Album Review: V/A - Africa Remix - Ah Freak Iya (Milan)

Writer: John Armstrong

This mostly excellent pan-Afro compilation was originally issued as a musical calling-card for the extraordinary European exhibition of the same name. The fact that it stands equally well as an informed introduction to several currently relevant strands in pan-African popular music is due in part to Sai Sai – no, not the famed downtown L.A. Japanese restaurant, but the production team that helped assemble the disc, including Lucy Duran (BBC broadcaster and a world authority on Malian music) and top London Afro DJ Dudu Sarr. Expectedly, the main areas covered include the Sahel sound (Mory Kante, mbalax superstar Youssou N’Dour, Senegalese elder-statesmen Baobab, Malian femme fatale Oumou Sangare, Kandia Kouyate, and the beautiful sound of the Mauritanian harpist Malouma); and several contrasting styles from Africa’s own most popular pop music, that of the Democratic Republic Of Congo.

But there’s also a handful of other tunes that should enter the ears of those rock and dance music fans who believe that African music starts and ends with Fela Kuti. Try Bissau singer-songwriter Manecas Costa, whose Afro-Portuguese-inflected gumbe music is one of West Africa’s comparatively undiscovered gems; or Mozambicans Ghorwane (an inclusion possibly inspired by Duran’s recent fascinating Radio 3 series on the music of Mozambique). If you like African hip hop and urban beats, Kenyan posse Juliani, Johny Boy, K-Swiss and Agano are among the leaders of Nairobi’s bourgeoning rap scene, whilst young South African singer Thandiswa Mazwai samples a track from her debut solo album after leaving Mzansi-beat pioneers Bongo Maffin.

One of Africa’s most exciting recent exports has been the fast-developing ‘desert beat’ from the various refugee camps in southwest Algeria and Western Sahara. Last year, the group Tinariwen played Europe to ecstatic reviews. And Mariem Hassan & Leyoad’s ‘Wajadu’ has something of Tinariwen’s fierce, untamed sound. The album’s only weak point, in my view, is the inclusion of Zimbabwean Thomas Mapfumo, once a legend but now well past his sell-by date: his fellow countryman Oliver Mtukutzi, one of Africa’s three or four best living songwriters, would have been my choice.

On the other hand, the choice of Congolese music here simply re-confirms my long-held view that Kinshasa and Brazzaville have always produced the most thrilling, innovative, accessible (to Western ears) and inspiring music on the continent. Wisely, the compilers have highlighted the dizzying versatility of the Congolese diaspora, from war-torn Kinshasa’s weirdly effective electro-rumba sound-systems (Konono No1), through Tatouages’ chanson-flavoured ‘Silence, on reve’, into Awilo Longomba’s 1998 underground African dance smash ‘Coupe Bibamba’ – and finally, the veterans of the golden age of Congolese rumba, Kekele.

Full and informative sleevenotes on each artist and track add the finishing touch to a fine collection, that manages to avoid the worthier-than-thou dystopia that many worldbeat projects seem to inhabit these days.

RELATED LINKS:
Africa Remix - exhibition website



Buy Africa Remix at Amazon UK (CD) | US (CD)



PUBLISHED: 2 June 2005

RELEASE DATE: 7 March 2005 (UK) / 26 April 2005 (US)

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