[Guest Post] Three of a Kind from the girls at Black Girl flow
Seeing as we’re writing this post on a Friday we’ve all got the weekend on our brains and most of us love to let our hair down (READ ‘afros out’).
Combine that with the fact that this is Olympic season and London is in celebratory mode, we thought our three of a kind will be songs that help us get the party started - African style!
Here are two classics from the South to the West coast that we know some will relate
and a modern take on a classic that is a guaranteed floor filler
“asssssshhhhh…pom pom”
Massu - Franco et Le TP OK Jazz.
10 minutes of great music.
Bez feat Praiz - That Stupid Song. (by TVBez)
This is niceness. Nija music that I can get down with. More on the Asa tip than the P square.
Thanks to Siye of Focus Org for putting me on it.
A list of lists of 2011 things
So here is this list of lists, I dont mean in the sense that its the best list of all the list but very literally, its a list of other lists. 2011 is about to end and for a few week t’interweb has been aflutter with summations and reflections. Some have been fun, other have been blah to say the li(es)st.
Mostly this is a list of musical bests and tops (or slapped! as THEESTATISFACTION names their list) but some aren’t. Most are positive but one is def (it’s not def in that definition either I suppose since its a hate list - kinda speaks to that NPR article I posted on twitter the other day) not positive unless you take it as constructive criticism.
Enjoy and discover some ish that will be out of date by tomorrow(if you are on my side of the world, you know near or behind GMT). BUT as you might know I am all about being late, avoid the hype and quietly enjoy life and its pleasures slowly.
Pitchfork top 100 tracks of 2011? Oh really? even if it is your job are there enough hours in the day to listen to all music to make this list accurate? Well, I suppose this is my point, list are fun and inaccurate but aid in discovery and promoting. Anyway, list starts with Pitchfork and ends with on from Afri-love.
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/8726-the-top-100-tracks-of-2011/
In this lil list Kelly Rowland’s Motivation sits side by side with tUne-yArDs and ASAP Rocky (ugh who I DO NOT LIKE).
Five Charts That Explain the Year in Politics from the New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/the-five-charts-that-explain-the-year-in-politics.html
Mystro Uk Rap Up on 1Xtra as ripped and posted on SoulCulture
http://www.soulculture.co.uk/blogs/music-blog/newmusic/mystro-uk-rap-up-2011-radio-rip-new-music/
Fact Mag 50 best track of 2011. This one is kinda my fav in the discoveries stakes since I knew of ONE track on her so lovely lovley brand new old (second hand) music for me in 2012
http://www.factmag.com/2011/12/05/50-best-tracks-of-2011-50-41/
This here right here is called the Hate list. Funny. Funny. So much Vitriol.
http://garywarnett.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/the-hate-list-2011/
This one from Inc.com sort of goes against the whole ‘out of date by tomorrow (1st of Jan 2012) since its a forward looking list of start ups to watch out for. So sue me, I was dream when i wrote this list.
http://www.inc.com/ss/nicole-carter/startups-to-watch-2012
KEXP end o’ the year count down. I love KEXP and I love Seattle(never been there of course!). That is all.
http://www.kexp.org/events/polls/EndOfYearCountdown-2011.aspx
Okay Africa’s top 11 music Vid of this year. The Just A Band one is THE ONE. In fact imm going to embed it here so you don’t have to go far to see it
http://www.okayafrica.com/2011/12/26/okayafricas-top-11-music-videos-of-2011/
Kichwateli from Studio Ang on Vimeo.
One for down under, thanks for Gafin for this one. It’s TRES to the point this one. A list, no faff no chat just a list.
http://www.pedestrian.tv/music/news/pedestrian-readers-top-ten-albums-of-2011-/61085.htm
NY Mag list of top albums of 2011. One of the things I like about this one was that the comments complained that its to not mainstream enough and that the writer was trying to be ‘cool’. This was the one that actually started this list of mine since I thought it was silly of the commentor to admonish the writer since it was all subjective
http://nymag.com/arts/cultureawards/2011/top-ten-albums/
Fact Code Design’s list of best interfaces of 2011
This one I found vie Brian Picker on twitter and it has little to do with music BUT with the move of music consumption to digital is kind of have a kinship with all the music lists I have. Esp since one of the things featured is Planetary a space based music visualisation app for the ipad
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665704/14-of-the-years-best-ideas-in-interface-design
The Wire’s list. C’est tout. It’s a list to peruse. It’s good.
http://thewire.co.uk/articles/442
This one I really like. A LOT. Best under the radar re-releases on Rolling Stone’s site and shout out goes to @DRoseTimes for putting me on to it.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/blogs/alternate-take/the-best-under-the-radar-reissues-of-2011-20111222
Ignore that fact that the site is a bit rubbish (they should prolly talk to some of the interface designers above) this has a GREAT list of books if one is interested in Africa and African ideas/issues/businesses etc.
http://www.africafocus.org/docs11/books1112.php
Photos? Of animals? Alright then!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/incredible-photos-of-animals-from-2011
So THEESTATISFACTION’s list of most slapped, while its not a summation of the year of the whole world or whatever it is a reflection of their year, which I like, and I like them. They are cool in the most def way.
http://theesatisfaction.blogspot.com/2011/12/10-most-slapped-in-2011.html
Last but not li(ea)st its the musical journey of a blog that is close to my heart. Afri-Love. I remember when Miss K told me about it, and now look at it. Blooming. Here is a list of Miss K’s musical discoveries.
http://www.afri-love.com/2011/12/tgif-the-best-of-2011-great-music-discoveries.html
Ok, thanks, bye now. Have a good night. Hope your morning is going well.
p.s. I didn’t spell check. oh well. That’s my new year’s resolution?
*The New Yorker List comes for the MASSIVE list below, there is a shed load of facts opinions posits here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011-the-year-in-review/
** I wanted to put this one for HipHopHypeDog in but I only found it the other day and I havent actually looked through it so cannot comment but looks like one to have a look at:
http://hiphophypedog.blogspot.com/2011/12/hypedog-presents-100-best-beat-tapes.html
MsAfropolitan Mixtape! Yes!
I was thinking that I would like to see (hear) something like this and here it is. Compiled by the people at BroadCite, it really is a great great way to start a day, make a day and end a day. The last track, Joni Hasstrup, is one that I have been playing over and over ever since I heard in on a re-issue of ‘wake up your mind’ on Tummy Touch/Soundway earlier this autumn.
The one thing I might criticize is that it does not really feature any East Afro stuff, or maybe just sounds that SOUND East African.
Nonetheless, Thanks Minna and BroadCite!
Tracklisting
1) Tony Allen – Kindness
2) Revolution – The Journey Continues
3) Sister Pearl – Bang the Drum
4) Bollie – You May Kiss Your Bride
5) Rob – Move
6) Aye toro – From Benin to Belize
7) Nneka – Africans
8 ) Stolen Moments
9) Uppers International – Dankasa
10) Apagya Showband – Mummunde
11) Malik Alston – Badeya
12) Upside down – Fela tribute
13) Joni Haastrup – My People
(Source: msafropolitan.com / MsAfropolitan)
Abraham Afwerki - Semai
If you speak Tigryna the lyric are good advice. If not, the guayla (party music) is alright still.
The essence of the song is hope and strength. The thread through the song is one of patient hope and resilience. Important in life.
Bezunesh Bekele - Migoten Man Yawqal
If you know amaharic this song will speak to you if you dont the beats will still move you.
Migoten Man Yawqal - sort of means ‘who knows my hopes’
week in music: where to GET IT
So there are shit loads of places to listen to, buy, read, dance to music. this is going to be the first is a series of posts about where I have found awesome stuff AND its a LIST, love lists.
ONE. www.addistunes.com
I’ve been checking this site out since I came across Gabriel Teodros and the Kafa Beanz project. Its a repository of African music, though as you can tell from the name it has a great deal of Ethiopian music.
Check CHOON out. Grima Beyene is a bad man.
TWO. www.ntslive.co.uk
A new station broadcast from Dalston, London, England. It’s the brain child of Clair Urbahn and Femi Adeyemi (read an interview with them on SHOOK).
Music a plenty and catering for every musical need and want and I MEAN IT. The other day on the Jus Like Music show had a jungle set. The week before there were TWO Sun Ra retrospectives.
Picks for me so far have been Morning Maruaders with Marshmello on Mondays and Tuesdays and CAMP university.
You can check out all the podcasts on its soundcloud channel
THREE. www.kcrw.com
This station broadcast outta Amerikey, Santa Monica to be exact, is the best(one of). It not only has new and good music up on the hairwaves, it also have great arts and culture content. In recent memory the show with Rafael Saddique in session was pretty darn good.
FOUR. www.secretstashrecords.com
This is a new discovery for me. They have cool records and the new one is was BLUE and is now sold out.
I leave you with this mix, summer a come and carnival a come. This from my number FIVE music resource, MIXCLOUD.
Mixcloud founded in 2008 it gone from strength, I remember being at Secret Garden Party and Nico and Nikhil being uber excited about launching it.
Soca Season 2011 by The Heatwave on Mixcloud
Images used in good faith. y’all holla if you need me to take them off.
