We feature a Pick of the Week every Saturday. Now we’re adding Midweek Bonus Picks, which are quick snippets of interesting stuff that’s worth a look or listen.
I plan to write more about the recent release of Zulu Guitar Blues, from Matsuli Music. In the meantime, here’s a highlight – a song from the Baca Boys. In a similar vein, a site that features “out of print South African, and other African music that is very difficult to find.” The site is not currently active, but still worth a look.
Here’s another release, also from Bandcamp. It’s a collection of music from Madagascar, an island nation that lies off the southeastern coast of the continent. Tsapiky! Modern Music From Southwest Madagascar is “jaggedy punkish guitars and stuff,” as I referred to it. Here’s a snippet from their description:
“Tsapiky music from Southwest Madagascar features wild ecstatic vocals, distorted electric guitars, rocket bass, and the amphetamine beat! Unlike anything else, this is THE high life music you’ve always wanted – ceremonial music played with abandon and extreme intent, honoring the living and dead alike.
In Toliara and its surrounding region, funerals, weddings, circumcisions and other rites of passage have been celebrated for decades in ceremonies called mandriampototse. During these celebrations – which last between three and seven days – cigarettes, beer and toaky gasy (artisanal rum) are passed around while electric orchestras play on the same dirt floor as the dancing crowds and zebus. The music, tsapiky, defies any classification.
I hate to break the news, but we’ve all got to go eventually. Here’s a BBC Africa report from a while back about Ghana, where dancing pallbearers can provide a bit of a celebratory spin to end of life observations.
As the BBC put it, “Pallbearers are lifting the mood at funerals in Ghana with flamboyant coffin-carrying dances. Families are increasingly paying for their services to send their loved ones off in style.”
