Pearsall's Tunes

One of my favorite recent music blog finds has been Benn Loxo du Taccu, which is all about African music and is written by a guy named Matt Yanchyshyn who lives in Dakar, Senegal. The music of the African continent is such a hugely complex and daunting field for the uninitiated that it's wonderful to have such an able guide and the chance to check out such a wide range of stuff. Go check it out, there's lots and lots of mp3's, all presented with interesting and informative notes on the artists and the scenes, influences, and traditions they are working from.

Anyways, since I'm on that theme, here's an mp3.

Manu Dibango - African Battle

This is from a compilation I picked up a couple years ago entitled 'Africa Funk: The Original Sound of 1970's Funky Africa', which was a compilation of tunes made in the 1970's (as per the title) by African artists who were influenced by American funk/soul music. The Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, whose track I've featured here, is one of the most famous musicians to have emerged from Africa during that period. If you're interested in learning more about him, there's a pretty long and quite interesting biography at Radio France Internationale.

Also on the African theme, check out this thread at Dissensus on Congotronics, which then develops into a discussion of Congolese music in general.