“Every time I go to Africa, I see the future. I see what the Western world is going to become. It’s a very futuristic place.”- Damon Albarn, in an interview with Pitchfork, January, 2009.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I caught up with my friend Ahmed last weekend and after talking about shared love for The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit – “Dinosaurs on the Ark” is included as accompanying audio with this post) – and how African music is once again becoming a serious influence on Western music (Damon Albarn Mali Music, Brett Dennen w/ Femi Kuti “Make You Crazy”, Foals, Vampire Weekend, the list goes on) the way it was in the 80s on musicians like Paul Simon on Graceland, he started to mention a few other groups and suddenly I wishing to be listening to it right then and there rather than out at a party, but patience is a virtue and I’ve been riding a wave of African music since Sunday afternoon, mainly Amanaz, Analog Africa, and The Witch (music posted below).
I should have seen this coming… My senior history theses traced the influence of West African skin instruments, through the slave trade, on Brazilian music (consequently where Paul Simon would head to after Graceland to record The Rhythm of the Saints) and American jazz/bebop, yet it never occurred to me to revisit the source – while it’s a shame I’m just now getting down, I’m more than willing to accept that sometimes it’s better late than never… and, part of me is envisioning a documentary film on this subject in the near future.
If you dig on the jams posted below, head to Sinkane’s WordPress blog and his posts with download links:
The Witch “Lazy Bones” & “Havoc”
What others are saying…
- about The Witch: Bro Music blog
- about The Witch: Crotch Bat
- about The Witch: Tuff Rock
- about Amanaz: Gorilla vs. Bear
- about Amanaz: True Panther
- about Amanaz: Metal Lungies
- about Amanaz: Fuzzy Wasabe
Learn more about the music of Africa:
- African Popular Music: Evolution & Diversity
- 4African Music
- International Library of African Music
- African Music Forum
- Glossary of African music styles
- African Music
- Afro Pop
on Wikipedia:
