Filed under: Zaïre
The Belgian Congo achieved independence on June 30, 1960 under the name “Republic of the Congo” (“République du Congo”). Shortly thereafter, the provinces of Katanga and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new government. And factions within the recently elected resident Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba only made matters worse.
Meanwhile, Joseph Mobutu, who was the chief of staff of the Armee Nationale Congolaise, decided to take advantage of the situation. Since Mobutu was receiving financial support from the United States and Belgium, he could pay his soldiers privately. And with this power, he garnered enough support within the army to lead a coup. With the assistance of UN forces, the Katanga secession ended two years later in 1963.
The following year, the country changed its name to Democratic Republic of the Congo to distinguish it from the neighboring Republic of the Congo. A quick succession of several short-lived governments eventually led to a stalemate and threatened the country’s stability. In 1965, Mobutu seized power of the presidency (again with United States backing) – who later renamed the country Zaïre in 1971.
During those years of unrest, neighboring Tanzania, Uganda and near by Kenya were inundated with Zaïrian refugees. Many of these were musicians who settled in East Africa and tended to dominate urban music scenes.
Initially known as Bana Kibushi Batano, the band was formed in Lubumbashi by Vicky Numbi. In 1965, the band moved to Kigoma, Tanzania. It was there that the band received their new name – Hi-Fives – from an American Catholic priest. Two years later, they came Kenya to join fellow Congolese musician Pascal Onema, and Zambians Nashil Pitchen and Peter Tsotsi, who were with the Equator Sounds Band in Nairobi.
Orchestre Hi-Fives are credited for creating the Mpete wa Kibushi style which became very popular in Kenya. The band recorded over a dozen singles and at least three albums. After the break up of the band, Vicky Numbi joined Orchestra Super Mazembe, who were active up until the 1990s. In 2004, it was announced that the band was going to be “revived”. Renamed Kibushi Sounds Band, Vicky Numbi was in the process of recruiting new musicians as well as plans to record and tour.
Catalog number 2 C 006 15046 on EMI / Pathé, pressed in France. No release date listed.
Filed under: South Korea
♬ 미
♬ 마음은 날개
I’ve recently come into a lot of free time… So, I’ve been catching up on some reading, finally delving into some books on the subject of world popular music. I decided to start with Peter Manuel’s Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey. And while it does remind me of why I never read the assigned text books when I was in college, it has made me question how I quantify what it is about the music that I like – and post here.
First, defining Pop Music is a pretty sticky subject. Manuel spends the first chapter establishing numerous definitions depending on all sorts of Social-Economical criteria. Here’s the first paragraph from Manuel’s book:
Much has been written about the distinctions between folk, classical, and more recently, popular musics. It is often easy to regard such discussions, whether justifiably or not, as gratuitous exercises in abstract taxonomy, and it is clear that they are generally of more import to musicologists than to performers or audiences. Nevertheless, world musics often do lend themselves to broad, if occasionally ambiguous taxonomies, the clarification of which helps us to understand the nature of these genres in terms of the attributes they share or do not share with others. Moreover, many cultures themselves do distinguish between folk, art, and popular music styles. Hence such categories often can and should be employed as “-emic” constructs in understanding ethnic music from the perspective of its own culture. What should be avoided is not the use of clearly defined classifications, but rather the tendency to attach ethnocentric, class-centric, or idiosyncratic values to such concepts. At the same time, in order to understand the relationship between these different kinds of music, one must define the underlying, generally unarticulated criteria which distinguish them.
Clear as mud, right? It seems like when dissect something to death, you take all of the fun out of it. What I came away with after reading the first chapter is that there is no real clear definition. And really, to me it seems almost pointless. I just know what I like.
For example, I love the raw Afro funk from Dahomey like Orchestre Super Jheevs des Paillotes and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. The labels that released those records were similar to the small Punk and Indie of the 80s and 90s. They were putting out bands that recorded live to two track – sometimes recorded at someone’s house – and released as singles in limited quantities. I’m sure that the person who released the record expected to made some money – but nothing on the scale of the Bollywood music industry. And I really enjoy that stuff as well. But Bollywood music is probably the most commercial most ever created. And the Steel Guitar versions are practically the muzak of India.
So what is it? Well, I’ve narrowed it down to three major “rules”, for a lack of a better term. First is geography. This was just an arbitrary decision. At the time, I decided to leave out South America, mainly because I thought I had heard all that there was to hear from that region… And I was wrong. I keep debating whether or not to start adding music from South America, but then I’d have to redesign that map at the top of the page… And I really don’t need a reason to not buy more records.
Second is the use of electric instruments. This is not to say that I do not like songs with all acoustic instrumentation. It’s just that I tend to prefer songs with electric guitar or organ. Better yet, is when an instrument that usually is not electrified is hooked up to an amplifier – like an oud, saz or, of course sitar. This is usually the result of the Folk Tradition being mixed with urban development. And it seems like you rarely hear this in more modern music, due to new technologies.
Which brings us to rule number three, which is a bit harder to define. But due to synthesizers and groove boxes, I tend to stick to the “Pre-digital age” production. There is a narrow window of time between the introduction of the electric guitar and the onslaught of the synthesizer. It seems like in some regions – like say some parts of Northern Africa – where that was only a matter of four or five years.
But rules are made to be broken. The song that I posted by Mayada doesn’t have any electric instrument. And the song Rahbaniyat by Omar Khorshid has some kinda of crazy sequencer going on in the background. It all really boils down to just taste.
Catalog number K-APPLE 819 on Universal Records of Seoul, South Korea. Released 1976.
Filed under: Nigeria
BLO were the first actual rock band from Africa that I ever read about. I remember seeing their Phases 1972-1982 retrospective on Afro Strut in the Forced Exposure catalog and thinking that I needed to pick that up. But they were sold out, so I bought a disc by Orlando Julius instead. It would be many years later before I would ever get to hear the band. Not until the Q.D.K. Media released their Love, Peace & Poetry: African Psychedelic Music compilation.
The band’s name was an acronym for Berkley “Ike” Jones (guitar) and Laolu “Akins” Akintobi (drums) and Mike “Gbenga” Odumosu (bass). Where as most African bands were massive orchestras, BLO were the first rock trio – and really the only one I can think of – in Africa.
Jones, Akintobi and Odumosu originally started out in a band called The Clusters while they were still in high school in Lagos, Nigeria. At that time, they were influenced by the British Invasion – The Beatles and Rolling Stones – and then later James Brown. That is until they saw Gerald Pino and The Heartbeats Band from Seirra Leone who were mixing Rock and Roll with Rumba and Soul. After that, The Clusters started to play a mix of Afrorock and Highlife.
Eventually, Jones, Akintobi and Odumosu left The Clusters to form Afrocollection with twin sisters Kehinde and Taiwo Lijadu – bettern known as The Lijadu Sisters. Afrocollection decided to move in a more Afrorock direction, and move away from the more traditional Highlife sounds. Around this time, Ginger Baker – drummer of Cream and Blind Faith – was wandering around Africa and happened to catch Afrocollection performing at the Batakuto Club in Lagos. Baker recruited members of the band to form Salt, who toured throughout Western Europe and North America, but never recorded.
After the break up of Salt in 1972, Jones, Akintobi and Odumosu returned to Nigeria decided to form BLO. Their first show was on 23rd December 1972 at Onikan Stadium in front of 10,000 fans – the biggest ever audience in the history of Nigerian Music. The following year, they released their debut album, Chapter One on EMI. But the record sales did not meet the expectations of EMI, and the band moved to Afrodesia – which was a subsidiary of Decca – for the second album Phase II released in 1975.
That same year, the band released Step Three. Mike Odumosu had left the band to join Osibisa and was replaced by Adeniyi “Biddy” Wright on bass, as well as alto and soprano sax. The band was now influenced more by American music groups like Grand Funk Railroad and The Isley Brothers than their fellow countrymen like Fela Kuti and Orlando Julius. But poor records sales pressured the band and Jones and Akintobi decided to call it quits. The duo moved to London to study screenwriting and sound production. That is, until they met session musician Otu Udofa – also known as Lemmy Jackson – who encouraged them to put the band back together.
In 1976, BLO released Phase IV. Although Mike Odumosu is pictured on the cover, he was not a member of the band even though supposedly sang backing vocals on the record. The band went on to release two more records – Bulky Backside in 1980 and Back in Time in 1982 – before breaking up for good.
According to the liner notes of Soundway Records’ Nigeria Rock Special: “Berkley Jones has not picked up a guitar in years and is now a property developer in Lagos. Laolu Akintobi still produces music and Mike Odumosu settled in London after his days with Osibisa.“ Also, Lemmy Jackson went on to become one of the biggest producers in the Nigerian music industry.
Catalog number DWAPS 2009 on Afrodesia / Decca West Africa of Lagos, Nigeria. Released 1976, manufactured in England.
Filed under: Syria
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, thinking “I gotta get that record!”? No? Then you are what they call sane. What’s that like? Really. I would like to know.
I’ve often joked that record collecting is a type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It completely takes over every other train of thought. According to Dr. Louann Brizendine, the average male thinks about sex every 52 seconds. Well, I’d be willing to bet that record junkies beat that.
This album – as you may have figured out by now – is a record that I do not have (Yet!). But man, do I want it. Baaaaad. And for other collectors, um, I mean researchers, we all have “the one that got away”. Well, actually there’s always more than just one. But for some reason, this record is one that haunts me not only in my waking hours, but in my dreams as well. I must possess it!
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve pestered for a copy of this. I’ve accosted anyone who has told me that they were going to – or anywhere even remotely near – Syria. I have even tried to contact Mozart Chahine, who used to run the label and now lives in Beirut… But nothing.
The source for this sound clip, as is the picture, is from the listing on eBay. When the person who transferred the vinyl lifts up the needle, it rips out my heart every time.
Catalog number BL912 on Byblos of Syria, pressed in Greece. Released 1978.
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Update: April 17, 2010
I got it! Oh man, the tingly sensation of pulling the cover of what had been the top of my Want List out of the cardboard packaging…
The name of the song is Al Ghaba. You can here it in its entirety HERE.
The liner notes on the back of the album cover read (typos and all):
The organ adapted for Oriental music
Assad Khoury plays an electronic organ adapted for oriental music, according to the system invented by the late Abdallah Chahin, who was the pioneer in this field, when he adapted the piano for oriental music, in addition to western music.
This converted electronic organ has been accepted by authorities on music such as Father Xavier Collengate: Father Louis Al-Haj: Prof. Louis Haba: and Marius Schneider, in addition to famous Arab composrs, such as Mohammad Abdul Wahab: Farid Al Atrach: Father Joseph Khoury: Tawfik Sukkar: and Rahbani Broters. They all have praised the sound quality of this organ.
It is noteworthy that, for the last 5 years, Farfisa Company has been using Chahin’s System in building musical instruments for Oriental music, among which, the electronic organ takes the lead.
Filed under: Brunei
The word Kugiran is abbreviation of “Lively Guitar Group” from the Malay words “Kumpulan Gitar Rancak berirama”.
As early as 1960 the Kugiran bands began to emerge in Malaysia and Singapore. The standard instrumentation for these bands at that time, was three electric guitars – lead, bass and rhythm – and a drum set. Normal six stringed guitars were used to play the bass line roughly until 1963, when proper four-stringed bass guitars became available in Malaysia.
These “electrified” guitar bands were much louder than the earlier folk oriented Skiffle groups and the more Lounge type bands as typified by P. Ramlee with accordions and bongos, which quickly fell out of fashion. The Kugirans eventually replaced the jazz trios and quartets in hotels and club circuits across Malaysia. It was P. Ramlee himself who christened these early rock groups with the name kugiran.
The era of the Kugirans was short lived. Around 1969, there was influx of bands and singers – like Ernie Djohan and Lilis Suryani – from neighboring Indonesia who started to get more airplay on radio stations in Malaysia and Singapore. The following year, Radio Television Malaysia unofficially banned Indonesian music and initiated a policy that gave preference to Malaysian artists. But by that time, most of the Kugiran bands had gone out of style and the musicians had either moved on or given up.
But not all of the Kugiran bands were from Malaysia or Singapore. One of these bands was from Brunei – Kugiran Irama Perindu. The band released three singles on the Olympic label of Singapore. After lead singer Dayangku Aminah left the band, she was featured along with three other singers – or “penyanyi” – on a single with the band The Sand Blues. Later she recorded least on single with The Sandpipers as her baking band, both of these records were also released by Olympic. As for The Heavy Machine or the label United Enterprise, there is no information available.
Catalog number UE 111 on Sharikat United Enterprise of Malaysia. No release date given.
Filed under: Eritrea
For those of you who have been following the site with any sort of regularly, you know that one of the things that has really blown my mind, is the music of Eritrea. Of the four singles I have been able to find from there, three of them have left me utterly gobsmacked.
I am sure I have uttered at some point in these hundred eighty some odd posts, that the process of discovery is what I live for. And when you discover something entirely new – at least to your own ears – it makes it yours. Of course, this music was never supposed to be “yours” in the first place. This music was never intended for you or I to ever hear… That is, unless you are Eritrean. And even then, these records were hard to find.
Eritrea wasn’t even recognized as a country until 1993, two years after they gained their independence. Conquered by Italy in 1890, then invaded by the English in WWII, Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in December 1950. In 1959, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I handed down an edict making the teaching of Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia, in all Eritrean schools mandatory instead of the native Tigrinya. The Eritrean Struggle for Independence began two years later, following Haile Selassie I’s dissolution of the federation and shutting down of Eritrea’s parliament. And conditions only worsened under the Marxist military junta known as the Derg after they deposed the Emperor in 1974.
Music from Eritrea, as well as the northern territory of Ethiopia of the Tigray people, was heavily suppressed by the Derg. According to the liner notes of Buda Musique’s Ethiopiques, Vol. 5: Tigrigna, records “were sometimes buried in peoples’ yards to avoid detection” and that many of the musicians went on to fight in the war for Eritrean independence.
I have not been able find any information about Wendyifraw Weretta or the label Kothari. Tekle Adhanom, who was the arranger on this single, was a well known guitarist who also recorded with Alèmayèhu Eshèté and Beyene Fire.
If you have any further information, please contact me or leave a comment.
Thanks to Adamantios Kafetzis.
Catalog number K1 on Kothari Records of Eritrea, released 1976. Manufactured in Greece by EMI.
Filed under: Malaysia
Instrumentalia was not just limited to Indonesia, but can also be found in neighboring Malaysia – although with notably different results. The best example of this – at least in my opinion – is Band De-Fictions.
The band were from Muar, Malaysia – about halfway up the Malay Peninsula between Kula Lumpur and Singapore on the Straight of Malacca. They got their start as the backing the singer A. Halim as part of the Pop Yeh-yeh movement of the early 1960s. The band released a handful of singles, as well as a few albums before going out on their own. As far as I know, they only recorded two albums, both for the Tatex company – that also released The Brothers Hawk album Let’s Do The Funky.
According to the Google translator, the members of the band were S. Dina on lead guitar, Zaideen on rhythm guitar, Idris Talib on organ, Wahid H. on drums, Kassim on percussion and A. Murad on “guitarist behavior”? Not quite sure what that is. Air guitar? But if I had to guess, I’m thinking that A. Murad must have played bass guitar.
If you have any further information, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number TLP-1010 on Tatex Records of Singapore. No release date listed.
Filed under: Lebanon
This week… I got nothing.
O.K., that’s not entirely true. I can tell you that Taroub (or as seen here, Tarup), along with her sister Mayada, were from Lebanon and were of Turkish descent. They had recording careers both in Lebanon and Turkey, where this single is from.
But beyond than, I can not tell you anymore.
Writer’s block? Perhaps.
I looked up writer’s block, and one of the major causes is “A project may be fundamentally misconceived, or beyond the author’s experience or ability”… This may be true. Guess we’ll find out.
If you have any further information, please contact me or leave a comment.
Catalog number MT-574 on Moda Plāk of Turkey. No other information is available.
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I received some more information from our friend Hany Zaki. Here’s what he had to say:
Her real name is Amal Jarkas from Turkish roots, as you mentioned. From time to time she used to go to Turkey for making records, or films, or to fall in love. In 1968 [could be the time around when she made that single] she was in Istanbul taking a part in Lebanese -Turkish production film titled Gang of Women with Sabah as the film star and a Turkish actor. His name is Jonette Arkan. He is pretty much looking like Alan Delon [likely that’s what drove him to acting]. The film ended with Arkan and Taroub romancing reached the limit of marriage concept, but eventually it appears to be it was crush.
Thanks Hany!
Filed under: Côte d'Ivoire
♬ My Love
Côte d’Ivoire gained it’s independence from France in 1960. With the highest production of cocoa and third highest coffee production in the world, and becoming the lead exporter of pineapples and palm oil, Côte d’Ivoire was the most prosperous of the French West Africa territories. But while in other countries in Africa, Europeans were driven out following independence – in Côte d’Ivoire, they poured in. The French community grew from only 30,000 prior to independence to 60,000 in 1980, most of them teachers, managers and advisors. For 20 years, the economy maintained an annual growth rate of nearly 10% – the highest of Africa’s non-oil-exporting countries.
While Ernesto Djédjé is considered the father of Ivoirian popular music, there are many other artists who have had success both at home and abroad – Amédée Pierre, Eba Aka Jerome, Guéhi Jean, Paco Sery and Zakri Noël – to name a few. One of the defining traits of Ivoirian popular music is the use of the folk rhythms of the Bété people, which has been prevalent since Côte d’Ivoire’s independence. Also, Djédjé has long been a vocal advocate of Ivoirian music, rallying against the “Congolization” of the Abidjan scene.
The only information that I have been able to find about Audio Rama Orchestre National (also seen as L’Audiorama Orchestra) is that Anon Anon Joseph was the primary songwriter and vocalist. According to what he says in the song, he was “born In the United States of America” and apparently started college when he was twelve years old… Currently, he sits on the Bureau Ivoirien Du Droit D’Auteur, along with Amédée Pierre and Zakri Noël. I’ve only seen one album by them, titled Extraordinaire Surprise Partie on the label Safie Deen, and at least one other single. The label that released this single – Djima Iyanda – was the name of the Yoruba producer who was based in Abidjan in the early 70s. If you have any other information, please contact me.
Catalog number DAD 948 on Djima Iyanda of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Manufactured in France. No release date listed.
Filed under: Singapore
This week’s guest post is by the illustrious Dustin Drase. Dustin is the mastermind behind PlusTapes. The label has released a very diverse roster of artists – from the French pop of Anna St. Clair and Peruvian psych of Los Holy’s, to the lo-fi thrash noise of the Chicago Thrash Ensemble and seaworthy folk-rock of Death Ships, as well as legendary Asian garage bands like Dara Puspita and The Travellers. Dustin saved the day by swooping in to fill a last minute cancellation for this month’s guest post. Also, Dustin decided to post the entire album – a first here at Radiodiffusion Internasionaal – and I was in no the mood to argue.
The Brothers Hawk were an Asian, mostly instrumental, band that played and recorded throughout Singapore and Malaysia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Brothers peddled in the popular “Hala Hala” or “A Go Go” styles much like other contemporaries of their time, The Travellers or The Stylers. Like these bands, the Brothers also served as the backing band for popular vocalists, in their case on three records with Wong Shaiu Chuen.
Let’s Do The Funky, on the Tatex Records label was curiously distributed by the similarly named Tatet Records Trading Co. throughout Malaysia, and Victory Records in Singapore. As is the case with many 60s and 70s records from Singapore, the covers are more exciting than the actual music. There are a number of sites around the net that post covers of records from the 60s Singapore scene, but David Greenfield’s ever growing collection is perhaps the most impressive.
The Hala Hala / A Go Go style (sometimes also referred to as Off Beat Cha Cha) takes traditional Chinese surf-style twang and mixes elements of Rumba, Foxtrot, and Quick Step rhythms. The music was made to be fairly breezy “Teen Dance Music”, and is nowhere near as heavy on the funk or psychedelic as Indonesian and other Malaysian music of its time.
I first came to the music of Singapore through the Girls in the Garage: Oriental Special compilation, which shows an admittedly slanted view of the Singapore music scene. Whereas much of the music on that compilation was meant to show Westerners the silly, broken-English side of Singapore, the Brothers Hawk seem to sidestep that pitfall and actually can sing in English as evidenced by the cowboy ballad “One Way Wind”, and the ultra groovy “Co-Co”.
Many of the Singapore bands had recurring night club gigs and were tied to one specific recording studio. They would churn out a multitude of hits and cover songs, which were sometimes released repeatedly on differently packaged albums (see discography below for a good example of this). Let’s Do The Funky is labeled as The Sound of the Brothers Hawk Vol. 2, which leads one to believe there is a Vol. 1 out there somewhere, but I have yet to see evidence of this record existing.
Track Listing
1. Flying Machine
2. Bombay Duck
3. One Way Wind
4. My Lady
5. Co-Co
6. Funny, Funny
7. Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum
8. Where Are You? The Jilted
9. Forgive Me, Darling
10. Wonderful Life
11. To the Frontier
12. Only You
13. Nothing in My Life
14. The Fated Dream
Discography
*special thanks to the ongoing discography project by the folks from Scarce Sounds – reprinted by permission
TATEX (Singapore)
TATEX (Singapore)
TLP-1011 • The Brothers Hawk • Let’s Do the Funky – The Sound of The Brothers Hawk Vol. 2
PEAK RECORDS (Singapore/Malaysia)
BCLP-8004 • The Brothers Hawk • Popular Hits Party ‘70
WHITE RABBIT RECORD (Singapore)
HE-1975 • Wong Shiau Chuen + The Brothers Hawk
HAPPY RECORD COMPANY (H.R.C.) (Malaysia) – “Happy Record Electronic Enterprise Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia”
HE-1975 • Wong Shaiu Chuen + The Brothers Hawk
HE-1976 • Wong Shaiu Chuen + The Brothers Hawk
HE-1978 • Wong Shiau Chuen + The Brothers Hawk
PEAK RECORD (Singapore)
BC-7097 • Lin Zhen + The Brothers Hawk
ORIENTAL RECORD (Singapore) – “Oriental Record Co., Singapore”
ORC-9901 • Jia Jia + The Brothers Hawk
Catalog number TLP-1011on Tatex Records of Singapore. No release date listed.
