AFRICAN GUITAR vol. 1

Made a trip to Oakland's Contact Records a couple of weeks back while the wife was getting her eyebrows done. Tiny ass shop near MacArthur BART, but absolutely fukkn rammed with gems. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount (and quality) of punk bangers in a store whose focus is concentrated a little deeper and a little further back. I snagged a few slabs, was introduced to Catherine Ribeiro (thank you), and impulsively grabbed two cassette volumes of African guitar music on my way to the register. It was a good trip. The two tapes are a booted version of Mississippi's brilliant but prohibitively expensive 5xLP box set and the title pretty much sums it up. Artists from Kenya, Sierra Leon, Congo, Zaire, Uganda and Zambia fill almost 90 minutes with sounds that are so clearly from another world. Early blues roots ooze through some of the tracks, tribal mesmerism, subdued psychedelic freakouts...just pure and beautiful sounds. Perfect lazy listening - and yeah, Volume 2 will be up here eventually.

AFRICAN GUITAR vol. 1

SOUTH AFRICAN MIX TAPE

Remember all the shit I said about mix tapes last week when I posted that French heavy metal collection that someone made for my buddy Devon? Well apply all of those accolades to today's collection of bands from South Africa. Chaotic live anarcho/thrash from OUTRAGE (who have previously visited The Escape) and a chunk of commercial metal/grind from GROINCHURN, probably that country's best known punk or metal export, but everything else on this mix was new to my ears. Melodic '90s punk from FUNGY GONE WEST and CRUSH, while DIMINISHED RETURN play charging metallic hardcore with UK punk vocals, and DEVIATE are heavy grinding metalcrust. INFECTIOUS OUTBREAK (total weirdo/anarcho art/grind), THE GLEE CLUB (FROGS meets TEENAGE FANCLUB), and FRIDGE MAGNET (average punk, but the chorus just repeats "Police Stupidity" so I'm kinda into it) make appearances, but the highlights for me are the bands that start and end the tape. Seven tunes from FUCT OFF kick off the A side, raw and forceful UK influenced politically charged punk - simple but absolutely killer songs (these tracks are really raw, sounds like a several generations old recording...would love a cleaner version if anyone's holding?). And the whole thing ends up with BATTERY 9, a commercially successful dance/industrial band from the mid '90s - these two tracks were my introduction, and inspired me to get lost down an internet rabbit hole searching out more music from this duo. Land Of Rape And Honey-era MINISTRY meets POP WILL EAT ITSELF as a lazy reference, great shit. This is why mix tapes rule...again.

SOUTH AFRICAN MIX TAPE

KENYA & TANZANIA: WITCHCRAFT AND RITUAL MUSIC

So I got this big ass tub of live tapes from Buzz a couple of weeks ago - a a hundred or so live recordings of shows from Mission Records from the first year or two of the new millennium. Killer stuff, most of which will appear on Escape Is Terminal eventually (although the first tape from that stash that I posted was from the CW Saloon...because who can resist a recording of the first LUDICRA show?) along with all of your other favorite live gems. But in addition to those live tapes (and a pile of unmarked tapes that it will take a miracle to identify) was this one marked KENYA & TANZANIA: WITCHCRAFT AND RITUAL MUSIC. This was on the flip side of the LUDICRA tape so I didn't have to look too hard, but it seemed destined for a Friday visit to Terminal Escape before I even pressed play. So here you go:

KENYA & TANZANIA: WITCHCRAFT AND RITUAL MUSIC

Through the power of technology, I determined that these songs are taken from a 1975 vinyl release of field recordings made by David Fanshawe. By "technology," I mean that I converted the cassette to a series of mp3s, then I held my phone up to the computer speakers and turned on the Shazam app. African ritual field recordings? Yeah, there's an app for that. And by "David Fanshawe," I mean an English dude who basically spent his life recording some cool ass shit from all over the world and composing and recording some weird sounds. He died in 2010, but after getting lost in his on line legacy for the past hour, he seems like a pretty amazing chap.

BEATS

There is no sense in me pretending that I am anything approaching an expert on these sounds. Just three acts make up the A side of this mix tape, Nigeria's CHIEF COMMANDER EBENEZER OBEY and KING SUNNY & HIS AFRICAN BEATS with a couple of tracks from Senegal's TOURE KUNDA to round out the party. Mesmerizing sounds that I love, whether or not I know anything about them or their historical relevance (CHIEF EBENEZER takes the cake for me, if anyone is keeping track). From northern Africa to musically rich Jamaica for the flip side, 45 minutes of classic ska from well known acts (TOOTS & THE MAYTALS, JIMMY CLIFF, BURNING SPEAR, DESMOND DEKKER) and deeper cuts from ERIC MORRIS, THE MELODIANS, LORD CREATOR and others. Again, I am no historian here, but these sounds make me want to delve deeper - and that, dear readers, is the power of a good mix tape - even though I get the feeling that this is just a vinyl comp committed to shell form (at least the Jamaica side), it still has the same effect as if one well meaning historian spent one alcohol soaked evening sharing the best possible examples of a genres to all his/her friends. Highlights for me? LORD CREATOR, CHIEF COMMANDER EBENEZER OBEY, AUGUSTUS PABLO, and SOUL VENDORS. The shit is good, enjoy.

AFRICAN SOUNDS // JAMAICAN SOUNDS

BULSA BREAKOUT

Perhaps this tape is more valuable as a geographical marker than a musical masterpiece, but when I saw it sitting in Allan's distro I snagged it without a moment's hesitation. Bulsa Breakout is a 60 minute compilation of bands from Bulgaria (BUL) and South Africa (SA) released cooperatively by Sound Action in South Africa and Art Of Noise in Bulgaria sometime in the 90s (I'm guessing on the date based on band photos and musical styles). Bulgaria takes side 1 and starts with LAST HOPE (pretty basic dirty UK sounding punk) and STRATEGY X (an attempt at modern H'C with rudimentary drums and meaty guitars, it works really well)...both are fukkn brilliant. MEANSTREAM sound like a tougher STRATEGY X, and the lo-fi delivery suits them perfectly, FORWARD seem like they are trying to be poppy, but the shit is too fast and chaotic and they come off like 80s Italian thrashers, IN-CRIMINAL are slower plodding angry HC while FACE UP offer one song of late 80s NYHC. The South African side leaves a bit to be desired, and I confess that I almost left a few of these songs off altogether, but then there's beauty and eyes of the beholder and all that, so I included the garage quality NOFX rip off (FUNGY GONE WEST) and a band that sounds like a wimpy WEEZER who likely pre-date WEEZER (THE GLEE CLUB). But then our sub-Saharan friends redeem themselves with killer female fronted hardcore tunes from OUTRAGE (their second tune has a very anarcho feel to it, and is the best on the tape to my ears) and forceful plodding UK style punk from DIMINISHED RETURN. The SA side rounds out with FRIDGE MAGNET (more UK punk) and CRUSH (tuneful ripping HC not unlike SNFU). Just in case there was any doubt as to the international commitment put forth on this tape, things wrap up with a radio piece that features Malaysia's CARBURETOR DUNG from a previous Sound Action tape release.  A few of these tunes should probably be put in the trash file after first listen (not the most ringing endorsement of my potential download, I realize, but honesty always pays off in the end...right?), but there are great tunes buried in here, and the simple fact that two different corners of the world reached out to one another to make this happen makes it more than worthwhile to me. And if you care about the world, then you will download this tape immediately.

BULSA BREAKOUT