Africa Returns

Hello, it's been about 3 years since i have written on this page, well, a lot has happened both personally and on the music front.
I have been listening to a lot of 'world' music because i am getting tired of listening to 'now' music, every thing seems to be and sound the same, even the videos. Personally, i think music especially black music which i frankly think has lost it soul, everybody now seems to want to be a gangster .
Its all about cars, women, sex ,moneyand drugs produced by the same old set of 'hot' producers .Once a producer, produces a hot track, everybody want a piece of that sound, nobody seems to take a chance and sing from the soul or try something different. Every thing is controlled, the music, the singers, what they say, what they do, how they dress, you name it.
So i am taking a trip back to the source of real music.... AFRICA!! Listening to music from Africa, were at least we still have people that play live music and put some passion into their music and not just programmed beats, but real music and real people, not were you have one person play all instruments.I have also pick up a passion for music from Mali, Congo and and its environ especially music of Mali's Oumou Sangare, Amadou & Mariam , Rokia Traore and Senegal's Baba Maal.I had known of them over the years , but never really checked out their music like i am these days , Rokia's guest vocalled on Daara j's (Senegalese hip hop trio) album Bomerang ,i think the song's called hip hop civilization ( please forgive me if i am wrong cos i am writing off the top of my head ) I recently got Oumou Sangare new cd 'Seya' just to have a feel of Mali and i must confess, didn't particularly like what i heard at a first listen, but just before i went to bed i put the cd in my bose player and let it play from the 1st track to the end and was i blown away boy, can the lady sing no wonder she's called KONO, songbird.
If you want an introduction to Mali music, i think oumou's cd 'seya' is a good place to start your african music journey. I now have a new appreciation of live music and music played using mainly African traditional instruments, Oumou sings in her native language wasaalu which i don't understand a word of but all i can say is that is GOOD music. we have the added bonus of have the human drum machine and co-creator of afrobeat Tony Allen playing drums on 'koroko'.For the outstanding tracks on the album listen to Koroko, Seya(the title track)sounsouma, and donso. Please if you get the chance, go out and get the cd .Highly recommended
As i write, i am listening to Baba Maal's new cd called televison, its a slow burner and it's also a good cd Also worth checking out are Tony Allen's Secret Agent, Amadou & Mariam's 'Welcome to Mali' and Diamache a Bamako , Rokia Traore's 'Tchamantche', Rhythms del mundo Cuba ( a compilation cd ) features covers of popular songs. We have singers as diverse as Dido, Coldplay,Kaiser Chiefs playing music with Cuban feel, i guess they too are all tiring of all the programmed music, we all listening to at the moment and need some soul in their music .
Ps RIP Michael JacksonReviews of the albums above coming shortly.It all started with the music of Cameroun's Richard Bona, and like Bob Marley once said one good thing about music when it hits you, you feel no pain, african music is good music and you sure will not feel any pain