Bambara Mystic Soul

The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974-1979

The Analog Africa series has to be just about the best researched and well-versed of any number of labels that work to bring half-forgotten or unreleased African music to the rest of the world.  The latest entry into the series, Bambara Mystic Soul presents the music of Burkina Faso, a country I know absolutely nothing about, or at least knew nothing about before diving into this sixteen-track deep compilation.

As usual with this series, Samy Ben Redjeb has traveled extensively throughout the country to locate old records, and securing that, finding the musicians on them to secure the rights to release the music world wide.  The first chunk of the rather thick book that accompanies this disc recounts his voyages, before going into interviews with the artists on each track.

What emerges is a picture of a country and its music at a time when pan-Africanism promised a balm to the continent's ills.  The music on this disc is uplifting and hopeful.  Latin influences lie beside Afrobeat, as stars like Amadou Ballaké et l'Orchestre Super Volta, Afro-Soul System, Orchestre CVD, Mamo Lagbema, and many others hold forth.  This is a recommended album.

Angola Soundtrack

The Unique Sound of Luanda 1968-1976

Angola Soundtrack is the ninth Analog Africa compilation, and it is a very impressive piece of scholarship, detective work, and music.  In the lengthy booklet that accompanies this disc, producer Samy Ben Redjeb goes into great detail outlining the extremes to which he went collecting the music and licensing for this compilation.  Apparently, Angola is not the easiest place to get into, and Luanda is a very expensive city to visit.  Who knew?

Anyway, the album is made up of eighteen tracks that survey the variety of Angolan music from the seventies.  The sub-sub-title of the album refers to 'Distorted Semba, Kazucuta, Psychedelic Merengue, Instrumental Hits'.  While I'm not all that sure what all that means, it translates into some pretty amazing music.

Angola had a different musical feel to it than Nigeria or Ghana did in the same time period.  I don't have the musical vocabulary or writing skill to explain what that is; all I can say is that I've enjoyed listening to it and learning about it a lot.

Afro-Beat Airways

West African Shock Waves: Ghana & Togo 1972 - 1978

This compilation is number eight in the Analog Africa series, although it's the first item I've gotten from this label.

The cd contains fourteen tracks of "organ-driven Afro-beat, cosmic Afro-funk, raw, psychedelic boogie and some other stuff...," as described on the back of the box.  That description works pretty well, as Samy Ben Redjeb has put together an interesting and very cool survey of the music from Ghana and Togo.

The cd is accompanied by a long booklet, wherein Redjeb recounts his experiences in Ghana and Togo as he tried to track down all of the artists represented on this disk.  He found most of them, and the interviews that he published, along with the stories he included about finding these artists provide the music with context.  This is an impressive piece of scholarship, and a great collection of music.