We've been talking about adding a flash button to help people preview mp3s on the blog for awhile now so through the magic of delicious tagplayer we're going to give it a go. Leave a comment if you run into any problems. While I'm at it I'll use this an excuse to post a random selection of some of my favorite tracks from this summer:
Nouveau Noise - Cinnte
Lukid - Fela
These first two tunes are some cracking african-inspired electronic tracks that might work well played alongside the likes of Konono 1. Nouveau Noise are two chaps from Dublin who mix live percussion and various string insturments with lots of programmed goodness. I'm not sure if they have a proper album out yet. Lukid is a guy out of London whose Onandon CD on werkdisks came out earlier in the year and is well worth checking out. He namechecks Can and J Dilla as influences which initially got my attention.
Celestine Ukwu - Igbo Abuchi
Celestine Ukwu - Ome Ife Jide Ofo (Part 1)
Celestine Ukwu - Ego Eju Aka
Recently I've been devouring everything I can get my hands on by Celestine Ukwu, a giant of Nigerian highlife music whose work is criminally out of print here in the US (save for the odd track or two on various highlife comps). I first heard Ukwu on a community radio station in DC awhile ago and after waiting what seemed like a really long time for a dj to announce the music, I ended up calling the station to figure out who was responsible for the sounds coming out of the speakers: very mellow (yet intense) percussion that at times sounded almost gamelan along with pedal steel guitars and saxophone. Ukwu's music is completely unique and essential.... someone really should give his albums a proper reissue. A full discography can be found here.
Charlie Alex March - When the Clouds Clear
Batfinks - I'm Ylearning
Charlie Alex March specializes in short, lush tracks replete with strings, vibraphones and other plunky things. He aptly covers Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You" on his recent ep along with three instrumentals, one of which sounds quite a bit like Neko.
His music is out on a label called LOAF which I had never heard of but was surprised to find is an off shoot / sub-label of Jon Tye's excellent Lo Recordings. They have very nicely put up full length flash samples of all their tracks on their site which inevitably led to a long internet time sink (Note to other labels: this is a really good idea! Unless you prefer people turning to P2P and sharity blogs to hear what your music sounds like).
Other LOAFers worth checking out include Barbed and Batfinks who at times sounds like Ariel Pink channeling rave music (I mean this in a good way but I could see how it might make some people run for the exits)."Im Ylearning" covers a lot of ground in seven minutes... the last few minutes are great.
Happy summer...
excellent new flash feature!
Posted by: Holland_Oats | August 20, 2007 at 10:16 AM
...and this ukwu stuff is great... though i always thought nigerian was usually tagged 'juju' as opposed to ghanaian 'highlife'...? very reminiscent of sunny ade o'course...
Posted by: Holland_Oats | August 20, 2007 at 10:24 AM
Thanks for the flash player...very nice, and most welcome.
Posted by: andy | August 21, 2007 at 12:16 AM
Wow, Ukwu is a great find. Thanks for posting!
Posted by: Grandpa Scorpion | August 21, 2007 at 03:13 PM
Which DC station did you hear Ukwu on -- WPFW, the Pacifica station? I imagine so -- wish they played stuff like this more often, or maybe I'm just not listening at the right times ... thanks for the great tunes!
Posted by: Mike | August 22, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Mike: I can't remember the exact station to be honest... it was somewhere in the 80s on the FM dial. It seemed like it was just a random community station of some sort and the people at the station did not speak much English.
Posted by: doron | August 22, 2007 at 11:27 AM
I grew up listening to Ukwu on radio. The treasure load of music that he left behind is awesome. I made it a point of duty to get his complete discography, and so far I have made decent progress.
The beauty of his music is two-fold, the MUSIC and the MESSAGE. Ukwu is a philosopher at par with the likes of Aristotle. The message is AMAZING.
They dont make good music like they used to ......
Posted by: Akachi Aniche | May 20, 2008 at 03:42 AM