since my mother decided that our next big family reunion was to happen in beautiful Cape Town, i recently received an email from South African Airways with my plane ticket & itinerary for the Southern hemisphere's summer of 2009. that was a really nice surprise! i'm so excited to finally go back to Africa...
in the spirit of African music i dug up some rare African grooves & tossed in some amazing new tunes from the "Western" part of the world:
AFRICAN LOVE - MP3 downloads
28 MP3s... 28 is a pretty important number. it takes 28 days to graduate from rehab haha! it takes at least 28 hours to get from LA to Cape Town, via Washington DC, Frankfurt & Johannesburg. i'm gonna need to make sure my iPod is charged up & fully loaded...
this playlist includes Sigur Rós' new song; here's the Gobbledigook video, directed by fellow Icelanders Arni & Kinski, former members of the band Gus Gus who have become commercial directors in LA.
also in here you'll find Ratatat's new song; their album will be released in July i believe. it has a very Crystal Castles quality to it, or should i say Crystal Castles sounds a lot like Ratatat. either way, i love it! also in here is another Pilooskis . and MAC 3000 does a great remix of Aphex Twin, as well as Tepr of Santogold . tomorrow at the El Rey James Pants opens for Jamie Lidell . i really love Pants' remix of Howard Johnson.
back to the freezing North, Norwegians Rajaton blend in quite well with the African sounds in this playlist, as well as a crazy club anthem of Ost & Kjex...
speaking of disco, 1979's italo disco "African Love Song" kicks ass. it's all about jungle love!!! for more tunes like this one, i highly recommend Disco Italia (the videos posted on this site are to die for).
this playlist kicks off with a 70s highlife hit by the legendary Prince Nico Mbarga. you can also find a recent cover of "Sweet Mother" by Soulfège... Stones Throw's Now/Again's "Color Me" is a lot of fun. go here for more songs like this one...
i don't have a lot of info on the African artists featured in this playlist. and unfortunately the production value of the recordings was pretty poor. still you get the idea...
Wganda Kenya is a studio band at the Fuentes record company that was put together some years ago to record non-latin tropical hit songs from places like West Africa, Curaçao and Martinique.
i really love to dance to Wakimbizi who are huge in certain parts of Africa. "Baby Baby" is the only MP3 i have, but check out their super low fi clip for "Hallo Hallo." Wakimbizi in Kiswahili, the National language of Kenya, simply means Runners or it can also means Runaways, so it depends in which context one uses the word. The Group Wakimbizi, was formed in 1996, the decade of the coming of a new generation of Kenyan Artistes with diverse styles, such as dancehall, hip hop, ragga, African reggae and even R&B, all done the Kenyan way. for more hip-hop but from the Western end of the Sahara, check out Nomadic Wax.
several years ago i had the pleasure of meeting Frederic Galliano who has done amazing things with Frikyiwa. he recently released an album by Angolans Kuduro Sound System...
i end with 4 long & haunting tracks from Morocco, a country i love so much. my brothers & i used to have a lot of fun there... the music of Mahmoud Guinia will take you to another place entirely. not on this playlist, but from just South of Morocco, check out "Soutouro" by Ablaye Cissoko . here's more on him, and here's a site where you can find even more eclectic music...
well, if the ambien doesn't do the trick while on the long trip from LA to Cape Town, i have to have some music that will help me space out, such as Spain's cosmic "Quasar 2C361" by Neuronium. trippy!!!
this playlist includes Sigur Rós' new song; here's the Gobbledigook video, directed by fellow Icelanders Arni & Kinski, former members of the band Gus Gus who have become commercial directors in LA.
also in here you'll find Ratatat's new song; their album will be released in July i believe. it has a very Crystal Castles quality to it, or should i say Crystal Castles sounds a lot like Ratatat. either way, i love it! also in here is another Pilooski
back to the freezing North, Norwegians Rajaton blend in quite well with the African sounds in this playlist, as well as a crazy club anthem of Ost & Kjex...
speaking of disco, 1979's italo disco "African Love Song" kicks ass. it's all about jungle love!!! for more tunes like this one, i highly recommend Disco Italia (the videos posted on this site are to die for).
this playlist kicks off with a 70s highlife hit by the legendary Prince Nico Mbarga. you can also find a recent cover of "Sweet Mother" by Soulfège... Stones Throw's Now/Again's "Color Me" is a lot of fun. go here for more songs like this one...
i don't have a lot of info on the African artists featured in this playlist. and unfortunately the production value of the recordings was pretty poor. still you get the idea...
Wganda Kenya is a studio band at the Fuentes record company that was put together some years ago to record non-latin tropical hit songs from places like West Africa, Curaçao and Martinique.
i really love to dance to Wakimbizi who are huge in certain parts of Africa. "Baby Baby" is the only MP3 i have, but check out their super low fi clip for "Hallo Hallo." Wakimbizi in Kiswahili, the National language of Kenya, simply means Runners or it can also means Runaways, so it depends in which context one uses the word. The Group Wakimbizi, was formed in 1996, the decade of the coming of a new generation of Kenyan Artistes with diverse styles, such as dancehall, hip hop, ragga, African reggae and even R&B, all done the Kenyan way. for more hip-hop but from the Western end of the Sahara, check out Nomadic Wax.
several years ago i had the pleasure of meeting Frederic
i end with 4 long & haunting tracks from Morocco, a country i love so much. my brothers & i used to have a lot of fun there... the music of Mahmoud Guinia will take you to another place entirely. not on this playlist, but from just South of Morocco, check out "Soutouro" by Ablaye Ci
well, if the ambien doesn't do the trick while on the long trip from LA to Cape Town, i have to have some music that will help me space out, such as Spain's cosmic "Quasar 2C361" by Neuronium. trippy!!!
since i didn't include any MP3s of Soukous (Zairian or Congolese salsa/rumba with French lyrics), here's a video:
of course, i had to include a few cumbias & salsas popular on the Caribbean beaches of Venezuela & Columbia, where most of the locals' ancestors are Western African. the music is very similar...
