Africa Calling

This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Pete’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.

I am under pressure. It’s two minutes to seven and the stunt publishes at 7pm. Next week’s Sam Cooke playlist is blaring out of Pete’s computer behind me, and I have to write something intelligent about this week’s Africa music. Erm. I really liked this week’s Africa music. But I haven’t had time today to consider each song on an individual basis because I only had a half day at work, and half of that was spent trying to fix the internet. I really did like it, and I would rather listen to it than to Sam Cooke. Also, Pete implemented a thingy to make the track titles look cool, and I won’t have time to overwrite the word blah that he helpfully inserted for me… I’ll try but the post is now overdue.

1. Pata Pata Miriam Makeba – Super, loved it, pianoy stuff and a lovely voice.

2. Soul Makossa Manu Dibango – Can’t remember this one but it was probably good.

3. Lady Fela Kuti – This one is really long with lots of long instrumental bits, but also lots of jazzy bluesy singing. A very full and wholesome sort of sound. I could listen to it over and over.

4. Monie Kanda Bongo Man – We never got a copy of this.

5. Birima Youssou N’Dour – No specific memories of this song, especially with the whole Sam Cooke thing going on over there.

6. Lasidan Ali Farka Toure – Yeah, I liked this a lot. I gave it five stars on my iPod.

7. Didi Khaled – This one put me in mind of sitting in a restaurant in some warm climated holiday resort, which was a nice feeling.

8. Tekere Salif Keita – Lovely weather we’re having.

9. Shumba Thomas Mapfumo – blah

10. Yeke Yeke Mory Kante – This is the only song I was familiar with, and while I don’t dislike it particularly, I would have preferred one of the others to be my earworm for the week.