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Awesome Tapes from Africa

2 October 2011
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The Guardian recently featured an article about a blog I hadn’t come across before, Awesome Tapes from Africa. IMHO, it should be called Awesome Blog about Awesome Tapes from Africa.

Since I like to incorporate different media in my African Politics class (I usually show a music video in the 5 minutes prior to class as students are walking in), the blog is a treasure trove for me. I particularly appreciate the diversity of styles and representation of African countries.

Here are just two samples:


Prince Khonjo (Kenya), filed by ATfA under bizarre/mind-blowing. Here is the upload to the song, Mambo Poa.

Agele Hot (South Sudan), characterized by ATfA as “light-hearted-sounding danceable jams”: Baba Lo Sunyundro

ATfA announced that starting in October, the site would also begin selling some of the tapes it featured, sharing proceeds with the artists.

HT David Smith.

from → Africa
3 Comments leave one →
  1. Phil permalink
    3 October 2011 12:30 pm

    I was just at a bar last night where Brian was djing. His blog is great. It’s a privilege to have access to all this music that is often hard to find even in the places they were recorded. I would also recommend checking out sahelsounds.com . The most recent project on that blog involves sourcing music from cell phones in northern Mali, tracking down the artists, and then signing them to a deal in which they get full ownership rights and more than half of the profits. Awesome.

    Reply
  2. dadakim permalink*
    3 October 2011 1:19 pm

    Phil – you failed to mention your own blog which regularly features some of the best music from Africa I’ve come across!

    Reply
    • Phil permalink
      4 October 2011 10:09 am

      thanks 🙂 I’m honored if you put me in the same class, but my exploration is still fairly superficial.

      Reply

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