• Contributed Releases (9)

• Pending Submissions (9)

• Browse Collection (61)

• Browse Wantlist (5)

• For Sale (13)

• Contact

Youssou N'Dour - Egypt - 07-Jul-09 02:37 PM
Nonesuch Records gets major respect for being gutsy enough to release the quantity of Mbalax music that they do and getting this particularly West African sound out to a broader audience. This record by the Youssou NDour sees a departure from his usual melange of Mbalax and Afropop. This time he sings in Arabic (rather than Wolof/French) and fuses traditionally Islamic musical instrumentation, verses and idioms with those of his native Senegal. No, that is not a paradox!

Thomas Mapfumo - Spirits To Bite Our Ears (The Single Collection 1977-1986) - 07-Jul-09 02:30 PM
The deeply evocative and mesmerizing Chimurenga sound of Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited played an important part of the Zimbabwean revolutionary struggle for independence in the 1970s. The interlacing melodic polyrhythmic counterpoints in “Tongosienda” which feature the mbira, electric guitar and voice is nothing short of stunning. This is special considering that Shona, the language in which all of the album is sung, is not widely spoken outside of Zimbabwe. Another track “Madiro”, which in Shona refers to the freedom to do and to be without fear or constraint, is so rich and full of musical gems, that it is practically begging to be re-versioned. It is the kind of song that had it been created in the hyper economical musical environment of 1970s Jamaica, its riddims would be classics.