Amadou and Mariam visit The Guardian’s studios to perform “Wily Kataso,” a track featured on the Oh Amadou EP as well as the upcoming Folila LP, that they describe as being about “people who visit you at home, telling stories, speaking badly of other people, wasting your time.” Wily Kataso is what they call those types of people in Bambara. Watch the duo perform the track accompanied by a xylophonist above.
Gulls compiled this mix of Malian tunes dug up by Sahel Sounds (Chris Kirkley) in Bamako’s MP3 market for Boomarm Nation. They said it best:
This mix features the wicked sounds of Malian street system throwdowns, BALANI SHOW. Super fast Super hard, DIY Drum machine, fruity loop mash, Coupe Decale pop, overdriven / traditional, autotune
Stream and download Super Balani mix below. Limited edition cassettes are available at Mississippi Records in Portland. And check out a previous collabo between the three parties.
TRACKLIST
Fari Fari – Balani – (slow / edit)
STIFLER AKA MARSHALL LE SORCIER – Choubagaya – (edit)
Unknown- Balani Kaneleba – (slow)
DJ Bamanan – Gnoukoubala – (Gulls Remix)
Kaba Blon – Dekou – (slow / edit)
DJ Bamanan – Decale – (slow)
DJ Bamanan – Hommange A Cheche – (slow)
The Grammy Award nominations are out and two Okayafrica darlings, Femi Kuti (killin’ it on the couch, above) and Tinariwen, got the nod for “Best World Music Album.” Femi is nominated for his Africa for Africa LP (out via Knitting Factory) and Tinariwen for the Mali nomad blues of Tassili.
Looking past our issues with the problematic “world music” tag — we’ll let you hear that from David Byrne — and the fact that the Grammys are notably out of touch with modern music (see: Steve Stoute), we’d like to congratulate Femi and Tinariwen for this major feat in terms of public appreciation and American exposure. They’re joined by South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Cuba’s Afrocubism in the category. Big ups to all of them.
Amadou & Miriam will be filming a video shoot at NYC’s exclusive burlesque venue The Box with TV on the Radio‘s Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone —who you might remember collaborated on the Malian duo’s upcoming album. Okayafrica has gotten VIP access to the exclusive video shoot, and we need EXTRAS who want to come behind-the-scenes and take part in the shooting of the video.
If you’d like to attend the shoot and be in the video as part of the live audience, email Julie at amadounmariamextras@gmail.com and attach a photo of yourself. You’ll need to be available to be at an exclusive venue in the LES from 2pm-10pm on Monday, February 6th. You’ll also be allowed and invited to stay for the FREE concert they’ll be giving after the video shoot!
ALSO, Amadou & Mariam and Tunde + Kyp will be performing a FREE INVITE ONLY concert after shooting the video in the evening. We have 30 FREE TICKETS (15 winners each with a +1) for a lucky few. All you have to do is enter the contest (below) and check your inbox on MONDAY MORNING (coming from okayafricacontest@gmail.com) — so don’t be giving us a fake e-mail!
The set will be at a chic and exclusive cabaret venue in the LES from 2-10pm. If you can come the entire shoot, thats great but if just for one half, that can work as well. We need quintessential, colorful, and real New Yorker characters who love culture, music, art, and letting go. As far as outward image, can be anything authentic, but please own it– whether a young professional type, or absolute artiste, or an exotic dancer, doesn’t matter — we’d love to see you come forward as whatever it is you dress as each day or whatever best represents your persona.
The video concept deals with dissolution of facades. The artists involved share a worldliness as well as an artfulness. The shoot includes an actual live performance by Amadou and Mariam alongside Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio. There is no pay for this one but it will be an absolutely unique and powerful experience as well as an amazing party.
U2 singer and humanitarian extraordinaire Bono was recently spotted at the annual Festival au désert (Festival in the Desert) in Mali. According to Afropop, the Irish singer was there “with a delegation of 20 people from the One Foundation… and he sat in the VIP section between the Minister of Culture and Minister of Tourism and Arts.”
The UK’s Telegraph captured footage of Bono onstage with seminal Touareg group, and festival staple, Tinariwen and Bassekou Kouyate[edit: thanks Drea]. Their report highlighted the fact that “al Qaeda threats have kept crowds away” from attending the Timbuktu festival. Watch video of Bono onstage with Tinariwen above.
Tinariwen release a new clip for yet another solid cut off, LP of the year choice, Tassili. “Isweigh Attay,” a more subdued composition, is aptly accompanied by a desert campfire perfomance clip from the Malian Touareg group. Watch the video above and grab Tassili, featuring contributions from TV on the Radio and Wilco, out now via Anti-.
OKA’s favorite North African Touareg band, Tinariwen performed a Tiny Desk Concert on NPR‘s “All Songs Considered.” They played two songs from former albums, but they opened and closed the tiny concert with two never-before-heard jams. See the full set list below and watch the unique performance above. Download the audio here.
Set List:
1- Adounia
2- Takkest Tamidaret (from the album Tassili)
3- Tenhert (from the album Imidiwan)
4- Tahlamoyt
Malian duo Amadou & Mariam are set to release Folila, the proper studio follow-up to 2008′s Welcome To Mali. The new LP, produced by Marc-Antoine Moreau, boasts contributions from Santigold, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, TV on the Radio, Theophilus London and Malian veteran Bassekou Kouyate. In anticipation of the album, the duo have released Oh Amadou EP, which is out today. Preview the EP’s title track above (featuring Bertrand Cantat) and stream “Dougou Badia,” their collaboration with Santigold and Nick Zinner, below!
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>>>Stream: Amadou & Mariam “Dougou Badia ft. Santigold”
Raw goodies for the New Year compliments of Chris Kirkley‘s field work, and this time it’s in the form of stream of consciousness field recordings of Timbouctou vocalist and Tehardent player Agali “Ali” Ag Amoumine and calabsh player Alhassane Maïga. The release, “Takamba” is named after a place in Mali, and is also “a slow ghostly dance, a distinctive staggered rhythm clapped on a calabash, and a gritty distorted terhardent.” Sections of this recording feel pretty trance-like with it’s endless lo-fi electric Tehardent (3 string lute) noodling which dominates the 40 plus minutes cassette release. Calabash rhythms and shout-outs to “New York” also line this anti-produced sound. Check out Sahel Sounds for more notes and videos.
Stephen Colbert conducts a fairly racist interview (but that’s the joke or something) with members of OKA favs Tinariwen and TV on the Radio. The two groups then perform “Tenere Taqqim Tossam” off of Tinariwen’s latest album Tassili. Okayafrica caught up with Tinariwen, AKA the nicest guys in the world, the last time they were in New York City. We’re always curious how they reconcile their time in the concrete jungle with their lives in the desert – it’s gotta take some mad patience.
Video: Amadou and Mariam ‘Wily Kataso (Live)’
Amadou and Mariam visit The Guardian’s studios to perform “Wily Kataso,” a track featured on the Oh Amadou EP as well as the upcoming Folila LP, that they describe as being about “people who visit you at home, telling stories, speaking badly of other people, wasting your time.” Wily Kataso is what they call those types of people in Bambara. Watch the duo perform the track accompanied by a xylophonist above.
(via The Guardian)