Cody ChesnuTT made two great soul albums ten years apart. The first was the modestly titled "The Headphone Masterpiece" which came out in 2002. It was a reasonable claim. We had to wait another ten years for the next masterpiece ,"Landing On A Hundred". That is the one today's selections come from.
CC - as his friends used to call him until that name was trademarked by a famously litigious Caledonian blogger - released his third album "My Love Divine Degree" in 2017 but hasn't been heard of since. Whatever he is up to I hope he is keeping well.
My friend Mano has recently shared some new Tsonga Disco albums with me (his finger is much more firmly on the pulse of that particular scene than mine is these days).
Among them is "Khuzani", the latest album by one Florah N'wa Chauke. Florah is a member of the Chauke clan, who are preeminent when it comes to traditional Tsonga music and who have made a big splash on the disco scene. Headed by the mighty Thomas Chauke, we have also featured Themba, Conny, Hammy, G.T. and Patson here in the past.
"Khuzani" is a worthy addition to the Chauke canon, featuring as it does contributions from the Shangaan Svengali Joe Shirimani and his little brother Prince Rhangani. Neither appear on this track from the album, which was selected purely because the title prompted the post.
Earlier this year the nice people in Promoland kindly sent me a copy of "The Three Times", an album by Norwegian band Flight Mode. It might be that Florah's song is a tribute either to them or to the Swiss record label of the same name, although perhaps unlikely.
To provide ballast I have added two top quality tunes starting with the word flight. That's how the magic works folks.
Just a quick one today. You know how it is - things to do, people to see, zeitgeists to surf.
Uniao Black were a 13 strong groove machine that came storming out of Rio with a self-titled album in 1977 determined to take over the world. They didn't, but they should've.
The gang disbanded the year after the album came out but some of the original members got back together in 2004 (now with a Banda in front of their name). They released a second album in 2006 before retreating again.
I thought they might have done some videos for the second album but I can't find any. So instead we bring you their local rivals Banda Black Rio from 1981. Never mind the video quality, dig the sound.
We have made it to Tunisia, a country I will be visiting for the first time in real life in January. I have a bit of free time and Tunis is only three hours flying time from London, so I thought I would pop over and have a nose around.
The music we have for you today fits the description "interesting and varied". It has taken a fair bit of digging to find the variety, as most of the Tunisian music available on Bandcamp and the like is death metal and rather dull electronica. But I think it was worth it.
We will commence proceedings with a track from the only Tunisian CD in my collection, "Sans Visa" by Ouled Jouini. They were formed in 1983 under the leadership of Farhat Jouini and this album came out in 2005.
Beyond that I don't have much to tell you - the sleevenotes on the CD are so minimal they don't even name the other members of the band. There is no sign of any new music since 2005 but they pop up on lots of 'Tunisian Hits of the 1990s' compilations, so my guess is that was when they were in their pomp.
Perhaps the most interesting of today's artists is Badiâa Bouhrizi, who also performs as Neysatu (in which capacity she contributed to "Adrian Sherwood Presents: Dub No Frontiers", one of my favourite albums of 2022, and previously to the On-U compilation "Pay It All Back Vol 7"). She describes her style as “the new sound of Northern Africa”, and as a mixture of local traditional and classical Arabic music with a touch of jazz, funk, neo-soul, electronica and reggae.
The chosen track comes from her album "KahruMusiqa", the first music she has released under her own name. Although the album only came out last year it is actually a collection of home recordings she made in the 2000s. Many of the tracks are settings of poems by various female Arab writers.
Another distinctive but very different female voice next. Mara'a Borkan are a band. Their name means Volcano Woman. That's all I've got. They make a blistering racket though and the singer will knock your socks off. This track is on one of two releases put out through 'a world divided' (all trendy lower case) in 2020, although the band had previously released it themselves in 2015.
You may feel in the need of something a bit smoother after that to calm you down. I am happy to oblige with this groovy tune from Carthago, a band formed in the late 1970s when two of the funkiest combos in old Tunis town (Marhaba Band and the oddly named Dalton) teamed up to ride the disco wave. You can find this on an EP issued by the Habibi Funk label, whose catalogue has featured many times already on the tour.
Bringing the funkiness forward in time is Ammar 808, aka Sofyann Ben Youssef. He was apparently "the sonic mastermind behind the Tunisian sensation Bargou 08" (no, me neither). In 2018 he teamed up with a few singers from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with the intention of giving traditional North African music a boot up the arse. The resulting album was called "Maghreb United" and the featured vocalist on this track is his fellow Tunisian Chen Hassan Tej.
Which brings us to Chedly Taghouti, "un acteur et chanteur diplômé de l'Institut d'Art Dramatique de Tunis, a exploré la synergie entre musique et théâtre". Which is all well and good but that isn't why he is here. It is because earlier this year he put out an MAR record called "Give Energy", enabling us to tick that particular box.
When we were in Tanzania recently we kicked off the videos with a lad from Zanzibar who had a fair bit of success after moving to England and changing his name. Following that example, we commence today with the former Elli Robert Fitoussi, all the way from Menzel Bourguiba.
Heavenly shades of night are falling. Its Twinkle Time. Out of the mist Norman Grant's voice is calling. Its Twinkle Time.
Come with me way back to 1983 to enjoy a couple of tracks from The Twinkle Brothers album "Burden Bearers". By this point the original band of brothers were no more and it was Mr. Grant with some hired hands. But what hands they were - Flabba Holt, Style Scott, Steely in his pre-Cleevie days, Dean Fraser, The Mad Professor and more. No wonder the record sounds so good.
New music alert. There are a couple of records released this week that have been getting heavy rotation on my metaphorical turntable since I was sent them by the nice folks in Promoland a few weeks back.
First up is "Easygoing", the new album by one Skinny Dyck (his real name is Ryan Dyck so I guess he selected the Skinny sobriquet to preempt the obvious jokes). Mr Dyck is a countryish singer from Alberta who makes a charming sound. The album comes out today. Start with "Can't Change The Colour Of Your Eyes" (see below) and work out from there.
The other is "Swimming", the lead single and title track of the upcoming album by Sam Moss. The album itself is not released until early next year but the single came out on Tuesday. In my humble opinion it does not fully prepare you for quite how good the album is. It is a magical thing. One for any fans of Bonny Light Horseman and early Hiss Golden Messenger.
To encourage you to investigate their respective back catalogues as well as the new records here is a track apiece from Skinny's "Palace Waiting" (2022) and Sam's "Neon" (2018).
Apologies, that should read "only five to go after Togo". But we are in no hurry, so let's linger longer in Lomé and take in the scene.
And there is no better place to start than with one of the hottest bands around, one that I have raved about in these pages previously - Nana Benz do Togo. I was completely blown away by their debut album "Ago" when I discovered it while visiting Paris last year, and then again when I saw them live in London back in the summer. That evening they closed their set with this track and sent us all off smiling.
Next we go back in time to meet Bella Bellow, a sweet-voiced songbird whose surname is the opposite of onomatopoeia (I don't know whether there is a word for that but Rol probably does). You will find absolutely no bellowing on this single from the late 1960s.
Bella's light shone briefly but brightly, becoming a household name all across West Africa and playing at venues like the Paris Olympia and the Maracana Stadium in Rio before tragically dying in a car crash in 1973 aged just 28.
Much less celebrated at the time were Orchestre Abass, who released a couple of blistering singles in 1972 and then promptly disappeared from view. They remained hidden until a few years ago when the good folks at Analog Africa did some high quality crate-digging and put out all their known recordings on "De Bassari Togo". There is plenty of bellowing on this one.
Even in their prime the Abass boys were not exactly Togo's go to guys, but there were plenty of contenders for that title. You can find many of them duking it out on Hot Casa's excellent "Togo Soul 70" compilation, including Aimé Orchis Mathey. I haven't been able to find out anything about Mr Mathey so can't back up the statement that he was a go to guy, but listening to that guitar you have to think he must have been.
Edging forward to the 1980s we find Itadi K. Bonney, another Hot Casa rediscovery. This track comes from his self-titled 1983 album but going by the cover it is his 1977 album you really want to get. Hard to believe that by 1990 this Togolese Leo Sayer lookalike would be forced to flee the country after his lyrics upset the ruling Gnassingbé dynasty (founded 1967 and still in charge today).
We will leap ahead to the present day to meet up with Brussels based Togolese trumpeter and composer Daniel Dzidzonu and his funky band. This is the opening track from his 2019 "Walls Of Wonder" album which also includes his tribute to Hugh Masekela, a video of which you can find tucked away in the bottom corner of his website.
Finally the coveted MAR slot, which this time out is claimed by Sol X-Ray (real name the less catchy Eklu-Natey Tétévi Salomon). While he is not quite the man of mystery that Mr Mathey is the details of his past career and present whereabouts are sketchy. There has been no sign of him on social media or YouTube since 2019 and we can only hope that he is still with us and chilling out somewhere. This track can be found on the 2017 Pan-African MAR compilation "Rise Up Afreeka".
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