. issue XIII : v .

. artist : mulatu astatke .
. album : mulatu of ethiopia .
. year : 1972 .
. label : worthy .
. grade : a minus .

A moody reaction to the bustling nightlife of 1960’s Ethiopia, the output of the Berklee-trained Mulatu Astatke kick-started the Ethio-Jazz movement and established himself as a purveyor of some of the finest nocturnal constructions. Mulatu of Ethiopia‘s mixture of dusty mystique, syncopated minor key basslines, and needling vibraphone and horn improvs form an extremely narrow and diamond-eyed approach to composition. Repetitive mood pieces dominate. Revolving basslines support funky keyboards and taunting saxophones. Occasionally, exotic woodwind charts flow into the picture to inundate their surroundings with inviting tropicalia. Mulatu never sits too long in the warmth, however, and takes several brooding turns on vibes, typically as introductions or counterpoints. His efforts frequently become low lit highlights. A few songs even escape the endlessly enjoyable ancient pits of doom, as the album is content enough in its discontent to throw a few curveballs at Coltrane. For example, the gothic cosmopolitan out-for-a-night on the seedy side of town in “Mascaram Sebeta” stumbles upon quite a few crimes on his walk home from the corner club, witnessing a dramatic build to a great walking bassline scoring an ever-so-subtle release of bossa-nova tension. The album occasionally slips into entertaining chaos: every musician involved tries to poke their head out after a sad-sack shootout, causing a cacophony of malaise that builds satisfyingly to anti-conclusions. Several songs come across as table-setting with no main course, which prove to be surprisingly enjoyable in Mulatu’s resolve to not resolve. The combination of his withholding nature with some spread out cathartic balms play off each other well, creating the effect of the album being one long and ominous piece of music. Mulatu of Ethiopia has a stranglehold on rustic, dark jazz and would be the perfect companion for any night stalking the streets.

by Ryan Myers

. issue VII : vi .

. artist : dur-dur band .
. album : volume 5 .
. year : 2013 .
. label : awesome tapes from africa .
. grade : a .

For a variety of reasons, the cassette tape continues to be a primary medium for disseminating recorded music in Africa. If you want to hear the African music that Africans listen to, you’re most likely to find it on cassette. Brian Shimkovitz’s Awesome Tapes From Africa (ATFA) project began as a way of introducing us non-Africans to just a little bit of the 99% of African music we never get to hear, and it has now morphed into a full-fledged reissue label. Here’s an absolute beauty from Somalia circa 1987, just a few years before its civil war and the collapse of virtually all of civil society. Dur-Dur Band specializes in a groove-oriented sound that’s typically anchored by a springy disco-funk bassline (think Michael Jackson circa “Thriller”). Overlay that with scratchy guitar lines, show-band horn charts, Ethiopian-sounding pentatonic harmony and the superb vocals of Sahra Dawo, and you have a can’t-fail recipe: every track here is a winner, regardless of what continent or decade you’re from. Remastered from the original cassette, and yes you can buy it on cassette (CD, LP and digital download as well).

by Bill Lupoletti

. issue VII : v .

. artist : various artists .
. album : the rough guide to the music of ethiopia .
. year : 2012 .
. label : world music network .
. grade : b plus .

Buda Musique’s Ethiopiques series (27 volumes and counting) is without a doubt the gold standard of Ethiopian music reissues. What can the Rough Guide folks add to justify a release like this one? Plenty, as it turns out. The emphasis here is on more recent recordings, very much in the spirit of the now-classics from the late 60’s through 1975, but each with a modern or outside touch. For example, “Guragigna” and “Gue” are two very different urbanized takes (the former from London, the latter from Addis Ababa) on the same traditional Gurage melody, “Musicawi Silt” puts an Ethio-jazz great in front of a punk band with brilliant results, and “Mela Mela” is a unique take on the azmari tradition. Yes, there are a few easy-to-find Ethiopiques re-reissues (“Ney-Ney Weleba” is a funky favorite by Alemayehu Eshete, the Ethiopian James Brown) that help put the newer material in context. On the other hand, there are four very worthwhile tracks from hard-to-get Terp Records in the Netherlands, who are putting out what I think is the best modern Ethiopian music today. All in all, it’s a very worthwhile project.

by Bill Lupoletti

. issue III : viii .

. artist : orchestra super mazembe .
. album : mazembe @ 45 rpm volume 1 .
. year : 2013 .
. label : sterns .
. grade : a minus .

Super Mazembe was a popular Congolese export band: they left the Republic in 1970 in search of greener fields, spending time in Zambia and Tanzania before achieving major success in Kenya starting in 1977. This fine new album, compiled by Doug Paterson for Sterns, assembles nine of Super Mazembe’s best singles from their Kenyan years, 1977 to 1979. “Mazembe” translates from Lingala roughly as “earthmovers” or “bulldozers” and the obvious connotations are apt ones: subtlety wasn’t their strong suit, but getting people up and sweating on the dance floor certainly was. All of these sides follow a similar formula, with an introductory statement of the song’s verses followed by an upshift in tempo (known as the sebene) that continuously builds in excitement with solo statements, improvised lyrics, and the multi-guitar interplay that is so highly valued by this style of music. Super Mazembe was a master of the sebene; all nine songs here are great illustrations of Congolese music’s ability to get even the dead to dance. These bulldozers didn’t break a lot of new ground, but what they dug they dug good and hard.

by Bill Lupoletti