tynynyny volume two sixties spage age bachelor pad pop

This is 60s pop, or as it is often described "spage age bachelor pad music". This came out around 95-96 done by the same guys that did Smylonylon (also now part of In Flagranti) and you can see a similar style in the early Smylonylon tape posted on the blog here. Around that time there was a big upswing in interest in 60s hipster parties, especially in NY and Hollywood, which also coincided with the release of the early Vince Vaughn movie Swingers. I moved to NY in 1996 and just caught the tale of this party scene where I met some of my best friends. Tynynyny was one of the parties and another was the 999999's which used to go on at Flamingo East in which Penelope Tuesdae, my very favorite friend Lasia, and DJ Fancy were involved (Dj Fancy later appeared as the genius behind fantastic girl group Fannypack). I also met Chris McClary there who since moved to Cali and is behind the great website See Spot Ride featuring dogs riding in cars.  There is even mention of this party in the mid 90s in the New York Times. This was originally unhip spage age according to this New York Times article and the music was often put together to demonstrate the technical capacities of new equipment that had just been released.

First track on side A is the intro to the german version of Sesame Street called Der, Die, Das, and I believe it originally came out on this album called "Sesamstraße - Der, Die, Das - Und Andere Lustige Lieder Und Lernspiele", in case anyone wants to send it to me.

But the most amazing 2 tracks appear in the middle of side A and I haven't been able to Shazam the names of the first one so any help would be appreciated. I've ripped them to listen to as individual tracks below. The second one is very well known Popcorn track by Hot Butter.

The first track on side B is the great Sunshower track linked below by the same band that did Cherchez Le Femme.I want to thank the very lovely fashion god Mel Ottenberg for sending me these and other cassettes. I will be featuring a rave cassette he sent me later in the week.

download Side A 

download Side B

Side A track rip 1 (name?)

Side A track rip 2 (Popcorn by Hot Butter) Listen to 79 (yes 79) versions of the same song on WFMU here, including version by Prodigy, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin. I like the Klaus Wunderlich version best.

from Side B - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower

D-Frost 20 Global Dance Warnings

You've been warned!! (cause they're global dance warnings - get it? ;))

"My name is Barbarella. I'm from planet earth." This is Sven Vath work from when he first started playing techno. Great story of his about how he built up clubs and developed himself in Frankfurt in the mid to late 80s. I was at Dorian Gray in 91.

I think side A of this cassette is a bit lame, but side 2 has a number of hits I've posted individually below. I particularly love the Dreams of Heaven, which was from an Australian one hit wonder, and rumored to play in the nightclub scenes of soap opera Neighbors.

Complete side B - listen streaming here

B01	West End	The Love I Lost
		Featuring - Sybil
B02	K.W.S.	The KWS Hitmix
B03	System 7	7:7 Expansion
B04	Naughty By Nature	Hip Hop Hooray
B05	Jump	Funkatarium
B06	Ground Level	Dreams Of Heaven
B07	Praga Khan Featuring Jade 4U	Phantasia Forever
B08	A Separate Reality	I'll Take You There
		Featuring - Shelley P
B09	Air Tattoo	Synaesthesia
B10	Barbarella	Barbarella 2 (sharebee) (direct link)

goodbye Michael - we'll miss you

As an indication of my admiration and respect for Michael Jackson I'm just doing a one off post to say goodbye. I don't care how weird you may seem to the mainstream - weirdness is usually what makes people extra special and successful.

Below is the remix of thriller made by Hampus Drake (I believe) which I used to play all the time and one of my favorite tunes of all time. And the vid above is probably one of my favorite for the way he dances.

G-Rock- Thriller

Live interviews with bloggers - Diesel U Music radio show

I did a radio show in Diesel U Music on Monday and interviewed bloggers from the following big blogs in between playing tracks they recommended and some of my own. We discussed lots about the blogging world, how it works, how they choose tracks, the music industry, etc.

PROGRAM

Ground level - Dreams of Heaven
No Name - Cosmic Rave (Aeroplane chart)

[interview with Lukas - WFMU blog]

Anne-James Chaton / Andy Moor - Dans le monde
Djemila - L'Homme a la Moto

[interview with Austen - Palmsout blog]

RGBs - STAR JUMPS (Urchins remix)
Duck Sauce - Anyway

[interview with Clive - ylow.blogspot.com]

Perry Ernest & The Afro Vibrations - Ozioma (Message)
Farce Majeure Team - Doe't Voor Het te Laat is
U K W - Sommersprossen

[interview with Amy - Trash Menagerie blog]

Black Box - I Don't Know (KINGDOM REMIX)
Blue Beat Allstars - Something Like That

[interview with Martin - discobelle.net blog]

L-vis 1990 - United Groove

Something for Your Mind - Speedy J

[interview with Stuart - 20jazzfunkgreats blog]

Ritalin (Taras3000 remix) - Twices

listen streaming below

Listen live NOW to other great programs on Diesel U Music here.

a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. - pullover '92 Belgian techno acid mixtape

This is probably my favorite cassette I've posted on the blog right now.  It's such the sound I'm looking for.  I feel like disco is starting to get overplayed and  there are rarely new discoveries that are amazing that I don't know.  Electro bangers are fine, but that's been going on for a while now.  Pop-synth stuff is great, but there are few and far between tracks that are great.  So 1992 Belgian techno acid just sounds so fresh to me.  I am not as crazy about the big hardcore sound right now that I've previously posted on here, things like James Brown is Dead, etc.

I found this cassette in a thrift shop behind Hackney Central.  The Pullover side appears to be almost a duplicate of side 2 of the Serious Beats 4 cassette.  But I can't identify the tracks on the a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side so any track id tips would be lovely.

 

a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side

sample track from a.m.b.u.l.a.n.c.e. side ("I wanna be your finger")

Pullover side 

Here are a few tracks from the PULLOVER side.  They are slightly different versions than in the  mix.

DHS - House of God (Unholy version)

I also want to hype the UK Soundclash ipod competition coming up this Tuesday, the 9th. I've been invited to compete in a team with Matthew Stone.  Lots of other good djs competing with us such as Crookers, Girlcore, Nova and others.  I  think Matthew and I will go for the conceptual vote.  It's all about the popularity though so come down and scream for us to win.  Winners are measured by the loudness of the crowd.  Tickets here.

various news - live radio show - Diesel

Just a quick note to say that I just did a live radio show on Diesel radio with new music personally recommended by writers from Discobelle, WFMU, Palms Out Sounds, Big Stereo, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Trash Menagerie and Ylow blog.  I also played some of my own favorite tracks including some classic house, rare italo and new beat.  You can listen here at 3-5 am Sunday morning the 17th (that's tomorrow morning) and also 9-11 pm on Sunday the 17th.  I will do another show at some point and this one will be posted here to download.

click on "radio" to hear the show here:  http://cult.diesel.com/radio

Also I'm djing tomorrow night at the Lock Tavern (Sunday evening, the 17th) for Kai's party (from Mystery Jets).  Details are the following.  I'm on from 9-11.

Madhouse Urban Jungle at the lock tavern, Sunday 17 May. Featuring: The Jacks, Is Tropical (ex Ratty Rat Rat) and Nick Mulvey (Portico   Quartet), with Dj sets from Madhouse Djs, Blonde Ambition and Special   guest Todd Hart (Dalston Oxfam Blog). Bands from 7 pm. Free entry +   Special Sunday Surprises

And last night we went to a local party Can't You Want To put on by various punk/garage friends with Pandora's Jukebox (Yasmin) djing.  It was fantastic music and the band Not Cool played live.  They were REALLY tight and a great live show. So keep an eye out for them - you can listen to tracks on their myspace but you should really hear them live to appreciate how tight they are.

Rough Trade C09 cassette

Rough Trade just put out a new limited edition cassette in the vein of other NME cassettes such as C86 from back in the day. So even though almost all the tracks have been widely blogged (check hypem.com) I simply had to cover it (considering all the similar cassettes that I've put up here) and Rough Trade had sent me a copy, and I like them :). The only track that appears to fairly exclusive is the Clark Kunt's remix of Micachu. In the end I couldn't extract a recording of the cassette that was quality enough (even though sometimes, such a with the african cassettes, the tapes sound fantastic) so I compiled the mp3s from other blogs.

All in all, the music on here is really good. My favorite track has to be (hands down) the Cure cover by the Mystery Jets. Such a good track. I dj'd with Will and Kai from the Mystery Jets in Ghent last weekend and they played a fantastic banging set (with excellent mixing skills). Will is going to come down and dj with me downstairs at Catch this Thursday at 22 Kingsland Road in Shoreditch. It's free if you want to come along.

[edit: I've put the Micachu track up now cause it's exclusive to this blog and this cassette]

A1 Jarvis - Angela
A2 Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams
A3 Micachu - Lips (Clark Kunt's Heavy Mental Mix)
A4 Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - Whistle Past The Graveyard
A5 Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
A6 Little Joy - Brand New Start
A7 God Help The Girl - Musician, Please Take Heed
A8 The Decemberists - The Rake's Song

B1 Super Furry Animals - Inaugural Trams
B2 The Veils - Three Sisters
B3 Antony & The Johnsons - Shake That Devil
B4 Mystery Jets - In Between Days
B5 1990s - The Box
B6 The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
B7 British Sea Power - No Man Is An Archipelago

djng this week in Nottingham and Ghent, Belgium

I'm so lame that I've been so busy to actually post music, which is too bad.  Last weekend at the Land of Kings festival, Lou & Nova rocked it out, as did Rory Phillips and super special guest Disco 3000 (Erol Alkan).  I got lucky to play just before Erol so I tried to lay down a disco set. It was amazing to play for that kind of crowd and play whatever I wanted, which happened to be mostly new synth disco.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm playing for the Liar's Club 6th Birthday.   All around the lineup is fantastic, but I want to give a special mention to Maria & the Mirrors which is actually one of my favorite live acts right now.  I can't explain it other than I feel like they could have stepped out of Warhol's factory.  Read about them on my previous review here.

I'm also djing on Friday night, the 24th at the Make Up club for I Heart Niyi's party in Ghent, Belgium.  More details on the party's facebook page.

Luckily for both parties I've been told that anything goes.  It so happens that I'm crazy about this track right now.  I just kind of works, especially if you listen for a while.  I think one of the reasons I love Empire of the Sun so much is their very excellent production.  I think the songwriting is just very well done, but the production is out of this world.  I like this other track by Dream Academy, which is quite similar, which might also seem quite naff, just because the production is excellent.

Empire of the Sun - We Are the People (cagedbaby remix)

Dream Academy - Love Parade

Land of Kings Festival in Dalston this Thursday and Friday

I'm behind on my posts here cause I have a great idea but it's taking me a while to post it. I'm going to post a mix I've made of new music that I'm crazy about before I go back to posting some more cassettes.

In the meantime, come to the Land of Kings festival this Thursday and Friday, the 16th and 17th of April. I'm djing on Friday night with Lou and Nova and Rory from Trash/Durrr along with a special secret guest who can't put up with Disco from our millenium so he has to go for the year 3000 (yeah!). We're playing at the Stone Cave from 11 pm (111 Kingsland High Street). It's a freaky cave restaurant so should be good. Also playing at the festival are An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, David E. Sugar, Serge Santiago, Colouring In, Kathy Diamond, Allez Allez and many more. It's cheap and you can get tix on the day. You've come a long way baby Dalston! You can read more about it by clicking on the picture above which is my first full page article in Timeout.

WJLB - Live at the Warehouse with Spin Doctor Kim James - 1999

This is a gift from my friend Bohdan who is from Detroit and used to listen to this station, WJLB all the time on the weekend. He recorded this in 1999. It's full booty/ghetto/hip hop recorded live at the Warehouse in Detroit. The tracks are fantastic but even better is listening to the dj Spin Doctor Kim James work the crowd - calling out the playas and the hoes and pointing out girls he thinks are hot. All around it's an energy that I feel like I don't hear in clubs in London these days. I know that booty made a bit of a round on the dj circuit maybe 2-3 years ago, but this is like I've never heard it. Anyone who can name check some of the tracks, like the track where she says "if it's the last thing I do, I wanna go down on you", please post names in the comments. I gotta have it. I've posted one track from Dj Godfather which is in the mix with the great line "you got dem PHDs, dat's da 'playa hate disease'".

I'm off tomorrow to Miami for two weeks for the Winter Music Conference and to have fun. Going to go to Erol Alkan gig's, the Durrr gig and the disco pool party at the Gansevoort. If you're in Miami shoot me an e-mail. And if you want me to dj, I'll have my stuff with me. I got all kinds of freaky music, you know me. And I play for fun, not money :)

listen below.

side 1

side 2 

DJ Godfather and Coon Daddy - See U No More

EDIT: I managed to get my friend Pierre to identify the other track I like which you can download below.  I think you need to speed it up a bit to get the right effect.

Aaron Carl - Down (original mix)

Planet Rock 1 - various dance mixtape 1997

Finally emerging from an African cave where my musical ear has been for the last two months. I bought this fresh cassette a few months back at a car boot sale in Dalston from a guy called Paddy Austin.  He told me these were some of his favs for auto cruisin and I would need to return what I didn't use. Here's to you, Paddy, cause the first one reminded me of some of the great tracks that were out in 97, things like Aphrodite, Cornershop, Primal Scream, Fatboy Slim, and Propellerheads.  I so much love the Aphrodite - Bad Ass track that I dropped it at my dj set at Catch in Shoreditch last thursday - and the crowd asked for more!

Planet Rock 1 - side A (download/listen)

Planet Rock 1 - Side B (download/listen)

I also want to mention a lot of other things that I like right now, things I've seen recently, and things that are coming up.  

DJ GIGS

I'm djing at the Land of Kings festival on 17th of April.  Lots of good djs/bands at the festival so check the lineup - Kathy Diamond, Rory Phillips, Lou and Nova, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Allez Allez and others.  Then the following Tuesday I'm also djing at the 6th birthday party of the Liar's Club in Nottingham with Health (live) and Banjo Freakout playing.  I hear they get their freak on in Nottingham, so I'm waiting to see.

NEW BANDS

I'm also creamed to the brim at randomly meeting two new musical projects in my neighborhood (that would be Hackney, creative center of the universe) that I really like.  One is ColouringIn (which sounds a lot like Empire of the Sun, which is totally the sound of now and my tip for the BBC Sound of 2009).  ColouringIn is "Love Minus Zero head honcho Tom Neville and opera singing former student of the Royal Academy turned electronic-upstart Henry Bennett" (plus a few others I think, such as my friend Marnie Hollande).  In other words, beautiful music with a fab operatic voice.  They've let me post a track below and I'm sure the record labels are panting.

Intergalactic Romantic (demo radio edit) - ColouringIn

The other band is a new project by uber mad synth fan neighbor Stan.  We hang out now and then and he just popped up the idea that he's working on some music last week and I was like "oh my god, here we go again, some lame ass project I'm going to have to be nice about but ignore".  But the music is beautiful and fantastic.  It's not a dance floor piece, more like a catwalk piece, or something to play in the background when you're working in your fashion studio not getting paid but filling your resume and lightly tapping your foot along.  Reminds me of that LCD Soundsystem track that was big - Someone Great.

Tumble Down Slow - Hounds of Hate

ART/OTHER THINGS

First of all, you have to check out this hilarious project Dollar Van Demos that someone sent me by e-mail (it's on youtube).  It's basically a taxi mixed with new artist shows.  The taxi is cheap and you get to check out some new artists.  Notice how different the vibe is in Brooklyn than in London.  Go Sally Connors.

I also saw some art I really liked at the Perrotin gallery in Paris a few weeks ago and as I'm increasingly interested in how undeveloped my taste in art is, I thought I would post some of my favorites so people can tell me why I have bad taste.  I really like Tatiana Trouve, and particularly this piece.  I also really like Jose Levy's show that was at Perrotin's gallery, but I guess he comes from fashion and it's not called "art" but rather "design" on the web page.  humph!  The chessboard of little mice he made was really great.  Finally, my fiance and I have been fans for some time of Rosa Loy, so now you know what I want for my Easter present.  I think it's because I'm somewhat drawn to the slight fairytale imagery, particularly stuff like this.

That's all for now.

Old is Gold vol. 1 - more Soukous

Well this is one more soukous cassette I brought back from Tanzania.  After this I'm going to go back to posting some other types of music but I will post more Tanzanian cassettes in the future.

This one is full of huge names and all of them have that dancey soukous sound I love.  I played a bunch of these at our Manifesto party last thursday night which was a smash pot of fun.   Thanks to those who came. We had more than 400 people in the Double Club that night and Taxi Pata Pata (Zong Zing in disguise) rocked it out.  Pictures here.  Fiston who plays in Taxi Pata Pata and Zong Zing told me that he used to play with Samba Mapangala, so you can get an idea of what it was like by listening to the tracks below.

Side A

Kabibi - Sam Mangwana

Marina - Samba Mapangala

Muzina - Tabu Ley

Ngandempa - P Adams

Cheche Dezo - T. Muana

Side B

Mboungou - Mayaula

Tojours Ok - Franco & Sam

Double Double - Nyboma

Dandy - Victoria Eleyson

Soukous Soukous - compilation tape

This tape is a compilation of some more amazing Soukous. I assume most of this is from Congo because it's not in Swahili, and the tracks are more of the soukous sound I love. Unfortunately even though there are lots of great names on the cover such as Danny Engobo and Pepe Kalle, none of the songs are tagged by artists. So I encourage anyone who reads this to tag the songs in the comments if you know them. I only included the songs which I like better. I think any one of them would make the dancefloor sizzle but I'm especially drawn to Soukous Tonic because of the fantastic guitar work.

Side A

Egide
Young Africa
Amina
Aziza
Pousse Au Fond

Side B

Soukous Tonic


Susie
Adie Amie
Salomon
Vacances Au Pays

I am also including a Soukous tape because we are finally doing another of our Manifesto parties and it's all about the SOUKOUS!! It's been almost a year since our last one and in the meantime lots of other parties have sprung up doing african music. The Double Club also opened, which is a big chic venue sponsored by Prada themed on the Congolese culture. We have been invited this Thursday, 5 March, to do Manifesto at that venue. With the help of some amazing musicians, including Fiston who plays in Zong Zing (who have played twice at Manifesto) and used to play in Samba Mapangala, we have booked the legendary Taxi Pata Pata which has been called one of the best Soukous bands in the world. Read all about Taxi Pata Pata, who was a big hit in the 80s, and come down and see them live. Details in the flyer below.

Vijana Jazz Band - Zilizowika

Another Internet virgin. This album is not mentioned anywhere on the Internet. Vijana Jazz Band are one of the biggest Tanzanian groups in the Muziki wa Dansi category though generally were later than some of the other bands (according to Wikipedia).

One of the tracks was too badly recorded for me to include it here, and I think Kapu La Mjanja has the best combo of vocals and instrumental on this tape.

Mundinde

Aza

Kapu La Mjanja
(listen below)

V.I.P.

Bunjumbura

Pepe Kalle - Voisin/Stop Feu Rouge

Pepe Kalle was quite a character and very well known in the world of congolese and east african pop. According to this great summary of his discography from Frank Bessem, this cassette came out about 1990. I already have some Pepe Kalle stuff and know that he is quite well known, but now I'm going to have to check him out further. This kind of fairly fast Soukous with really bright metallic guitar just really grabs me. You can cop some really fresh Pepe vinyl from 1981 on the amazing Ylow blog here.

I didn't put the last track on here because it doesn't sound like it is Magali and I'm not sure what it is called.

Voisin

Keva

Stop Feu Rouge

(stream below)


I'm not sure what to think of the fact that he was famous for having dwarfs who performed with him. It gets more freaky when the dwarf starts to hump the other dancers halfway through the vid.

Tabora Jazz Band - old school favorite

The Tabora Jazz Band was one of Tanzanian pop's seminal bands. According to Wikipedia, they were one of the key bands that developed the Tanzanian pop sound I really love called "Muziki was dansi", which came from Congolese/Rumba and Sokous sounds. Unfortunately the quality of this cassette, which is probably from before the 70s, is not super good. Still, the standout track here is Mariam Mpenzi. Particularly the latter part of the track in the breakdown is fantastic. I'd so love to find a better recorded version of this.

Asha No. 1

Alhamdulilah

Zabibu No. 2

Mariam Mpenzi
(stream below)


Tatu Wajidanganya

You can find another Tabora Jazz track over at this Mwana Simba page.

Tandale Modern Theatre - Mbereko - tanzanian pop

As I continue through the cassettes I bought in Tanzania, this one is one of the more obscure ones. I can't find virtually any reference at all to the group on the nets. Kind of half way between the traditional dancey band stuff and the gospel choir stuff, this one seems to be more of maybe a traditional local group. But some of the tunes are still really catchy with complex instrumentation. Probably my favorite is Shoga Kidokozi which you can both download and stream below. The funny thing is that even though I didn't know the term, it says online that Shoga is slang for gay man. So literally this song could mean "a little bit gay".

Mbereko (22 minutes long!)

Mashine

Nipisheni Msinibane

Shoga Kidokozi
(stream below)

Omary Kopa - Zanzibar Taarab

This is proper Zanzibar Taarab which I purchased in the gift shop of the House of Wonders in Stone town. I am finding that lots of the Taarab is heavy on the kind of arabic style singing and doesn't have much of a traditional song structure (or at least a song structure I'm used to). The singer seems to wander all over the place without much of a melody. So I'm not posting all of the songs, just the ones which I think are a bit more catchy.

I can't find much info about Omary Kopa but I think the 3 tunes are quite catchy, particularly track 3. I can't tell what the tracks are called but I've guessed on 2. The cd had 6 songs on it and for sure they're not in the order on the cover.

Namtunza Mwanangu

Track 3
(listen below)


Tufurahie Kitchen Party

mystery cassette - Tanzania gospel music

Well I was really looking forward to this cassette but when I played the songs I realized that it must have been accidentally switched by the cassette stand seller cause the Swahili lyrics don't match the song titles. THE SONGS BELOW ARE NOT THE CASSETTE COVER ABOVE. It sounds like some kind of Tanzania christian music and the cassette has no indication of its title. Still, the music is great and kind of dancey, so if anyone can identify it for me that would be great.

It looks like the Mandela Theatre Troupe were some kind of educational group in Tanzania trying to use music to educate. There is only one reference I could find to this cassette and it is in the Doran Ross collection of Taarab cassettes from Zanzibar. Doran Ross appears to be some luminary from UCLA and the list of cassettes looks like a very comprehensive resource of what might exist in the genre. I will be posting a few of these in the days to come.

Most of Side A was corrupted sound, but I managed to rescue this track for its great male vocal stylings. And Side B is fresh - particularly B3.

Track A4

Track B1

Track B2

Track B3
(listen below - this track is so great)


Track B4

Track B5

Track B6

Download all tracks in rar file. (Sharebee)

Mbaraka Mwinshehe - Tanzanian classic

I just returned to London from a month travelling with my girlfriend in Tanzania. I grew up in Arusha, so it was a chance to go back home and check things out. One of the great pleasures was listening to the great east african sounds blaring out of sound systems in roadside shops and little tinny sounding radios everwhere I went. I managed to pick up about 40 cassettes and a few cds, many from artists whose music doesn't seem to appear anywhere on the web. So I am going to try to do a blitz of the better stuff I got for the next few weeks and then return to my regular programming.

First of all I want to add that there are others much more knowledgeable than me about this kind of music, and others who write about it all the time. Awesome Tapes from Africa covers nothing but african tapes, but it does seem to be mostly west african. He has nothing on Tanzania from what I can tell, though there are some gems from Kenya here. I find that I do usually prefer the instrumental sound from east africa (kenya, Tanzania, and sometimes Zaire (now known as Congo)). This may however be partly because I understand Swahili and the lyrics. Steve Ntwiga's blog is the only one I have found that consistently covers east african music also, but I think he has more of a Kenyan bent. Benn Loxo du Taccu's blog is fantastic for covering lots of african music, but his east african coverage has been thinner. He has covered some Tanzanian stuff before though all links are now dead.

Most of the music I'm going to cover will be of the Taarab flavor or old dance band sound. Tanzania has been crazy about bongo flava for the last few years and some of it is quite nice. But in my view it's just an interesting variation of hip hop and rnb with Swahili lyrics and I'm not really into that sound right now. So I didn't really collect any. Taarab often sounds like a mix beween middle eastern/arab and tanzanian pop. But it varies and sometimes sound a lot more like traditional pop, like the sound on this cassette.

This first cassette I'm featuring is of Mbaraka Mwinshehe who is one of the classics of east african music. His track Shida can still be heards playing out of bars/sound systems all over the country. I had not had a chance to play the cassettes much when I was in Tanzania. But one day we were travelling from Tanga in the north down a really bad dirt road to Pangani (which I highly recommend as an unspoilt beach spot). The driver was playing his Bongo Flava so I asked him if he would mind trying one of my cassettes. We popped this in and when Shida came on he suddenly laughed and started to sing along. I also love the authentication stamp, with signature, on the back of the cover (click on it for a better image).

[I've tried to provide swahili translations of song titles to the best of my capacity.]

Side A

Shida Part 1 & Part 2 (Problems - part 1 and 2) "Problems"
(listen below)


Nisalimie Wanazaire "Greetings to the Zaire people"

Mapenzi Yanitesa "My Lovers are Bothering Me"

Side B

Choyo Uache "Don't be Petty" (cassette cover says this is the song, but not sure)

Tutakuja Gombana "We will Start to Argue"

Dr. Kleruu "Dr. Kleruu"

Esta Wangu "My Esther" (cassette cover says this is the song, but not sure)

Download the complete album here (Sharebee).