me" and another song.

Super psyched about these K. Frimpong reissues by Sounway: https://soundwayrecords.com/news/announcing-k-frimpong-and-his-cubano-fiestas-reissue

Streaming the Blue Album right now, it's fantastic. And sounds way better than the xth-generation cassette digital transfer that I know him from.

"Kyenkyen Bi Adi M'Awu" is just an all-time jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHNvQ9r-rs0

That's great-- the emotion in his vocals, and the funky organ and horns, along with the other instruments (flute, drums etc)

Frimpong’s drummer is excellent AND was named Kung Fu Kwaku.

Thanks for the K. Frimpong shout. This rules.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ale-hop-titi-bakorta-mapambazuko/

le Bop and Tito Bakorta , Peruvian and Congolese musicians together on Nyege Nyege from January 2025 , but I just noticed it now on Pitchfork’s best of 2025 so far list. Doesn’t wow me, but more dedicated fans of that label will likely like it more than I do

Ale Hop and Tito

New York City folks can see for free Saturday:

Thea Hopkins, Indigenous Aquinnah Wampanoag American, sings Americana; in Hearst Plaza (main plaza); on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 4:30pm. FREE. 🇺🇸

Gaye Su Akyol sings Turkish psychedelic rock and folk in Hearst Plaza (main plaza); on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 5:15pm. FREE 🇹🇷

Taína Asili, the Puerto Rican New Yorker, sings her unique fusion of soul, salsa, and reggae; in Hearst Plaza (main plaza); on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 5:45pm. FREE. 🇵🇷

Natu Camara, the Guinean New Yorker, sings Guinean pop and American funk on The Dance Floor; on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 6:30pm. FREE. 🇬🇳

Claudia Acuña, the Chilean jazz singer, sings jazz and Chilean folk at Hearst Plaza; on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 7:30pm. FREE. 🇨🇱

BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) from Soweto, South Africa, sings Sowetan funk and soul at Damrosch Park; on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 7:30pm. FREE. 🇿🇦

El Laberinto del Coco, Puerto Rico’s bomba fusion big band, plays bomba alternative on The Dance Floor; on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 8:45pm. FREE. 🇵🇷

Haza, the NYC dance party, spins a silent disco of music of the Arab, Asian, and African diasporas on The Dance Floor; on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 10pm. FREE.

Those are on the Lincoln Center campus

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music-stage/2025/02/24/best-arabic-songs-2025/

Someone’s list of best Arabic pop songs so far of 2025

Ghanaian Ata Kak who’s on the Awesome Tapes from Africa label has just released his 1st single in 30 years, and it’s from his first new album in that same amount of time , that will be released shortly

https://lnk.to/atakak_batakari

Ata Kak is doing a U.K. and Europe tour in November

https://tix.to/atakak_tourdates

great news
haven't heard the new track yet but hoping it's released at the wrong speed again

I wear my shirt from his last tour all the time, only real headz will comment on it.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0028142264_10.jpg

that's a dope shirt

will try to catch him live

Here’s the first new Ata Kak song. It’s ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHfOdlRBtm4

Except for the autotune, I'm feeling it!

Awesome TFA will also release Obaa Sima Anniversary Remaster on 7 Nov. The new version has been created from a recently-unearthed nearly impeccable source and comes with unreleased archival photos, lyrics and a new biography by Ghanaian journalist Gabriel Myers Hansen, in a gatefold sleeve. The original cassette came out in 1994

https://abc7.com/post/doctors-husband-speaks-being-held-ice-detention-downtown-la-13-days-was-worried-going-die/17688631/

Guy with a green card who sings Arabic music in southern California grabbed by ICE, and now released but on an ankle monitor. He's married to a doctor

https://cdm.link/ahmedou-ahmed-lowla/?fbclid=PAZnRzaAMqf_9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABpw7r0-4i07WIGhAXwaNB98iyZvbLV7A5OCTFKZK0tB1JyFMD9bOacPPL_xyw_aem_C5RFMyXYpaKMr24t8Yoc8g

I wonder what Sahel keyboardist Ahmedou Ahmed Lowla is up to now . I think the above link is from 2019

A writer for the Guardian has a review of new Mabbi Fratti and Hector Tosta Latin American project Titanic album ( see separate thread) and also highlights the following which I haven’t heard all yet—

Also out this month
Colombian musician Lucrecia Dalt releases A Danger to Ourselves (RVNG Intl), an intimate collection of longing vocal melodies accompanied by sparse drum loops and textural harmony. It’s downtempo and full of strange instrumental flourishes that draw the listener in. Moroccan producer Guedra Guedra’s latest album, Mutant (Smugglers Way), continues his exploration of north African rhythms, weaving dabke and gnawa percussive patterns into electronic drum programming and synth melody, creating a propulsive dancefloor explosion. West African percussion ensemble Balimaya Project’s debut collaboration with Colombian group Discos Pacífico All Stars, Calima (Jazz Re:freshed), is a fascinating fusion of African and Latin traditions, meandering from highlife to rumba, talking drum and Latin jazz horns, all held together by a relentless sense of groove.

https://umsakazo.bandcamp.com/album/buya-buya-come-back

the joyous harmonies and high-octane jive dances of South Africa’s greatest mbaqanga girl group, the Mahotella Queens, have enthralled audiences for six decades. "Buya Buya: Come Back" is the first full album of exciting new Queens material in nearly 20 years and marks their long-awaited return to the world stage. This release also heralds a new chapter in the Mahotella story under the supervision of Hilda Tloubatla, who at the grand age of 83 is the group’s last surviving original member. Hilda has been leading the Queens with her famously resonant voice since the beginning in 1964 and is now actively preparing the ground for the group’s future. She is now accompanied on record and on stage by the youthful voices of Amanda Nkosi and Nonku Maseko – the next generation of Queens – proof if ever it were needed that the mbaqanga beat is as indestructible now as it was 60 years ago.

Prince Ndedi Eyango 40 years career anniv. w/ full band, Les Montagnards from Cameroon, guest Pierre Didi Tchakounte 8 pm @ Afrikabana Center in Laurel, MD (Cameroon singer/guitarist) Sat Sept 20 . Pricey show, haven't decided if I will go. Plus will probably start late and not the 8 pm time listed

Tamil singer/multi-instrumentalist Ganavya is in DC tonight and Baltimore tomorrow. I think she's playing with a spiritual jazz harpist who has played with Shabaka Hutchings

As in from Tamil region of India I shoulda said

Her voice was so impressive. Wow. She played with harpist Charles Overton (who has played with Shabaka Hutchings) and acoustic bassist Max Ridley

She's great, I saw her with a couple of people at Big Ears this year, including Charles Lloyd.

Talked to some folks at the dc show last night who had also gone to that Big Ears show and were wowed

Check out this noisy, fast tempo, rhythmic music from Madagascar on Sublime Frequencies that was just released in April

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9n3e6Mr7rE

As I noted on the Sublime Frequencies thread--

Tsapiky! Modern Music from Southwest Madagascar, featuring Mamehy, Drick, Befila, Behaja, Mahafaly Mihisa, Meny & Ando, Rebona, and Mirasoa & Mahapoteke, recorded by Maxime Bobo, Sublime Frequencies

Geeta Dayal wrote an article in April 2025 I am just seeing

https://4columns.org/dayal-geeta/tsapiky?fbclid=PAZnRzaANBkX5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp88hRHq2QBuohDydrfxAQbO73zyiv4k-ZrUyGCRjYO_OimvceetSR45qWBrq_aem_3z69najeoBNzSdJ-lnbf6w

Takaat fall us tour in October and November.

This is Mdou Moctar’s band without Mdou playing punky North African desert rocking blues sounds

The new Falle Nioke album is quite good. It covers a lot of stylistic ground, so it's taking me a while to absorb the whole thing, but if you liked his EPs from a few years back, you'll definitely dig it

Takaat is playing Monday in a small intimate room with good live sound...

Back on April 7 I posted about seeing Ustad Saami and his sons the Saami Brothers live , before a crowd that was largely Pakistani. It was a great show. On Saturday I saw them again, this time at the Richmond, Va Folk Festival and they were just as great before a crowd that had less Pakistani audience members. Amazing vocal ranges , and great rhythms from the harmonium player and percussionist

saw him a few years back, wonderful show

I think they're gonna be at next Big Ears fest in Knoxville, Tennessee and doing European dates as well

From Washington Post-

In a rare and almost unthinkable act of defiance in today’s Russia, a small crowd of young people gathered in central St. Petersburg to sing anti-war and anti-Kremlin songs, led by 18-year-old performer Diana Loginova.

Her band, Stoptime, began holding street concerts in President Vladimir Putin’s hometown late this summer, performing almost daily music by exiled artists like Monetochka and Noize MC — musicians who fled the country after the invasion of Ukraine and were branded foreign agents. In recent weeks, Loginova’s videos went viral, drawing hundreds of messages of support from anti-war Russians on her Instagram page.

Finally authorities had enough, and Loginova was detained on Tuesday. Two days later a St. Petersburg court sentenced her to 13 days in jail for “public disorder.” Police said her impromptu concert Saturday near a metro station drew around 70 people and “resulted in negative consequences,” including disrupting pedestrian traffic.

Washington Post included a Stratcom Centre tweet w/ video clip here and the following text- Hundreds of young Russians gathered in St Petersburg to sing the banned song "Cooperative Swan Lake" that calls for the end of the Putin regime.

The anthem by exiled, pro-Ukrainian rapper "Noize MC" features lyrics like:

“When the czar dies, we’ll dance again.”

“The old man still clings to his throne, afraid to let go.”

“Old man in the bunker, still thinks it’s nineteen eighty-five.”

Local media had previously reported she might also face charges under Russia’s sweeping “discrediting the army” laws used to silence anti-war voices. Those charges would have carried a more severe punishment, including possible years of imprisonment.

The detention of Stoptime members is latest in a string of rulings and proceedings against Russians who oppose Putin that have continued throughout the war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, the country’s security service, the FSB, accused exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky along with other prominent opposition figures of creating a “terrorist organization” and of plotting to violently seize power in Russia.

Loginova, a student at a music academy who performs under the stage name Naoko, was detained along with her two bandmates, who are still awaiting trial. During the band’s street performances, Loginova sang songs with pointed lyrics such as “Uncle Volodya, tighten the screws!” — a thinly veiled reference to Putin (Volodya being a diminutive of Vladimir). Their set list also included “Swan Lake” by rapper Noize MC, a track that calls for Putin to step down after nearly a quarter-century in power.

“In thirty years or so kids in school will be studying these lyrics as ‘anti-war poetry of the 2020s,’” one comment on Naoko’s page read.

The public performance of the “Swan Lake” was denounced by a member of Putin’s Human Rights Council, Marina Akhmedova, who wrote an impassioned condemnation of the singer.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, the Russian state has poured a lot of effort into sanitizing mainstream culture, pushing it into a narrow patriotic niche where political statements that differ from the Kremlin’s views are persecuted.

Musicians, actors and writers who oppose the war have been driven into exile or silence, while those who remain in Russia are pressured to infuse their work with state-approved fervor. Artists who champion the Kremlin’s line are rewarded with visibility and wealth: Films and songs that glorify the army or extol patriotic values receive lavish state funding. Securing a stage for a dissenting voice has become almost impossible — making Stoptime’s street performances all the more extraordinary...

“I feel a lot of pain and fear for these kids, they gather hundreds of people around them and bring music and freedom into this world, not violence and war, and it should not be a crime,” exiled singer Monetochka wrote on her Instagram. She added that the band had performed her song “You are a Soldier,” and it was featured in the case against it.

“I am ever more worried about my listeners in Russia and I ask you to prioritize your security,” Monetochka added. “And those who are not afraid of anything and sing so loud — you are my heroes, there is no one cooler than you. I wouldn’t be able to do the same.” ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/16/russia-dissent-naoka-song-crackdown/

https://leguesswho.com/lineup

Cool acts at this November fest in Netherlands

Just saw Instagram stories of The Handover at Womex, global music biz fest in Finland. They are a trio with an Egyptian oudist, Egyptian violinist, and a Norwegian/Belgian synth & organist (who visits Egypt a lot) . They have a 2024 release out

banger tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzoJekLpfno
WITCH - Once In A Lifetime

Discotchari’s new compilation “Tehrangeles Vice” resurrects forgotten 1980s Persian pop songs made in L.A. by Iranian immigrants after the Islamic Revolution.
These exile-era tracks were smuggled into post-revolution Iran on cassette tapes and satellite broadcasts, becoming underground anthems during war and theocratic crackdown.
As the U.S. faces rising right-wing religious influence in government, these forgotten songs carry lessons for artists fighting cultural suppression through creative expression.

... “We wanted kids to enjoy the link between our culture and western culture,” Ahi said. “But we were also trying to bring what was happening in Iran to people’s attention with our music, which was one reason I could never go back there. Kids who had come from Iran loved Prince and Michael Jackson and were becoming super American, so we had to do something to keep them engaged in our music as well.”...As contemporary Angelenos rallying for this era of Iranian music, Asdourian and Gyulbudaghyan of Discotchari will stop at nothing to ship murkily-sourced tapes from Iran, western Asia and the Caucasus for their label. “In January, we went to Armenia and met a guy who knew a guy at a restaurant in Yerevan who had someone drive tapes in from Tabriz in Iran,” Asdourian said. “They sent us GPS coordinates to pick them up, and we ended up in this abandoned former Soviet manufacturing district getting chased by a guard dog. But he had 30 cassettes, all still sealed in their boxes.”

Yet some of the acts on “Tehrangeles Vice” are still active, living and working in California. After a long hiatus, Roshan recently released new music inspired by Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Movement, and Ahi is a sound engineer and mixer for film (he worked on “The Last of the Mohicans,” which won an Oscar for sound mixing). He recently contributed to a remix of Ed Sheeran’s “Azizam,” which sprinkles Farsi phrasing into upbeat pop and became a global hit. “Ed reached out and asked me to write some melodies that matched Googoosh’s singing to make it more international, we put our minds together and I’m so proud of it,” Ahi said.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-10-27/tehrangeles-vice-record-label-discotchari?sfmc_id=6532a10525b3640666b4a190&utm_id=42298602&skey_id=383584d63c3fff874cfd8284c2993ae2b27946841a773f46196a2e04b58e6c98&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NLTR-Email-List-Entertainment%20Digest-20251102&utm_term=Newsletter%20-%20Entertainment

Maybe I will post this on an old Iranian music thread too.

Saw Takaat again Friday night. It’s Mdou Moctar’s band without Moctar , adding in some Fugazi & other noisy punk accents rather than Van Halen to their North African mix of power and rhythm in wild time cadences.

The drummer and guitarist especially are worth listening to

https://pitchfork.com/news/mass-moca-releases-malawian-roots-album-to-launch-its-new-label-listen/

Pitchfork and Christgau like Malawi roots band The Kasambwe Brothers. There's a video as well as info in the link

I just listened to Kasambwe Brothers today and liked their old-school afropop.

Saw Yemen music trio El Khat in Baltimore last night and they were good. My 2nd time seeing them. Middle eastern stringed instrument w/ keys and percussion. At times garage surf sounding, other times traditional, and sometimes funky percussive (with their extra metal pots to bang on )