KILOMBO: MUSIC ON YOUR HORIZON - AUTUMN 2006

Africa
Off-the-wall Section..

Apologies for the long wait since the last the last Kilombo. – especially to those artists and record companies who sent me music that I raved about, promised to write about, then didn’t. I’ll try to make amends.

AFRICA

..is, as always, about to ‘break big’, but never seems to get there. TONY ALLEN has a fine new set, ‘Lagos No Shaking’ (Honest Jon’s Records), while African hip hop pioneer label Out|Here Records has a representative comp. of modern Nigerian urban sounds in ‘Lagos Stori Plenti’, featuring recent megahits from D’Banj (‘Tongolo’) and Africa China (‘Mr President’). Meanwhile, South African Trenton Birch and Zimbabwean Dennis Tapfuma, who together run Afrolution and Black Mango record labels, have a solid, pan-continental Afro Hop collection , ‘Afrolution Vol 1’. Hip hop from Senegal, Kenya, Zim, Gambia and beyond, plus a neat enhanced DVD with some cool Afro B-Boy footage.

My occasional DJ partner in Paris, Greg De Villanova, has a fine compilation of super-rare Orchestre Baobab tracks from their early to mid-70s on his new ORIKI label. These cuts date from the Senegalese supergroup’s stay with the elusive Buur record label (including Baobab’s one and only funk track, which also came out recently as a 7” on Brighton-based Soundways Records and which was changing hands among afro-vinyl freaks for upwards of £200 before reissue).

Hats off to Stern’s for continuing doggedly to release the wonderful AFRICANDO records. The latest instalment, an NYC-Paris co-operation put together by producer-extraordinaire Ibrahim Sylla (as always) is a tribute to the late Gnossas Pedro, Africando’s star Beninois vocalist till his death in 2004, and features a great salsa version of the Franco/TPOK Jazz 1985 Congolese Rhumba classic ‘Mario’, with vocals by Madilu Systeme, who sang it originally.

Thanks to the hordes who turned up to the first night of my new Urban Afro residency AFRIKCLUB at the uber-cool new Big Chill House, Pentonville Road, King’s Cross (just by the Thameslink railway station). This is two floors of DJs and live music with a pronounced African heritage (which obviously includes a little Afro Latin, Afro Brazilian etc, as well as ‘pure’ Afro), plus cutting-edge vids and DVDs from Africa, 9-4am, free all night, 600+ capacity. The next one, on November 3, features as my guest DJ the legendary Jo Hagan, who forsook DJ-ing during the late 80s for architecture, but has now returned to the fold with a crazy-but-it-works mix of Afro, reggae and Country & Western – and if you know West African radio, you just can’t get any more authentic than that!

Hats off, too, to Cargo, Rivington Street, for hosting London’s first non-‘underground’ show by Angola’s king of semba (NOT samba, please!) BONGA (October 18). Angolan music is still Africa’s best-kept secret, ranging from semba’s beauty and sadness, through to the kuduru (Angolan drum & bass, sort of) of Lisbon-based artists like Doc Murras, Helder and Costuleta .

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OFF-THE-WALL SECTION

Charlie Gillett’s Oval Records have a stonkingly good new release from DAVID LOWE’S DREAMCATCHER ‘’What Is In Between?’ For those who haven’t heard Lowe’s earlier releases, he’s basically a cut-and-paste producer, but with a lively imagination and ability to link two or more apparently different genres, without it all going pear-shaped and trainspotterish.Thus ‘All In Your Mind’ grafts an almost-commercial r & b hook onto a dark tango groove. Then there are Japanese, Turkish and Caribbean-flavoured pieces that feature welcome contributions from Japanese DJ/musician MIEKO SHIMUZU, and spoken-word sections from our very own BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH.

Deep in Pink Martini territory are the excellent KOOP (‘Koop Islands’, K7 Records). This talented Scandinavian duo (Magnus Zingmark & Oscar Simonnson) pastiche early 60s pop and zoot-suited big band, whilst guests like the excellent Earl Zinger add Streets-like vocals here and there – a real oddity that deserves full attention.

In the ‘what happened to that bloody release?’ section is the HOWARD TATE REDISCOVERED album, that came out briefly a year ago, got featured on Jools Holland, then became all-but-impossible to find. Originally a member of 60s vocal group the Enchanters, Tate made a series of highly-collectable singles and albums on various labels until drugs took their toll on his life and removed him frm the radar until his ‘rediscovery’ a couple of years back, since when he’d kicked drugs, set up his own church in Phillie, and become a pastor.

I was playing this new record recently to a bunch of Brazilian music fans who couldn’t believe how brilliant it was. Watch out also for the new SOLOMON BURKE Country and Western album, released end of October. Both albums feature songs written especially for the two respective artists by ELVIS COSTELLO, whose songwriting (I think) has always had a stronger affinity with soul and country more than rock.

LATIN BEATS SPECIAL CLICK HERE

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