A soundtrack for the last days of lockdown (well, hopefully). 

Art: Solitude by https://www.reddit.com/user/Rockastanski/

Tracklist
Steve Moore – Analogue Sensitivity
Andrew Wasylyk – Welter in the Haar
Floating Points – Sea Watch
Lemon Quartet – Slanted Blue
Daryl Hall – The Farther Away I Am
Dukes of Chutney – Flying Horse
Gaussian Curve – The Distance
Ana Roxanne – Suite Pour L'invisible
Sufjan Stevens – Meditation IV
Peace Flag Ensemble – Human Pyramid
Bremer/McCoy – Højder
Neil Cowley – Tramlines
Beck – Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime (“Eternal Sunshine” OST)
Arcade Fire & Owen Pallett – Directions (“Her” OST)

Sounds of Solitude

Jehan - 06 - Fatche De Con

I went on trip through East Africa in late 2023, and these are some of the musical highlights. On top of the list was seeing Mlimani Park Orchestra perform in Dar Es Salaam and hanging out with them on two occasions. They have been active for 45 years, and tumba player Ally Jamwaka (in photo) has been there almost from the start. I also attended the Nyege Nyege Festival at the literal source of the Nile River which exposed me to many sounds, both ancient and new. Taarab music from Zanzibar, Zilipendwa music from Uganda, a DJ set in Kampala with Dennis from Want Some Records, and more made for an amazing and much needed adventure after 7 years of intense employment at a startup that didn't quite make it. 

Tracklist
Mlimani Park Orchestra - Firkirini Nisamehe
Peterson Mutebi and the Tames - Akawungezi 
Jessy Kasirivu and The Cranes - Byetulaba
Nile Beat Artists - Tamenha Ibuga Nalufuka (live recording at NNF)
Otim Alpha - Coo oromo
Jay Mitta - Jays Ant Remix
Judgitzu - Sator Arepo
Gibraltar Drakus - Exode Rural
The Mighty Cavaliers - Mapendo 
Ikhwani Safaa Musical Club - Vingaravyo Vyote Si Dhahabu

Episode 158: a trip through Uganda and Tanzania

This week’s show focuses on FESTAC ’77, a Pan-African culture and arts festival that brought together over 15,000 people from Africa and the African diaspora. Adjusting for inflation, $1.7B was spent on the festival by the suddenly oil-rich Nigeria to host such a monumental event. The primary aim was to decolonize perceptions of black culture and to discuss ways to nurture African pride and unity going forward, and not everyone agreed how to go about this (Lepold Senghor versus Sekou Toure versus Fela Kuti). For part one, I alternative between presenting some of the intellectual controversy leading up and during the festival and playing records that praised FESTAC ’77 or had the National Theatre (which was built for the festival) featured on the cover of the LP. 

To this point most of my reading about the festival was through the amazing book FESTAC ’77 by Chimurenga based in Cape Town (https://chimurengachronic.co.za/festac-77-book/). 

They also have a mixtape that goes with it: https://www.mixcloud.com/chimurenga/festac-a-mixtape-by-chimurenga/

FESTAC '77 [Part 1: The National Theatre]

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Plates often become part of walls, steps, statues and stupas. So we become a mosaic of our surroundings, and what we loved is forever combined into a whimsical kintsugi composition, unique and beautiful in its own way.

Everything I've Loved is a Part of Me

Hector Rodriguez
Mr. Linden
Lucky Cheese

Recorded live in a casual setting.

Under___Cast//e00//24.08.02

Sharing With you Worlwide Vinyls / Cassette Collection
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What People Don't Request #28  ما لا يطلبه المستمعون

JIO - Los Atracadores

Aerials live, dials tuned, Transmission Towers broadcasting. On either side of the river Mersey, transcendental communications are traded back and forth. Two late-night revellers, one firing messages filled with music, the other returning them laced with lyrics. The result, a dopamine hit of oddball machine soul, melded with a highlife, Afrofuturist touch. Wonky and murky yet deeply emotional, Transmission One, is a debut album that also marks the first release on Luke Una’s É Soul Cultura label, encompassing expertly the off-kilter atmosphere the label sets to orbit. 

A synthesised landscape with a Northern charm, Transmission Towers marry the musical worlds of two artists that last collaborated over a decade ago. 10 years have passed, lives have been led, but a gravitational pull has placed Mark Kyriacou and Eleanor Mante back in each other’s spheres on opposite sides of the city of Liverpool. Energised with a newfound desire to strip it all back to the sounds that influenced their formative years in the late ‘80s and ‘90s - astral travelling, intoxicated on Motor City techno, Black Dog IDM and mystical Sun Ra. 
 
Mark half Irish, half Greek Cypriot, Eleanor half Nigerian, half Ghanian, the music contained within is an alchemy of those roots and the pivotal acts that buried deep into their minds. A cosmic contrast, part machine-made, part distinctly human. Take the opener ‘UP’, an ESG-channelling, sci-fi punk beatdown or the polychromatic hyperspace anthem ‘Roller Skater 23’. 
 
Transportive throughout, you ride the solar waves, pace and emotion ebbing and flowing. Tracks like ‘Go Slow Heart’ and ‘Cosmic Trigger’ step to a slower beat but hit with a punch. The former, a slo-mo blast of celestial tenderness, the latter an otherworldly, chugged-out lunar excursion, micro-dosing on whacked-out Wah Wah and Eleanor’s ethereal vocals. Beaming love letters to space and back, ‘Sparse’ marries the organic with the artificial, pianos and percussion circling around synth pads and broadcasting bleeps.
 
Elsewhere, vibrations move faster. ‘Mega’ strikes, fusing sonic tribalism with psychedelic swirls, as ‘Everything’ sweeps you up in its extra-terrestrial new wave grip. Synth stabs and basslines fizzing from every angle.  
 
Demos of Transmission Towers music surfaced on Luke Una’s radar, making him stop in his tracks. Something magical was emerging, perfectly aligned with the E Soul guardian’s tastes. Guidance followed, quickly turning into conversations about Transmission One becoming the first release on Luke’s own label. 
 
Escapist and futurist yet grounded and relatable. Transmission One is synthesis meets sentiment with a deep, spine-tingling soul at its core.

Transmission Towers - Go Slow Heart

Rainy Saturday DJ session in lockdown, because what else is there to do?

D-Roy Band - Trenchtown Skank 
John Holt - Youths Pon The Corner
Augustus Clarke - No, No, No Version
Roots Radics Band ft. Johnny Clarke - Bad Boy 
King Tubby - Psalms Of Drums
Aston Family Man Barrett & Dizzy - Cell Block 11
Brother Dan - Eastern Organ
Sugar Minott & The Black Roots Players - Strictly Rub A Dub 
King Tubby - Money Dub 
The Itals - In A Disa Time
King Tubby & The Aggorvators - A Heavy Dub 
Barry Brown - Politician 
King Tubby & The Aggrovators - African People Dub 
Majestarians - So Many Times
Verne & Son - Little Boy Blue 
The Specials ft. Rico with the Ice Rink String Section - Do Nothing

Echo In Lockdown

A partial archive of the African Airwaves radio program presented by Hans Kelstrup and the late Doug Paterson on KBFG-LP 107.3 FM (North Seattle). The show was founded by Doug in 2018. 

From March to July 2024 we will rebroadcast episodes as Hans will be working and travelling in Madagascar.

Episode 158: a trip through Uganda and Tanzania

African Airwaves

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