This is a Recording

When I heard the track 'Malukayi' on Don Letts' radio show in 2015 I had to find out more about it - which wasn't immediately straightforward as the track had been mis-labelled on the playlist and was still, at that point, very new. Not much later I'd gathered it was the work of the Congolese group Mbongwana Star, whose debut album (and so far their only one) was released in May of that year. I ordered a CD copy. "Tired of pre-conceptions around African music, Mbongwana Star are creating their own identity, fusing traditional Congolese rhythms with post punk and electronics inspired by life in the townships around them, 'making magic out garbage.'" So a promotional blurb at the time explained their music. The masterminds behing the project were singer-songwriters Coco Ngambali & Théo Nzonza (formerly part of the band Staff Benda Bilili), and Irish-born, Paris-based produder Liam Farrell, aka "Doctor L". Aside from the mesmerizing ...

Saxophonist and composer Shabaka Hutchings evidently likes to keep himself busy as the leader of The Comet is Coming, and, until very recently, of Sons Of Kemet; not to mention his work as a soloist and sideman. Out of the music of his I've heard, my favourite thus far is this album We Are Sent Here By History by Shabaka And The Ancestors, the second record from the band who, apart from Hutchings himself, are based in South Africa. I acquired it last year, on CD. The two obvious focal points of the music are Huthchings' lead tenor sax and clarinet, and poet Siyabonga Mthembu's compelling chants and recitations, delivered in English, Zulu and Xhosa. Also immediately impressive is Ariel Zamonsky’s work on the double bass, but the whole band blends together beautifully. The disc gets off to a powerful start with the ten-minute opener 'They Who Must Die'. The musicians are more than capable of delicate virtuosity, but meanwhile not above playing with simpler blunt forc...

I first heard Terry Riley's In C when I picked up a copy of the 25th anniversary performance on CD back in the late '90s. That version I admired rather than loved - at over 75 minutes' duration it just went on a little too long for my taste, and I seldom listened all the way though. The piece's opening 'theme' (if that's even the right word), hooked its way into me, however, and not infrequently comes back into my mind. When I learned that a version had been recorded by a group of (mostly) Malian musicians around the time of the piece's 50th anniversary, under the umbrella of the Africa Express organisation co-founded by Damon Albarn, it immediately struck me as a great idea. Riley himself was reportedly delighted by it too, saying: "I was not quite prepared for such an incredible journey, hearing the soul of Africa in joyous flight over those 53 patterns of ‘In C’. This ensemble feeds the piece with ancient threads of musical wisdom and humanity ...

Chances are I would have bought Boulevard De L'Indépendance via an Amazon order within a few months of its release in 2006. I've scarcely dipped much more than a tentative toe or two into the deep pool of African music, but having acquired and enjoyed In the Heart of the Moon (Toumani Diabaté's collaboration with Ali Farka Touré) the year before, I was curious to hear this album too. I would likely have learned of its release via The Word magazine, which I routinely read in the mid-'00s. This was during my time in Sweden. I did still shop for CDs from the 'Rocks' record shop down the road, a soulless little place (akin to an 'Our Price' shop in the UK), but for even slightly more obscure stuff I went on-line to buy. The bigger and better 'Skivlagret' stores would have already closed by then, what with the simultaneous rise of e-commerce and file-sharing. The music: an all-star band fused into a well-oiled machine after a lengthy club residency...