music from sudan (Emmanuel Jal & Abdel Gadir Salim)

emmanuel jal & abdel gadir salim - ya salam.mp3A bit cringe-worthy, but still interesting collaboration between muslim and christian musicians during the brief 2005 ceasefire in Sudan. AGS's flow is pretty interesting.Buy the oxfam compilation on which this song appears from here.

Music from Tanzania (Remmy Ongala and Orchestre Super Matimila)

Music shamelessly borrowed from likembe. You should probably read that blog if you want to learn about tanzanian music.

Remmy Ongala and Orchestre Super Matimila - Mariamu Pts 1 & 2.mp3

Abdalla Kwesa and Orchestra Vijana Jazz - Mama Njiti Pts 1 & 2.mp3

(I've also uploaded another vijana orchestra song here)

music from zanzibar (taarab)

golden star taarab - unganihadaa.rar

Taarab is an ethnomusicologist's dream. It comes from a paradisiacal island off the coast of mainland Tanzania, which has a rich history of slave trading, involving arseholes from all over, and especially the middle east. Zanzibar is mainly muslem, and the people there often show signs of their arab ancestors in their mwafrican faces. My favourite was a waitress named Witness, but that's another story for another day. Any way, taarab sounds more like it comes from northern Africa than from a Bantu region south of the Saharan. It's full on!! Very intense, colourful sounding stuff. If the singing is rubbing you up the wrong way, sorry. Maybe just listen to the first 30 seconds of the last song. Amazin beats, and snakey instrumental lines.

The last song (B02) is definitely my favourite, but word up for having a remix of the title track on the same tape as well.

(To unpack this .rar. file you'll need to use winrar, available for free download here)

music from ethiopia (gadaa gabbinaa)

A01.mp3
A02.mp3
A03.mp3

A04.mp3

A05.mp3

Oromo pop music. An African tribe making music with auto-tune and synthesizers. Almost as good as it sounds.

music from rwanda (sebatunzi)

unknown.mp3

mama we.mp3

nyirabisabo.mp3

Rwandan traditional music: singing the inanga, a lyre-like string instrument. These tracks are very melow and full of rwandan folk-tales sung in Kinyarwanda. I bought this CDR from the guy to get Rwandan music from in Kigali. It was really expensive, and twice he got angry at me and took the discs away in a floral display of bargaining mastery.

music from ethiopia (chachi)

Side A

1. Musica (feat. Steven Marley).mp3

2. Hoya Hoye (with Garnett Silk's children).mp3

3. Rambosa (feat. Sizzla).mp3

4. One Way Street.mp3

5. Hibret (Unity) (feat. Gaddiel & Daweh Congo).mp3

6. African Queen (feat. Prezident Brown).mp3

Side B

1. Gorraw (feat. Doniki & Lisa Danger).mp3

2. Warning (feat. Billy Mystic, Iqulah Rastafari, Doniki & Steady Ranks).mp3

3. Natty Dread (feat. Sister Carol).mp3

4. Mesgana (feat. Kulcha Knox).mp3

The title of this album refers to a childrens' chant, which is recorded and included at the beginning of the second song for added awesomeness, courtesy of Garnett Silk's children. The guy in the addis tape shop forced this one into my hands when i asked for the most beautiful tape he had. Wasn't exactly expecting a reggae record featuring one of Bob Marley's sons, but the first track, Musica won me over pretty quick. It's more chilled hip hop circa 1991, but the rest of the album gets its reggae hat on pretty quickly.

music from tanzania (vijana orchestra)

H Manet - Bujumbura.mp3

H Manet - Pamba Moto.mp3

The title of this tape may translate as "second phase of music" which makes me think it's an anthology of the vijana orchestra. It features artists such as H. Manet, H. Kasala and A. Kwesa.
The tape is pretty damaged, and has its eric copeland sunglasses on. But 'bujumbura' is so warm and lovely, it shouldn't affect your enjoyment too much.