Loose Egusi 002 - Makossa, Movement, and Cameroon
Featuring classics from Manu Dibango and Golden Sounds, new releases from London Brew, Janelle Monae, and Young Fathers, and we're keeping our Ear To The Ground of Cameroon!
Welcome if you're new, welcome back to returning crew! Since February’s episode I’ve implemented a couple updates to the format - adding record labels to the tracklisting (to help other record diggers, music fans, or researchers), and starting each blog with some artwork to help grab the attention of readers. This blog will be an ongoing, ever-growing journey into both my own writing style alongside my journey into Pan-African music so while I’m holding myself to high standards, I’m not apologising for changes, delays, errors, or other imperfections. Like Leonard Cohen said “There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in”. With that said, and as with every episode, all blog feedback or music recommendations are welcome, and if you know anyone from our country of the month, send them the show and see what they make of it! Shouts to all the Cameroonian listeners. Click the button below to listen to the show!
https://www.mixcloud.com/TheBoAtPod/repeat-beat-poet-loose-egusi-the-boat-pod-march-2023/
We kick things off in blistering fashion with a furiously plucked, sweetly strummed rendition of the palm-wine standard Yaa Amponsah by Koo Nimo, then move along the West African coast to hear from Sierra Leonian dance band, Muyei Power / Orchestre Muyei and a secret society song, sung in Tembe, called Ben Ben See (meaning: don’t come near us, if you come near us you will get in trouble). Next it’s off into the swirl of jazz/afrobeat fusion with London Brew, a 12-strong collective featuring Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross, Shabaka Hutchings and more, inspired by Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and recorded across 3 days in Paul Epworth’s iconic Church Studios. We head north of the border for Young Fathers’ latest, complete with pounding drums and level-headed lyrics “you either Sink Or Swim, or do nothing”, before ascending through the clouds into the realms of bounce with Janelle Monae’s airy new release, Float with Seun Kuti & Egypt 80! Song of the summer? We’ll have to wait and see… but speaking of summer; we round out the first half of the show with a trifecta of afro-groove & house classics to invoke some sunshine.
Second half, and we’re off to the West/Central Africa to delve into the world of Cameroonian music. First up is two high-stepping, butt-bumping African boogie/disco tracks! You might recognise Eko Roosevelt Louis’ Tondoho Mba from its sampling by Disclosure for their 2020 banger Tondo, and it’s a dope example of the infectious brightness and timelessness of this style of African disco. Jo Bisso’s The Mystery With Me continues the trend of four-to-the-floor funk that James Brown would be proud of, before we play the iconic Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango, the song that launched makossa into international consciousness. Fitting that makossa means, in the duala dialect of the Sawabuntu language group spoken across Cameroon, ‘I dance’. Next up is the afropop/r’n’b smash hit Calée by Daphne, which I first heard in Ghana! Then we do a deep dive into Golden Sounds’ Zangalewa, a defining mid-80s makossa hit, as loved in champeta-loving Cartagena as across all of Africa. It’s a slyly subversive satire, using marching rhythms alongside whiteface make-up and cushions-under-shirts to poke fun at the pot-bellied, pith-helmet wearing, swagger-stick-wielding military elite and the eurocentric colonial legacies while paying tribute to the struggles of the frontline soldiers. File next to anti-war anthems like Creedence’s Fortunate Son, and Fela’s Zombie. Lastly we round off with Francis Bebey incorporating the pygmy one-note bamboo flute, and a tribute to Roger Milla, the iconic Cameroonian football star. Shake them hips!
Tracklist
Koo Nimo - Yaa Amponsah [Otrabanda Records]
Muyei Power - Ben Ben See [Soundway Records]
London Brew - Miles Chases New Voodoo In The Church [Concord Records]
Plantfood - Monstera [Moma Cat Disco]
Young Fathers - Sink Or Swim [Ninja Tune]
Les Filles De Illighadad - Imigradan [Sahel Sounds]
Antibalas - War Is A Crime [Ninja Tune]
Jidenna - Babouché (ft. Goldlink) [Wondaland Records]
Janelle Monae - Float (ft. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80) [Wondaland Records]
Juls - Summer In The Ends (ft. Jaz Karis & George The Poet) [LOF Collective]
DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson - El Niño [House Of Casa Records]
Shina Williams & His African Percussionists - Abg’oju L’ogun (Mr. Bongo 7’ Edit) [Help Records // Mr Bongo]
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley - Highlife [Wea International]
Egypt - Let Your Love Come In [Relentless Records]
Ear To The Ground - Cameroon
Eko Roosevelt Louis - Tondoho Mba [Heavenly Sweetness]
Jo Bisso - The Mystery With Me [Africa Seven Records]
Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa [Atlantic]
Shaliah Edmonds - The Native In Me (Is Gettin’ Restless) [ShayTunes Publishing BMI]
Daphne - Calee [HNM]
Golden Sounds - Zangalewa [Ebobolo Fia Production]
Francis Bebey - Sunny Crypt [Born Bad Records]
Corinne Bailey Rae - I’d Like To [Virgin Records]
Pépé Kallé - Roger Milla [Stern’s Africa]
RBPicks
Janelle Monae - Float (ft. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80). [Link]
London Brew - Miles Chases New Voodoo In The Church [Full album drops March 31st]
Golden Sounds - Zangalewa [Context - article from Afropop Worldwide]
RBPortrait
This show’s artwork comes from artist, Angu Walters, who is based in the remote North-West Cameroonian city of Bamenda, and is titled New Born II. This contemporary artwork is a stunning abstract painting depicting women supporting a mother holding her newborn. The quartet of women are ethereal yet solid, forming a compass or a cross pointing towards new life, with all five figures emerging from the same patterns and background. My eye was drawn to the centre of the canvas and the heads like masks, with their warm shades of yellows, reds, oranges, and purples, contrasting with the border of deep, midnight, interstellar, and sapphire blues. Stunning work.
Sources
https://afropop.org/articles/interview-eric-nelson-efa-president-of-azania-way-culture
Professor Skye’s Review of Young Father’s Heavy Heavy
https://www.africanews.com/2023/01/13/mbole-the-soundtrack-to-life-and-death-in-cameroon/
https://www.artcameroon.com/about-angu-walters/
Thanks to The BoatPod for hosting us, to Mixcloud for spotlighting the show on their frontpage, and to YOU for reading / listening / supporting, whenever, however, and whoever you may be!
The next show will be APRIL 5TH, 12-2pm, live on The Boat Pod with a focus on ESWATINI.