Ever since they started putting out records in 2007, Cape Town based label Pioneer Unit has been catching the local music scene off guard. (Remember them introducing Rattex, KONFAB, Ben Sharpa and Jaak.) But you’ll rarely see these artists on South African music channels. Whatever the reason for the industry’s reluctance in the past, it […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=829dg3GN7aM&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Does it matter whether we know where a music video was shot? Probably not, but watching this first clip for Simphiwe Dana’s new album Kulture Noir, I can’t help but stare at the steel barred windows of the police holding cells in the background. Daily, around that corner, you find people on the sidewalk exchanging […]
The guys from Fresk have opinions, but we will go into that another day. Until then, this song by Brazzaville’s Fredy Massamba, Mad Pluma and Steve Mavoungou (and friends) will do. You get the message. – Tom Devriendt
Do the foregrounding of celebrities and stories of human tragedy help or hurt two new films about hip hop in Uganda?
Femi Kuti and his band strip it down for La Blogothèque, some hours before they got on stage at the Bellevilloise earlier this year. Not sure what I like most here: the band braving the cold, the sun setting over Paris in Autumn or Vincent Moon’s camera work. That same evening, they also recorded this […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRKFpx6zmYo&w=500&h=307&rel=0] “Après Tintin au Congo j’ai lu Sarkozy à Dakar / 50 minutes d’insultes… accusé à la barre / Blague à part, un fantasme d’il y a 400 ans / Une vision de l’Africain rappelant Tarzan.” A translation of Gabonese musician Lord Ekomy Ndong’s letter to Sarkozy would read something like this: “After Tintin in […]
By Bronwynne Pereira Guest Blogger Fool in a Bubble, a film, produced and directed by Joshua Sternlicht, is a contributory piece of documentary narratives that assists us further in understanding the constructions of Whiteness in South Africa. This film follows the life of Syd Kitchen, who has since the 1970’s participated and created a fusion […]
Dutch photographer Andrea Stultiens met Ugandan Kaddu Wasswa in 2008 through his grandson, photographer Arthur Kisitu. Born in 1933, Wasswa played a role in his community as a teacher and social worker. These days, Wasswa is a farmer and an HIV/AIDS activist, running an NGO from his home in the Mokono District. Throughout his life […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mld7eSaydI&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Psychedelic funksters Sly and the Family Stone are making a comeback of sorts (although recent video evidence suggests that, Sly is at once both out of sorts and with it). However, in his prime (above, you can listen to 1973’s “In Time”) Sly was unparalleled. (H/T: Greg Tate).
Out My Window is a 360° online documentary and the first release from the HIGHRISE project, “a multi-year, cross-media project about vertical living around the globe”. The project won this year’s DocLab competition at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Of all the cities on the continent, there is (again) only Johannesburg here (“horror […]
Meta and the Corningstones: a humble and talented African-born reggae singer whose message is clear and sincere.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5s-FUbcE9o&w=500&h=307&rel=0] This is not really a music video I know, but it’s worth your time. Trust me. Artist Hanifah Walidah interviews New York City-based director Patricia McGregor and musician, Greg Tate about their creative process in making “Burnt Sugar presents The JB Songbook,” happen. “The JB Songbook” is a performance centered around the life and music […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgAhDy41Vwk&w=500&h=307&rel=0] In this short video Portuguese singer Carmen Souza speaks about her third album “Protegid” (which she recorded with Theo Pas’cal), her Cape Verdean roots, the “Rabelados” (Creole for ‘rebels’, or, ‘non-violent rebels of the Cape Verde Island’, as they are known these days) and jazz pianist Horace Silver (himself born to a Cape Verdean […]
Long before football blogging became commonplace and banal, Davy Lane wrote about football politics as a fan. Brilliantly.
In 1987, two years before the Congolese grand maître Franco died (although never substantiated, it is widely believed because of AIDS), he released “Attention na Sida” (Beware of AIDS). Today’s new generation of Congolese musicians hasn’t forgotten. Préservons-nous.–Tom Devriendt
The campaign is accompanied by print ads featuring celebrities in coffins to represent their digital deaths. Can this stop, please?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4riYn1SozWo&w=500&h=307&rel=0] The young Lagos, Nigeria-band Che and the Continuous Highlife Evolution’s striking “Civil War.” As the band puts it on their Facebook page, “… Some people in Africa have known only civil war all their lives; while for many other Africans the daily life is as difficult, as tough, as unpredictable and dangerous as if […]
Last month, Mali’s trio SMOD (consisting of DJ Sam, Ousco and Donski) released a second single, Les Dirigeants Africains, taken from their new self-titled album. Sure, producer Manu Chao’s stamp is all over it, but SMOD’s lyrics and director Chris Macari* make up for that. And if you think DJ Sam looks a bit like […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNFRVmtz1GA&w=500&h=307&rel=0] South African artist Lesego Rampolokeng, who grew up in Soweto, performing his “Fela Sermon” live in Barcelona in 2003. (If you want to appreciate the full Rampolokeng, I can recommend his album “End Beginnings” with the Kalahari Surfers, released in 1993.) Via Chimurenga Magazine.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQFwxw57NBI&w=500&h307&rel=0] Yeh, we do politics even when we dancing. And we have a thing for David Cameron.