Ernie's African Odyssey Pt 16 - Egypt

This week we are heading to the north-east corner of Africa to visit one of the cradles of civilization - Egypt. Before we start, can I make it clear that I will ignore any comments about that song by Jonathan Richman and the Mandatory African Reggae slot. I will also ignore any scomments about that other song by The Bangles.

Not speaking of which, our opening track is also the opening track from "Walk Like A Nubian", the 1991 album by the mighty Ali Hassan Kuban. Mr Kuban was known as the Captain of Nubian music, the Nubians being an ethnic group from Upper Egypt (which slightly confusing is the bit in the south).

I defy any of you to resist that opening bass riff. Play it loud! Scare the goats! Only if you already have goats, of course, don't go out looking for goats just for the purpose of scaring them. Not even if they are Anglo-Nubian goats.

We are sticking with the early 1990s Nubian sound for our second track, courtesy of Vicka. I have not been able to find out much about him, but this was evidently a massive national hit in 1992 and could be heard blaring out of roughly 62.4% of Cairo taxis at any given time. They must have played it at goat-bothering volume to hear it above the horns.

My copy of "Keda Keda Ya Terella" is on a compilation I picked up from somewhere called "Stars of Egypt: 80s and 90s". If you are willing to use the tax dodgers website you can find an album called "Nubian Legends" which includes this and five of Vicka's other hits.

While I have been bopping about to the likes of Ali Hassan Kuban and Vicka for a fair while now, until I started this series I was completely unfamiliar with recent Egyptian music. It turns out there is quite an interesting scene over there. You might want to check out the likes of Baskot, Maurice Louca and Islam Chipsy (named for his love of a local brand of crisps),

All of them made the long list for this post but in the end I opted first for the powerhouse sounds of Maryam Saleh - who rocks out on this track but whose 2012 album "Mesh Baghanny" contains a range of styles - and leading lights of the electro shaabi scene, Sadat & Alaa 50. 

Electro shaabi (you may know it as mahraganat) takes the traditional working class shaabi music and whacks it over the head with EDM and hip hop). The goats may not like it. I'm not entirely sure that I do really, but "Howga" undeniably packs a punch. And if you like it you can find more here.  

Finally, let's go back in time a bit and meet up with the Egyptian guitar king (or possibly guitar pharaoh) Omar Khorshid. You can read his full biography while buying a copy of "Guitar El Chark Vol. 1", a compilation of sessions recorded in Beirut between 1973 and 1977 that was released on Sublime Frequencies last year. Some of it is pretty freaky stuff.

"Om Shaar Asmar Medaffar" - Ali Hassan Kuban

"Keda Keda Ya Terella" - Vicka

"Kashf Asary" - Maryam Saleh

"Howga" - Sadat & Alaa 50

"Ah Ya Zaman" - Omar Khorshid

And now to the videos. I am grateful to Meshwar and their guest Ehab Tawfiq (the smartly dressed man who has his arms crossed defensively at the start) for providing the Mandatory African Reggae, and to DJ Sam for the endless stream of old Hamid El Shaeri videos.

I said there would be no Bangles or Jonathan Richman but I'm going to give Amazulu a pass. They have at least gone to the trouble of choosing an African name, albeit one from the opposite end of the continent.