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Monday, June 05, 2006

For African Music: Benn Loxo du Taccu

I really dig African music, but I know far too little about it. So I was happy to discover Benn Loxo du Taccu, which I've just added to our blogroll. The music there has been really strong lately, with plenty of variety. Here are some recommended some recent posts.

Nice:
I've featured quite a bit of hip-hop from Senegal, South African and Nigeria over the past couple years. It's been a while, so why not listen to some more. Today we'll hear some contemporary hip-hop and drum'n'bass sounds from Tanzania.
Some more traditional sounds:
Nuru Kane grew-up in the Medina, the main "quartier populaire" in central Dakar. He mixes Moroccan Gnawa which he plays with the three-stringed, bass-lute hybrid instrument, the guimbri, with his native Senegalese styles, plus some splashes from the West. The band he plays with, Bayefall Gnawa, pretty much sums this all up in their name.
I love highlife, definitely some of my favorite music:
I have to be in the right kind of mood to listen to highlife. Drunk on palm wine? Yeah, bring it on. Earphones in, on a beach, sipping a coconut? Absolutely. Slightly hung-over late Sunday afternoon with a glass of Chablis after some modern ballet? Fuck yeah.
They do the blues right in Mali:
Lobi Traore is a Malian who plays that style of Malian blues that I've always liked. There's something about the Bambara language and rhythms that mixes so well with electric guitar and that driving blues sound. The repetitive nature of Bambara music with slight changes in melody over time, scattered snare/calabash hits and occasional talking sections mid-song are all musical elements familiar to the ears of the blues listener.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice comments. Could you update the link to Benn loxo? I have finally got the site its own domain: http://bennloxo.com/

Cheers,
Matt, of Benn loxo du taccu

12:32 PM  
Blogger jacob z. said...

Thanks for letting us know, Matt, I've updated the link on the blogroll and the one to your main site in this post.

Let me know if the direct links in this post to your archived posts are going to break at some point and I'll change those too.

12:49 PM  

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