• Music

    Jantra – Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground

    April 19, 2023 - By 

    This wonderfully weird album from a composer called Jantra is a bit of a challenge to describe.  Best to let the magnificent Ostinato Records lay out their case for this gem, as written on their Bandcamp site: “Near the border of Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, a disputed area called Fashaga is home to one of the most raucous, hypnotic, addictive, and celestial dance musics being made anywhere in Africa, perhaps the least known to the wider world of them all. Far from the townships of South Africa or the cities of Nigeria, this sound belongs to people intimately tied to…

  • Music

    Noori & His Dorpa Band – Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast

    June 12, 2022 - By 

    I can’t say I know much about who Noori, the tambur-guitarist and leader of his eponymous band is, but to learn more, consider reading this article by OK Africa.  From the Bandcamp site: A soundtrack of Sudan’s revolution and the first ever international release of the Beja sound, performed by Noori and his Dorpa Band, an unheard outfit from Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea coast in eastern Sudan and the heart of Beja culture. Electric soul, blues, jazz, rock, surf, even hints of country, speak fluently to styles and chords that could be Tuareg, Ethiopian, Peruvian or…

  • Music

    Star Band de Dakar – Psicodelia Afro-Cubana de Senegal

    June 13, 2021 - By 

    Cuba has a long, storied history of sharing a strong bond with many countries in Africa.  From the horrifying slave trade to the Cuban Communist “revolution,” culture and music have flowed back and forth between the island nation and most of the richly cultured continent.  This release from the now-legendary Ostinato Records documents one of my favorite bands, the Senegalese powerhouse Star Band de Dakar.  The music is a wonderful mix of their mbalax, one of the many native styles of Senegal, with rhumba and other styles to make an Afro-Cuban cocktail.  This is a joyful release – fun, danceable…