Music / verdensmusik - world music

Mogadisco : Dancing Mogadishu - Somalia 1972-1991


Reviews (3)


Boomkat

2019

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2019

"Do the Mogadishu hustle with Analog Africa's superb new salvo, centring on Somalian dance music between 1972-1991 with 12 cuts ranging from tuff reggae chops to dubbed-out disco, tempo-switching funk, psychy audities and entrancing traditionals ... Samy Ben Redjeb travelled to the infamous capital city of Somalia in November of 2016, making Analog Africa the first music label to set foot in Mogadishu. On his arrival in Somalia Samy began rifling through piles of cassettes and listening to reel-to-reel tapes in the dusty archives of Radio Mogadishu, looking for music that "swam against the current"".


Songlines

2020 March

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Nigel Williamson

2020 March

"Imagine Somalia without suicide bombers and the murderous, al-Qaeda-linked militants of al-Shabaab. Picture instead Mogadishu as a party city in all its pre-war vitality, replete with luxury hotels, pavement cafés, dance-till-dawn discos and a vibrant music scene populated by bands thrillingly fusing local rhythms with Western funk and R&B. The dozen tracks here, unearthed by Analog Africa's Samy Ben Redjeb in the dusty archives of Radio Mogadishu, which have somehow survived in the murderous chaos, were the soundtrack to that golden era. Some of the acts will be familiar, particularly the Dur-Dur Band, whose 1980s funk fusion has already been the subject of two Analog Africa albums, and have reformed in exile in London with a refreshed line-up ... However, new to most will be the Éthiopiques-goes-reggae sound of Omar Shooli, the deep funk of Mukhtar Ramadan Idii's 'Check Up Your Head' (which borrows the rhythm of Jean Knight's 1971 US soul hit 'Mr Big Stuff ') and the wailing voice of Fadumo Qassim backed by the swirling, Ethiojazz of the Waaberi Band".


Mojo

2020 February

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Andy Cowan

2020 February

"Off-kilter dancefloor action from Radio Mogadishu's dusty archive. A great find ... Mogadishu was not immune to disco fever. The 1970s residents of Somalia's otherwise tense, politically turbulent capital made their allegiance known via towering afros, bicycle-chafing flares and imparctical platform shoes. The loval musicians who reflected this welcome explosion (...) made luxury hotel (...) their stamping grounds, mixing up well-worn covers of James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye with the incoming sounds of Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Michael Jackson and a smattering of expectant originals. Much of "Mogadisco..." is lifted from those performances, rescued by Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb during a month-long sift through over 20,000 crackly radio station reel-to-reels and discarded recordings ... Finding joy in the midst of turmoil, the strangely beautiful bounty of "Mogadisco..." reveals more telling detail with each listen".



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