Filed under: Upper Volta
♬ Mori
Many of the records that finally find their way into my hands, have had a hard life. I would guess that at least a quarter of the records posted on the site are unplayable. They have scratches. They skip. Scuffs and cracks. Some even have pieces of the record that are missing. But with the use of various computer and turntable tricks, I can usually bring a track back from the dead. Usually…
Finding pristine copies of these records are practically impossible. Yeah, maybe if I travelled to these countries and was really really lucky. Don’t get me wrong, if I could I certainly would. I just don’t have that kind of budget. So due to the scarcity, I’ve learn to live with what I can get. Because, even if the record is beat – I still just want to hear it. I want to know what sounds are contained in that spiral groove.
Now… This record is near pristine – at least, to the naked eye. But, as you probably have already noticed, the audio track tells quite a different story. This record was not damaged by a previous owner or injured in transit. It was just pressed wrong. And the sonic surgery needed to bring this one back from the dead is beyond my expertise. Well, it’s not completely dead. But to EQ the particular frequency where the noise is, would also take out the guitar… Luckily, the noise fades out about two thirds in – just before the guitar solo.
I have not been able to find any information about Barou Kante or L’Orchestre Les Messengers du Promhotel. If you any information, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number VDB 032 on Edition Volta Discobel of Ouagadougou, Upper Volta – now known as Burkina Faso. Pressed in Benin, no release date listed.
Filed under: Laos
I just got this single today, so I’m sure the translation is wrong and will have to be corrected later… I wanted to post it anyway just because Laos is such a blank slate, even though it really doesn’t fit in here…
As I have mentioned before, compared to their neighbors – Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, even Burma – no one really ever mentions Laos. Even amongst my fellow record collectors – um, I mean fellow archivists – there just isn’t a whole lot of information. The general censuses was that there wasn’t anything, and what little of what may have been was most likely destroyed by the Pathet Lao after they overthrew the government. But that seems to not be the case.
I was recently contacted by Chanthara Outhensackda. He is the gentleman on the cover of the first single from Laos that I posted back in September 2007. He was head of the studio for Lao National Radio from 1968 to 1975 in Vientiane. And, he recorded all of his songs in Laos – not in Thailand as some people have speculated. So there was something going on there. Some of which, you can listen to here.
Catalog number KSD 6604 on the Sat-Dtree Laos label. No other information available.
Filed under: Egypt
♬ Umm Kulthum • Amber of the Nile
♬ Saïd Darwish • Arabesque
There’s been more than a few records that I have posted on this site that have made me question who the intended audience was when it was released. This one is right up front about it. It’s says it right there on the cover: “a holiday souvenir”.
But one of the most annoying things about this record is that there are no artists listed. I have seen another version of this release that did list who did what songs, and I happened to have written down that Saïd Darwish was credited for the version or Arabesque… But the other track – which did not write down – required a bit more research
Eventually, I had Hany Zaki play name that tune for me. On the record, the track is listed as Amber of the Nile, but it is actually an excerpt from a much longer piece by Umm Kulthum called Lelit Hob, or Night of Love. Kulthum – who has almost as many variations on her name as Muammar al-Gaddafi – was know as the Star of the East (kawkab el-sharq). More than three decades after her death, she is still recognized as one of the Arab world‘s most famous and distinguished singers of the 20th century. But also of note was that the legendary Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid – who I believe is the guitarist on this track – got his start playing in her orchestra.
Catalog number 18-75171 on Sono Cairo records of Cairo, Egypt, released 1975.
Filed under: Rhodesia
Rhodesia was an unrecognized state that existed between 1965 and 1979. The landlocked country bordered South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. The state, which is named after Cecil John Rhodes, was governed by a predominantly white minority government until 1979.
Throughout its history, Rhodesia continued to be referred to by the British, who did not recognize the state, as “Southern Rhodesia“. Before 1964, the name “Rhodesia” had referred to the territory of modern Zambia and Zimbabwe; however, when the former colony of Northern Rhodesia renamed itself Zambia on independence in 1964, the colony of Southern Rhodesia changed its name to simply “Rhodesia”. However, the change had not yet been officially ratified when Rhodesia declared itself independent, and as a result, the British Government continued to refer to the breakaway colony as “Southern Rhodesia” throughout its existence, a stance it maintained regarding the June–December 1979 successor state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Therefore, when Zimbabwe Rhodesia returned to colonial status from December 1979 to April 1980, it was as “Southern Rhodesia”, which, according to Britain, it had never ceased to be called. Southern Rhodesia subsequently gained international recognition of its independence in April 1980, when it became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe.
I have not been able to find anything about The Traffic Lights. The single was recorded by Crispen Matema. Matema was a well known producer who recorded Thomas Mapfumo as well as Mapfumo’s band – the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band. If you any further information about The Traffic Lights, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number MBE 13 on Mberi. No release date listed.
Filed under: North Korea
♬ 만겸화
What do ethnomusicologists and Cultural Revolutions have in common? They both hate rock and roll.
Now, I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of static for that comment. I know there are of plenty of folks working in ethnomusicology – including a few close friends – who don’t actually hate rock and roll. But a good number of those in the field are searching for music that has not been contaminated by Western influences. And on the other hand, you have Cultural Revolutions – be it political or religious – where in most cases anything remotely Western was destroyed.
Music is, and has always been, the product of cross pollination from the beginning of time – back to the beginning of civilization. The Portuguese introduced the guitar pretty much everywhere they went. The Germans unloaded a ship load of accordions into Latin America, forever changing the rhythms of their music. Brass instruments from Europe were shipped all over Africa. In more recent times, synthesizers have pretty much taken over the planet… And let’s not forget about Radio.
Once the Radio introduced, music from the around the world bled across borders to influence people who would have not normally heard that stuff to begin with. And it’s those collisions of cultures that produce some of the most amazing music – at least to my ears. Only in the most totalitarian states has Western influences been shut out. And when that happens, you get something like this.
Catalog number ㄱ – 809804 ᄆ– 28017 / ᄆ– 28018 on the Korean Gramophone Record label of Pyongyang, in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. No release date listed.
Filed under: Iran
When I started putting together the box set that eventually evolved – some would say mutated – into this site, there was practically nothing on pre-revolution Persian pop music. No information, no recordings, no nothing. I did manage to find a Fereydoun Farrokhzad CD that had one of his old singles on it and a CD-R of Mehrpouya‘s first album. Also at that time, Psyche Van Het Folk had a fairly limited page of information. But that was it.
But in the last few years, there has been a small but somewhat steady stream of releases that have become available. First was the Raks! Raks! Raks! compilation on Discos Raks. Not too long after, the Persianna label mysteriously appeared and released compilations of Golden Ring and The Rebels, as well as Mehrpouya’s Jumbo Africa album. And then last year, Finders Keepers‘ Pomegranates compilation was released.
This single is by Aref & Ramesh, and I am pretty sure the backing band was Golden Ring – who backed Aref on a number of his early singles. Both Aref and Golden Ring have been covered previously on this site, but I have not been able to find hardly anything on Ramesh. In the liner notes for the Pomegranates compilation, she is referred to as “This elusive rocker has been spotted in 70s teen-zines in Iran decked in everything from paisley-pretty to biker-chic“.
Thanks to Gökhan Aya for the translation of the Farsi.
Catalog number AJ 4303 / RT 2286 on Royal of Iran. No release date listed.
Filed under: Mali
♬ Mouodilo
In the aftermath of General Moussa Traoré‘s military coup of the Malian government in 1968, state funding for the arts, theater troupes and musical groups disappeared. In an attempt to fill the void, the Malian Railway Company decided to sponsor a group that would be the house band at the Buffet Bar at the Station Hotel in the town of Bamako. A trumpet playing Griot named Tidiane Koné was recruited to organize the group, which was called Super Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel de la Gare Bamako – or more simply known as Rail Band.
The band, which first formed in 1970, started off as a Jazz band that was also heavily influenced by Afro-Cuban rhythms. Eventually, the group integrated local Manding musical styles and traditions, with vocals in the Bambara language. From the beginning, the band featured electric guitar, organ, horn section and a drum kit along side more traditional instruments like kora, balafon, Ngoni and talking drum with Islamic-style, Mande hunter co-fraternity song, and Griot praise-singing vocals.
In the band’s first ten years, two of Mali’s best known vocalists – Salif Keita and Mory Kanté – had fronted the group. Keita left the band in 1972 to form Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel. The two bands had a fierce rivalry and would compete in “battle of the bands” concerts. This only fueled each band’s creativity even further.
Rail Band is still active to this day, continuing to record and tour around the world. Their latest album Kongo Sigui was released on the now defunct Indigo label in 2003. Many of their earlier recordings have been reissued on Sterns Music.
The band’s discography can be found at the Radio Africa site.
Catalog number HNS 1582 on EMI / HMV of Nigeria, released 1975.
Filed under: Sri Lanka
♬ Clarence Wijewardena & Super Golden Chimes • Gamen Liyumak
♬ Annesley Malawana & Super Golden Chimes • Udarata Niliya
The music of Sri Lanka is a product of cultural traditions that are the result of three major factors: the religious practices of Buddhism, the lingering influences of Portuguese colonization, and the influence of Indian culture – most notably, Bollywood cinema.
The country’s first pop band was The Moonstones. The group was formed by Clarence Wijewardena and Annesley Malewana in 1966, in the town of Ratnapura. Clarence Wijewardena is also credited with being the person who first introduced the electric guitar into Sinhala music. Although the band was only together for four years, they were very influential. Wijewardena left in 1970 to form the Golden Chimes with singer Anil Bharati, and Malawana continued the group as the Fabulous Moonstones with Mike Gunesekera. In 1972, The Fabulous Moonstones called it quits and Malawana teamed up with Wijewardena once again. They changed the name of the band to The Super Golden Chimes and were quite popular well into the 80s. They reunited in 2003 and 2004.
Catalog number LECL / 007 / LP / 001 on Lotus Entertainment Company Ltd. of Sri Lanka. No release date listed.
Filed under: Syria
When I set the geographic parameters for the scope of Radiodiffusion Internasionaal, I inadvertently came up with the nice even number of 100 countries. So far, we’ve covered music from 62 [Update: 99] of them, listed there on the left hand side of this webpage. Actually, if you count them there’s 63 there, but the one record that was been posted from Republic of the Congo was most likely not from there. But we have yet to hit the other 37 [Update: 20] : Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Now I know that for many of these countries, I know that am not going to find what I am looking for. It’s for that very reason China is not even on the list. But for so many other countries on that list, I know there is some amazing music to be found – I just haven’t found it yet!
If you have any interesting records or cassettes that you wish to share from one or more of the countries that we have yet to hear from – or countries that we need to hear more from, like Laos, Sudan or Zambia, to name a few – please get in touch.
For what little information that is available on the Damascus Music Group, please see their previous post HERE.
Catalog number BL 904 on Byblos Records of Damascus, Syria, released 1977.
Filed under: Eritrea
Tiberih Tesfahuney (also seen Tebereh Tesfahunegn) was born in Asmara, Eritrea in 1947. At age 11 she saw Bezunesh Bekele and Tilahun Gessesse in concert, and decided to become a musician. In 1963, she joined the Association of the Asmara Theatre, which included in its membership Ato Atowebrhan Seghid and Tewelde Redda. Her brother – Eyasu Tesfahuney – is also a successful musician.
Tesfahuney scored her biggest hit in the mid-1960s with “Tegezana Abi Hedmo” – or “Our Lovely House” (is infested with bedbugs and fleas) – which was a criticism of Ethiopia‘s occupation and was subsequently banned. This lead to her fleeing to Sweden in 1970, but that lasted only for a few years.
In 1975, Tiberih Tesfahuney returned to Eritrea and joined the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front. Two years later during a battle in Adi Hawesh, a piece of shrapnel from a RPG left her deaf in her left ear. The EPLF sent her to Sudan to recover from the injury. In 1985, the EPLF office in Sudan eventually decided to send her to Germany to get treatment for her hearing. She stayed there until 1994, when she returned to Eritrea once again. Upon her return, she opened a bar called Ab Hedmo – after her favorite song – in the town of Asseb.
Tiberih Tesfahuney published her autobiography – Two Lives: A True Story – in 1999. It was originally written in Tigrigna, the majority of it has been translated into English – which you can find HERE. Tesfahuney passed away on March 1st, 2007. She was buried at Martyr’s Cemetery in Asmara.
Assress Tessema was one of the founders of the Association of the Asmara Theatre. He and his group recorded two other singles for the Philips label – “Temeharu” / “Sewit Lemlem” (PH 7-139) with Tiberih Tesfahuney and “Harestay” / “Meaza” (PH 7-180) without.
Catalog number PH 7-140 on Philips Records Ethiopia, released 1972.
