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don’t silence your cellphones.
. Music from Saharan Cellphones: Volume 2 is finally on vinyl! The album draws from material from both of the first two cassettes – from hi-energy Moroccan Raï, desert ishumar guitar, Sonrai rap from...
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in the mix
Troubling news in Northern Mali right now with former colonizer France bombarding the North – that’s the sh*t I don’t like. For some of the globalization that we do like, here are a few recent mixes I...
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l’orchestre national de mauritanie, revisted
Finally wrapped up an album that has been in production for over three years – which is not saying much, considering that the music had been sitting, locked away for over four decades. I first...
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Mammane and his Electronic Organ
Lost in a music archive in the capital of Niger was the first I heard of the legendary Mammane Sanni Abdoulaye. The space was overflowing with dusty CDs, cassettes, and Nagra reels, and hunkering down...
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Hausa Party 3: the OST
Bollywood, the multimillion dollar industry of Hindi film, has a presence in the most far flung corners of the world. The prodigious output of musical film is second perhaps only to marital arts (more...
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sahel vinyl
The mixtape of Music from Saharan Cellphones has been made into two vinyl records, but the momentum continues and two of the featured artists now have full lengths of their own. Afelan by Mdou Moctar...
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medium and the message
Super Onze – Gao Around the fall of Gao in 2012, I met a cassette vendor in Niamey’s grand market. For years he has sat on a bench in a busy corridor with stacks of cassettes and an array of...
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balani show takeover
In 2012, I traveled to Bamako to research “Balani Shows,” sound system block parties with a dancehall vibe that feature Malian electronic music. A frequent occurrence throughout residential...
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close encounters
The next two weeks, Mamman Sani will be touring around France (plus brief stopovers in Geneva and London). We have a great lineup of shows, sharing bills w/ Group Inerane, Phono Mundial, and the...
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head dance
Group Mamelon is a Malian Balani Show outfit taking their name from a hill in Sikasso. Koumba FriFri is one of their more popular tracks, recorded in 2010 is an ancient song, updated for the electro...
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The debut tour of Mdou Moctar and the band wrapped up last month. I’ve spent the past month since the tour thinking of how best to sum up the experience. In lieu of too many words, I’ve put together...
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on the regional variation of id3 tags in the western sahel
Bus field recording, Ansongo, Mali The first time I heard the music was (naturally) on a cellphone. It was March of 2012, and I left Gao in a rush as the Northern cities fell to the rebellion. I...
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end of year mix
It’s been a very busy 2014. We released a handful on vinyl releases, toured three times in Europe, traveled twice across the Sahel, and filmed the first ever Tuareg language film. In honor of things...
View Articledesert psychedelia
Music video treatment for “Ataraghine”, Hama’s synth composition featured on the new LP. A cover of a song by Agalay Bekaye. Featuring footage of Hama in action with images from Niger’s Cure Salée,...
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torodi
Torodi, the new release from Hama is now available on vinyl and digital download. Compiled from tracks collected across Niger over the past few years, the vinyl release features hand drawn artwork by...
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lack of better words
Fadimoutou Wallet Inamoud, photo by Ibrahim Ag Aminy Isswat, for lack of a better word, is what people have the habit of calling this particular music from the desert. It’s a style that like many...
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Uchronia
photo by Maciek Pozoga In June 2015, we traveled to a place that doesn’t exist. The work was semi-ethnographic documentation of travel to a fictional Bamako. Over 10 days, photographer Maciek Pozoga...
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lost and found
On one of my visits to Niger, Mamman Sani gave me a box of cassette tapes. I digitized a few, and promptly forgot about the rest. In the piles of media and recordings collected, they went from one...
View Articlenouakchott wedding songs
In 2011, I traveled to Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania to record wedding music. Over the course of six months, I went to a variety of weddings: from the luxurious, high end invitations in...
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two sides of illighadad
Les Filles de Illighadad by Fatou Seidi Ghali & Alamnou Akrouni The new record of Fatou Seidi Ghali and Alamnou Akrouni – “Les Filles de Illighadad” – might be called “traditional music,” for lack...
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