Monday, December 1, 2008

Awesome Tapes From Africa

I strongly urge all of you readers to check out the links I have provided to some of the greatest blogs out there. One in particular, Awesome Tapes From Africa is just so amazingly cool I suggest you stop dicking around here and head over there. To whet your appetite I present the tape Obaa Sima by the mysterious High Life entity from Ghana known as Ata Kak. This is so weird and fun, like a gay dance club on Mars, it should be enough to set you on your course of discovering some awesome tapes from Africa.

14 comments:

veganboyjosh said...

while the obscure black metal doesn't excite me as much as the punk and hardcore stuff you post, aesop, i do love the african tunes.
thanks!

Anonymous said...

Trying to offset your NSBM posts?

Θόρυβος Τώρα said...

fela kuti and the ethiopians from the broken flowers soundtrack kind of sum it up for me as far as african tunes go.
have heard the musicians from jajouca, something released by brian jones in the 60's? (i think)

Robert said...

I found this place through your links a few weeks back. It's fucking incredible. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Definitely check out Fela Kuti as well, brilliant stuff

Fiddlestixx said...

oh boy just one song deep and this is a winner already. maybe this is not obscure enough for the hearse, but a few years back strut records put out a compilation by a nigerian band called blo which was a personal fave for a while. A little more straight forward but catchy as crap and spanning disco, psyche and all kinds of other stuff.

Aesop said...

I have heard of Blo, and may have heard a cut from a comp, but that is the extent of my knowledge.

Roger Camden said...

Awesome Tapes from Africa is something of an anomaly to me.

As I see it, all music blogs have something to give. All music blogs have something to share. Some of it out-of-print. Some of it heavily obscure. Some of it misunderstood.

ATfA brings stuff that's so alien to me that it almost feels like a public service. It's as essential as NPR or PBS. The author should be getting a grant or something considered the content.
And the level of original content to repost content is practically 10 to none. Where else have you seen that music offered? Apart from Fela Kuti (& Africa 70), Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Master Musicians of Jajouka, and maybe King Sunny Ade you don't see Africa music readily shared.

A damn fine blog. One of the first I saw, too (along with Mutant Sounds, The Thing on the Doorstep, and Lost in Tyme).

Aesop said...

Roger, I couldn't agree more.

Stiles said...

ROGERS OPINIONS ARE ALWAYS SPOT ON, FULLY AGREE TOO! FUNNY MAN, THIS IS THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT FROM AWESOME TAPES... ON MY HARDDRIVE BUT I FEEL LIKE ITS ALL I NEED! HAVE TO TURN IT UP THO COS OF THE LEVELS, I DONT GIVE A FUK, IT JUST MAKES MY NEIGHBOURS REEL!

Anonymous said...

What everone else has said: amazing. Thank you!

On the same note, ever check out Nigerian "Nollywood" cinema? The trailers lone are nuuuuuuuts. check 'em out, this site's got a whole load of 'em:

http://www.poetv.com/search.php?searchtext=nollywood&x=0&y=0

Side note: A lot of Nigerean film is fascinated with the occult, due to a very real fear of witchcraft. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a lot of young children being driven out of their homes and even killed on suspicion of cursing their families.

Nid said...

Wow! This is amazing shit. Your description of it sounding like a gay disco on Mars is pretty much right on. I really like this tape. Thanks for providing more great obscure African music - I'm going to check out that other blog!

Neilantman said...

Thanks..As mentioned earlier, if you want to check out some BLO http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com/2008/11/blo-chapter-one.html

Aesop said...

Thanks, Neil