What's New and Interesting in African Music?

Rolling World Music 2006 Thread

Not universally loved -- H dislikes it, for example -- but I like it a lot more than I thought I would: Gigi, Gold and Wax (Ethiopian electro-pop with dub and Indian touches, Laswell production but less Laswell-like than ever)

Not necessarily African, really, but African nonetheless: Teshome Mitiku, Topia's Deluge (Ethiopian dude from Super Ekos Band who lives in USA now, heavy on the synths but I don't care, I like it lots)

CD I wish to hell I liked better: African Guitar Summit 2 (too tame, people)

Tell me more about Daddy Saj from Sierra Leone. I heard three of his songs on Afro-Pop Worldwide and really liked all of them. (I bet Alex in SF already knows and has an opinion about this person. If not, he should check him out I think.)

Please do not link to his myspace or Wikipedia articles, anyone. I can find that stuff on my own.

I guess I need to buy headphones now that I only have internet access at the library.

(This thread really took off the first time around.)

What are good blogs that focus on African pop/rock music?

awesometapesfromafrica?

Don't know what era of African music you are looking for but this blog is amazing : http://voodoofunk.blogspot.com/

Basically, German record collector goes out to Africa to unearth lost music and ends up coming across alot of the musicians involved in said music and has some harrowing experiences along the way. For me, one of the most interesting music blogs out there, period. Not to mention the music he finds is some really beautiful stuff. A documentary was filmed following him along the way, he is trying to get funding for the actual post-production and marketing of the thing. Here is a clip to get an idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTzJjsS8-Zw

http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm

Fader magazine had a recent issue all about African music --hiplife, kwaito, rap, a black South African funky-prog-rock band...

http://tambourdafrique.blogspot.com/ congolese rumba music

http://masalacism.blogspot.com/ african and latin club sounds

http://www.africambiance.org/phpbbv3/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=dabf29cac8e4e181f7ce4b9df887e2a5 African music chatboard frequented mainly by Congolose emigrees to Europe and the US

http://combandrazor.blogspot.com/ Nigerian oldies but goodies

ACES! I've been waiting on this thread, you need to listen to Praye (fun times) and Buraka Som Sistema who don't fuck around, their beats are heavy

I subscribe to ATFA and VoodooFunk already. They seem like the cream of the crop in this area. But I've been looking to broaden my horizons a bit, which is why I asked. Thanks, Curmudgeon, those links look promising!

i caught a Toto Bona Lokua (ie Richard Bona and some other guys who I don't know) show a couple weeks ago and was pretty blown away (especially by this jam called "lisanga"). the record sounds pretty good too, judging from clips?

Is Bona NYC based now or am I thinking of someone else?

I posted this on the Rolling Sublime Whirled Music 2008 thread, over the weekend:

Just listened to a few minutes of a rocking Ethiopian band that came on shortly after midnight at Dukem on U Street in DC (where I had gone to eat). They were more energetic and uptempo than most of the Ethipian combos I've seen. They were very loud and it was late, so me and my friends did not stick around long but what I heard sounded great. DC has such a large Ethiopian population that there may be countless groups like this playing weekend nights around the area.

-- curmudgeon, Sunday, 13 July 2008 05:17 (Yesterday) Link

Rolling Sublime Whirled Music 2008 (a catch-all thread when you can't find another one that works)

does anyone know of a good online store that sells a variety of african music for reasonable prices? i'm not thinking as much of the hip reissues as just plain old african CDs that would be mostly purchased on the continent.

i've been looking for a bunch of stuff, notably some albums by gabon's oliver n'goma, but can't find them for reasonable amounts on amazon or ebay.

Sternsmusic.com sells stuff but they're not cheap.

Is Oliver N'Goma's African-zouk and African reggae popular all over the African continent?

http://www.myafricanbargains.com/index.cfm/fa/search.main/

Nigerian but not gabon stuff there.

i think his stuff is popular almost everywhere.

Maybe a South African site sells his stuff. There seem to be some comprehensive online outlets there. The 2 N'goma cds sternsmusic has are listed as out of stock.

I need to get back to Simba music in Maryland a retail store that sells cds and dvds largely to African immigrants. They were supposed to start selling online as well, but I do not know if they ever did.