Apart from that, I guess I don't have much to report. Since the last post, I've essentially been tying up loose ends, trying new things and looking for employment, woohoo!
Devotchka and Godspeed are coming to town. A bunch of other concerts have passed and others are coming, but I think these are the only two I'm going to go to.
So, without further ado - the general music front - what have I been listening to?
In the words of Gina Yashere, haha " I wanted to get in touch with my roots!" (well that wasn't exactly the rationale, but close enough). In passing, Gina Yashere is a Nigerian comedian from London (learned about her from my cousin). I've put a sketch below:
So, back to music, I've been listening to some Congolese, Ivorian and Angolan music i.e. Soukous, Coupé décalé and Kuduro. Soukous has been around a lot longer and as mentioned before originates from Congo (from 30s, 40s and originates from the French word for shaking - secouer). Since then, the style has evolved and faster version of it is really popular now called Soukous Ndombolo. There are plenty of artists like Wenge Music, Werrason, Awilo Longomba, Koffi Olomide... Ndombolo is lots of booty shaking :) These songs are also almost aaaalways looooong (like 10 minutes).
Coupé décalé is more recent (2002) and originates from the Ivorian diaspora in France and then the genre spread to the Ivory Coast itself. The late Douk Saga, who was part of the group "Jet set" (in Paris) is often claimed to be the creator of this type of music. What's pretty interesting about this genre of music is that there are many dance steps, called "concepts" that go with it. So with new songs, you get new concepts and they'll usually call them out in songs or the song is named after it. For example there's there original coupé décale, but also décalé chinois, décalé python, fatigué fatigué, fouka fouka, Faro and even the Obama. The French wiki article has the whole list.
As an example, I've heard "Fouka Fouka" being called out in a song by DJ Arsenal - Sheloubouka. This song was actually used for a choreography at my cousins engagement party by the Obaa Sima dance troupe and now, in hindsight realized that they were doing the fouka fouka when it was called out in the song (kinda like a double fist pump). Some popular artists, apart from Douk Saga are Jessy Matador (especially the song Decale Gwada), DJ Arsenal, Meiway, Magic System, etc. I guess you'd have to be really up to date with all the new music to learn all the dance moves :o
I'm currently doing an afropop dance class, which is mostly this dance style (esp since the teacher is from Cote d'Ivoire himself :P).
Kuduro dates from the 1980s in Luanda, Angola from mixing African drum samples with calypso and soca, as well as some electronic stuff. I haven't heard a lot of it yet, but so far I can say it's a lot more electronic then the two previous styles. The dance style is also more like break dancing, I'd say, with very abrupt movements.
Below are some samples of the above mentioned music styles.
Soukous:
Some older Soukous, but absolute classic. I remember hearing it when I was a kid - Pepe Kalle and Nyboma:
Some Nordic ladies dancing to Werrason - Dance Mania Fever (from Techno Malewa) and later Fally Ipupa's Sexy Dance. I really enjoy both songs :D The dancers do a pretty good job, mostly from 2:55 onward :) they've got the detachable butt thing down pretty well :
Coupé décalé:
I'll be cliché and put Jessy Matador's Décalé Gwada (we keep using this song in my dance class):
and an interesting mix of this music with Rai (northern African type of music) - Magic System + 113 - Un gaou a oran ( I believe a gaou means a fool):
Kuduro:
I'm gonna put two songs I really like by Buraka Som Sistema. They're a group of Angolans based in Portugal. This first song, "Sound of Kuduro" features M.I.A and some wacky dancing (just to illustrate my point above). The second song is "Kalemba (Wegue wegue)":
So, escaping from the "roots", there's a few other things I've been listening to such as Colombiafrica, some new Baile funk, the new Radiohead, some PJ harvey, El Guincho, Calle 13 and Chico Science & Nacao Zumbi.
Colombiafrica is essentially a mix of Colombian and African music like Soukous and also some Nigerian (one track in particular samples an older song I know). My favorite song off of the CD is Mama Africa.
I heard about the Baile Funk "Pyaar Baile" song linked above from the music blog Masalacism. It's a collaboration between Indian DJ Rehka and Brazilian DJ Zuzusa Ponderosa, mixing elements of Bhangra/Bollywood and Funk Carioca (which itself is derived from Miami bass/electro funk). I really like it, but then again, I love all the genres it's composed of, so what's not to like? :P
Radiohead came out with their new album "King of the Limbs" a couple weeks ago - the first single being "Lotus Flower" where Thom Yorke sings and dances around by himself in a black and white video.
If you don't like Radiohead post-OK Computer, I doubt you will like King of the Limbs. So far I like the album, though I haven't listened to it super in-depth. It's pleasant to listen to. So far I really like the single and "Little by little".
PJ harvey released "Let England Shake" recently. So far it's nice. I'm not too familiar with her previous work, but I've heard great things, so I figured I'd start investigating her stuff. From this album, I like "The last living Rose".
El Guincho is a Spanish kind of electronic-experimental artist who describes his music as "space-age-exotica". The first track I heard by him was the very catchy song "Bombay" which is off the most recent album "Pop Negro". The video is random and kinda NSFW. It starts off funny in an educational space show kind of way. Another song I like "Polca Mazurca" which is off the album "Alegranza".
Calle13 is a reggaetonish band from Puerto Rico. It's the fault of one of my friend's for infecting me with their music, particularly the song "Atrevete-te", which is super popular. A new single was released recently "Baile de los Pobre", which mixes latin with some middle eastern/indian music and has this amusing video.
Chico Science was (died in a car accident) a Brazilian artist and one of the founders of the style Maingue beat. It's a style which originated in Recife and is kinda like funk rock/punk mixed with Maracatu, Frevo and Coco. I learned about them recently and sooo have been listening to some things here and there. My fave songs so far are A cidade and A praieira.
In passing, Masalacism records released an album "MaSuper Star - Airtime", which is pretty good. It's a band from Botswana and you can sample the music here.
And last but not least, there's always time for some Quantic. I saw him do a DJ set recently at Club Lambi with Andy Williams and it was super super enjoyable. Danced for over 3 hours straight. This dude has a lot of albums and a lot of DJ tracks too which you can peruse on his site. So, I end my mega music post and bid you all farewell with this song:
So, until next time (which may or may not be in less than 3 months, haha). Let's hope the next time it's at least spring and we're all dancing happily under the sun.
