TAG: jamaica

Mar04

Next Stop… Soweto – Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga (Review)

Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga

NEXT STOP... SOWETO



With Next Stop... Soweto, Strut trace some of the amazing music that often only appeared on short run 45s at the time; rare lost gems deftly culled from the '60s + '70s South African "township jive sound." Featuring music recorded primarily for the local market, the album takes the listener far beyond the accepted township jive template into fusions with jazz, gospel, rumba, funk and traditional mining songs. It delves into the golden age of mbaqanga. Jazz had been a fixture in South African music since the ‘50s and jive (or mbaqanga) initially emerged a decade later as a fusion combining elements of rural Zulu music and harmony vocal styles with Western instrumentation. You can hear influences from American R&B and '60s rock and surf, in the same way ska and rocksteady developed in Jamaica. And if you like desert blues from Sahara, you will also like the fusion of mbaqanga.

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Mar01

Flairs “Radio” x Jamaica Remix (Video)

It must be because he is French. That’s the only way I can explain how Flairs has followed-up the stupefying (and downright lewd) video for “Truckers Delight’s” with “Radio” off his debut album, Sweat Symphony. The video is from the creative mind of Ben&Julia and I’m questioning what decade it is we’re living in. As campy as it is, you will likely feel like a kid all over again with its easy chorus, and we have a funky remix by Jamaica for take away.
Flairs “Radio (Jamaica Remix)”

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Mar01

Bobo General is Back With New Album “Emotional” (Video)

After two decades on hiatus, Bobo General is set to release his own highly anticipated full length comeback, Emotional, on April 27th. Currently signed to Sleepy Wonder’s Virginia Beach-based independent record label, No Choice Music Group, tracks on Emotional include “Leave Rasta Children Alone,” “Jah Will Be There for You,” and “Bills,” and guest appearances from Sleepy Wonder and his niece, former Canadian Idol, Diane Archer. Bobo was most recently featured on Sleepy’s 2009 album release, Injustice.

One of the most sophisticated voices to gain popularity in the reggae dance halls of New York City belongs to Bobo. After migrating to the States from Kingston, Jamaica in the 1980’s, Bobo linked up with popular youth soundsystem, Mini Mart Hi Power, and he wasted no time teaming up with another Mini Mart youth sensation, Sleepy Wonder. Sleepy is currently touring the world with Thievery Corporation, in support of their 2009 album, Radio Retaliation, in which Sleepy voices the title track.

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Feb08

Diamond Headz for Diamond Minds

Meet Dwane Rich, the skater-artist-philanthropist 

By the time Jamaican-American Dwane Rich was in high school, he was by spinning at trendy parties in his neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In these formative adolescent years, he developed into somewhat of a pro-skater, in a similar vein to another neighborhood skateboard legend, Harold Hunter, and Blader Ryan Jacklone, with nearby stomping grounds in Union Square, Washington Square Park and The Brooklyn Banks. Dwane Rich’s DJing escalated into spinning at corporate events for the likes of Tommy Mottola, Zac Posen, Jay-Z, Andre Harrell and Maybach. This lifestyle, coupled with his experiences and creativity, lead him to express himself with the artwork that eventually evolved into his lifestyle brand, Diamond Headz.

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Jan12

The Mighty Diamonds – “I Need a Roof” (Video)

If there’s a more plaintive call for human rights in JA music, it’d be difficult to locate.

The Mighty Diamonds were and remain one of the most internationally successful reggae acts from the ’70s. There aren’t too many of its cohort left kicking around. But despite the consistent live show, the group’s recorded output from a few decades ago remains a testament to political fervor.

No, the band didn’t change the world, but in listening to “I Need a Roof,” it seems as if the Mighty Diamonds could have.

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