• 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

    Alsarah & the Nubatones – Soukura EP

    August 10, 2022 - By 

    This disc from Nubian pop songstress Alsarah & the Nubatones is a revelation in terms of East African music, the part of the continent which produces less aggressive, more sultry and sensuous music. The Soukura EP is filled with more time changes than a noodly prog rock album, and this makes sense, since Sudanese music is full of gorgeous instrumentation and time signatures.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “The original song “Soukura” is a small taste of her upcoming album Silt (out on 3/11) and gets a signature deep and entrancing Ancestral Soul remix by African house legend Boddhi Satva…

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    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

    The Scorpios – Let’s Go

    November 27, 2021 - By 

    The Scorpios are a Sudanese/British Afrobeat band with an incredible pedigree.  Regia Ishag, the band’s singer, is the daughter of the guitarist of one of Sudan’s funkiest bands, The Scorpions (obviously not the German hard-rock band bearing the same name). This new generation band maintains the funkiness of their forefathers and adds jazz, more funk and a more general Afrobeat element to the music.  It’s rapturous and made for the dance floor or the wedding ceremony equally.