Let's see if we've managed to pick 10 tracks that last... the last two lists have both had a track pulled from SC, which explains why they are now only 9 tracks long. Anyway, some Post Rock to open this week, courtesy of Ranges. If I was being a smartarse, I'd have started with Sunflower Bean (Rock) then Public Access TV (Alternative Rock) and *then* Post Rock! Lydian Collective, who sound a bit like Pentangle, then lead us to African grooves courtesy of Boy Azooga (shades of William Onyeabor) and the excellent Hamad Kalkaba who provides the bridge to this week's dance interlude courtesy of Champion (remixed by Four Tet), Arkajo, and Grant. Then it's back into rock territory before winding up (down?) with some ambient post classical sounds from Sebastian Reynolds. Track of the week? Another very tough one: the Boy Azooga track is very good, as is the Lydian Collective one, but by a very very small margin Hamad Kalkaba's "Astadjam Dad Sare" (from the latest excellent compilation from Analog Africa is the winner.

Nov 03 - Nov 09 2017

Thirty One

Physical Albums and Merchandise (2XLP Vinyl, CDs, Apparel):

(US) - https://athousandarms.store/collections/ranges
(EU) - https://dunkrecords.com

RANGES Website - www.rangesmusic.com

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C. Blessum // J. Caldwell // J. Gabriel // M. Levy

Produced by RANGES // Recorded and Mixed by C. Blessum at The Low Country // Mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge, NY.

Art Direction by L U X I N V I C T U S // Released by A Thousand Arms Music (US) and dunk!records (EU) //  Copyright MMXVII

rangesmusic.com // athousandarms.com // dunkrecords.com

The Ascensionist

I remember the day clearly. I was searching for treasures in a record shop in Yaoundé, the Capital city of Cameroon, when suddenly I came across a 7-inch record with a picture of a young man wearing a traditional hat and bearing the marks of several imposing vertical scars on the side of his face, carved when he was just a boy as a reminder of his heritage in the Musgum tribe of the northern part of the country.

The record contained two songs – ‘Gandjal Kessoum’ and ‘Touflé’ – by an artist I had never heard of before named Hamad Kalkaba. Both cuts were raw classics of fuzzed-out bass, pin-sharp horns, built upon the unshakable foundation of Northern Cameroon’s mightiest rhythm: the Gandjal. The shop owner - who noticed that I was listening to the same record over and over again - mentioned that ‘There is another single with a green cover of the same artist, if I am not mistaken’.

Over the next six years I searched for that ‘green cover’ and finally found it in a record collection belonging to an old bar in Parakou in northern Benin. While most of the records had been beaten and worn by a life spent in the jukebox, this one had been sitting in its paper sleeve for forty years, untouched and unplayed, seemingly waiting for us to pick it up and rip the two soulful Gandjal tunes from it, the masterpieces ‘Fouh Sei Allah’ and ‘Tchakoulaté’.

These two records, plus a third simply named ‘Nord Cameroon Rythms’ constitute the entire discography of Hamad Kalkaba. Neglected for decades by all but the most devoted collectors of Afro music, Hamad Kalkaba and the Golden Sounds at long last gathers together the body of work of one of Cameroon’s forgotten geniuses.

But unlike many musicians who emerged from nowhere, recorded a few singles and vanished again, Kalkaba hadn’t disappeared. Far from it. He was a distinguished public figure, a retired Colonel in the army of Cameroon, and a former member of Cameroon’s Olympic Selection Committee. When we tracked him down he was serving as president of the Confederation of African Athletics. And Although Kalkaba’s job kept him busy, and he seemed initially dismissive of the music he’d made as a young man, he turned out to be an enthusiastic ally in this project. He arranged interviews, helped fill in the blanks and, when we finally met him in Yaoundé in 2016, provided us with photographs, lyric sheets and notes.

During the interview Kalkaba explained how the songs recorded in the mid 1970s were part of a movement, a movement initiated by musicians from all around Cameroon who, with the help of keyboards, drum kits and electric guitars, had started to modernise the traditional rhythms of their regions. For Kalkaba it was no different and backed by his band the Golden Sounds, devoted himself to the promotion of the sounds of northern Cameroon.

One of the aims of Analog Africa is to showcase the colourful diversity of styles that exist in Africa and its diaspora and today we are very proud to be able to give these Gandjal tunes their first worldwide release.

Hamad Kalkaba and the Golden Sounds 1974 - 1975

Get the Record here:

Hamad Kalkaba - Astadjam Dada Saré(Leave a comment, tell kalkaba how much you love his song!)

Listen/Download - http://smarturl.it/SB_IWasAFool

I Was A Fool

Face Behind Her Cigarette

"Street Safari" Out Now! https://patv.lnk.to/StreetSafari

Official Video Out Now - https://patv.lnk.to/MetroTech/Youtube 

Follow:
https://www.facebook.com/PublicAccessTV/
https://twitter.com/publicaccesstv
https://www.instagram.com/publicaccesstv
http://patvmusic.com
https://soundcloud.com/publicaccesstv

MetroTech

Official Video

Available here https://championdj.bandcamp.com/

Champion - World Ft. Four Tet

US house reverence from mysterious L.A. producer @grant-la-1. Taken from his new album 'Perception', which launches his new label Duke's Distribution.

Read more & buy: http://www.stampthewax.com/2017/11/04/premiere-grant-scatered-knowledge/
Listen on Youtube: http://bit.ly/scatered-knowledge

Listen on Youtube

Grant - Scatered Knowledge (STW Premiere)

One half of Genius Of Time, Nils Krogh aka Arkajo offers up a mesmerising three track EP to mark the occasion of Aniara Recordings 20th release.

Pre-order your copy here: bit.ly/FathomlessMusic
Full article on offtherecord: bit.ly/PhonicaPremiere53

Fathomless Music

Phonica Premiere: Arkajo - Fathomless Music [ANIARA]

Long-time (3+ years!) curator of a regular weekly 10 track playlist of legit, (mostly) new tracks from Soundcloud, dug up here, there and everywhere. The lists always start out as 10 tracks, but some subsequently get pulled from Soundcloud by the band/artist or the label, so don't blame me for any short lists!

Nov 03 - Nov 09 2017

GordyB