Sabar Attack!

Bonne Année! Sixty-six minutes of red-hot Mbalax from Senegal's master of the sabar , Mbaye Dieye Faye, help us kick off the New Year. ...

In Praise of "Mami Wata"

For many months now I've put off posting this in an effort to find out more about our featured artist, Bob Sir Merenge. Unfortunately, ...

Adventures in Angularity

I hate to say this, but it's been ages since Ebenezer Obey has waxed anything worth listening to. For the last twenty years he's be...

A Heads Up

Kudos to Siemon Allen at the always-worthwhile Electric Jive blog for Miriam Makeba - Tracks Less Travelled (1958-98), a fascinating overv...

Smooth as Butter

Congo music doesn't get much smoother and more elegant than Bumba Massa's 1982 outing L'Argent et la Femme (Star Musique SMP601...

Cameroon Fever Vol. 1

Ken Abrams does it again with Cameroon Fever Vol. 1 , a tasty collection of tracks from that country, mostly from the golden '80s, when ...

From the Banks of the Oubangui River

The music of the Central African Republic is little-known. There are some excellent recordings of traditional music on the Ocora label ( Emp...

l'ANPAC Presente Vol. 3

Some sweet sounds conclude our presentation of the three-volume series l'ANPAC Presente with Volume 3 (AN 400 3, 1984). Like musicians...

l'ANPAC Presente Vol. 2

Back in the '80s the three volume collection of Gabonese music l'ANPAC Presente was frequently on our turntable and, dubbed onto C9...

l'ANPAC Presente: Vol. 1

The small country of Gabon has never loomed large in the African music scene, although artists like Pierre Akendengue and Oliver N'goma...

Congo Memories with Bumba Massa

Best-known for his work with the super-group Kékélé and last year's release Apostolo , the honey-voiced Bumba Massa is one of the great...

Happier Days

Back with a reminder of much, much happier days in Somalia, our good friend Sanaag passes on almost 80 minutes worth of music by the legenda...

Lapiro de Mbanga Freed!

By way of Makossa Original and Freemuse we receive the happy news that Camerounian musician Lapiro de Mbanga was freed April 8 after three...

African Divas Vol. 4

Once again I'm forced to apologize for the infrequency of my posts lately. As usual, I have several projects in the hopper, but all kin...

More From the Ministry of Information and National Guidance

Note: This post was updated with better-quality rips of the original vinyl on July 26, 2012. Our good friend Sanaag comes through once agai...