Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu Somalia 1972-1991

Description

DIVE INTO THE MUSIC & HISTORY OF THE SOMALI CAPITAL OF THE 70s/80s After being blown away by a few tracks, Samy Ben Redjeb traveled to the Somali capital in November 2016, making Analog Africa the first music label to set up in Mogadishu. Upon arriving in Somalia, Samy wondered why he needed an armed escort with Kalashnikovs to accompany him every morning to the radio station archives, but he then began rummaging through stacks of cassettes and listening to audio tapes in the dusty archives of Radio Mogadishu, in search of music that “swam against the current.” Luck was on his side: a stack of unidentified and unmarked recordings was discovered in a cluttered corner of the building. Colonel Abshir - the main employee and guardian of the Radio Mogadishu archives - explained that the stack consisted mainly of music that no one had been able to identify, or music he described as “mostly instrumental and strange.” The stack turned out to be a cornucopia of different sounds: radio jingles, background music and interludes for radio programs, television shows and plays. There were also quite a few disco tracks, some had been stripped of their lyrics, the interesting parts had been recorded several times then cut and stitched back together into a long groovy instrumental loop. Over the next three weeks, nighttime sessions took place behind the fortified walls of Radio Mogadishu, Samy and the archive staff put together the compilation Mogadisco: Dancing Mogadishu - Somalia 1972-1991. As everywhere in Africa in the 1970s, men and women wore huge afros, flared trousers and platform shoes. In the city, all anyone talked about was James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations. In 1977, Iftin Band was invited to perform at the Festac festival in Lagos where they represented Somalia at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. Not only did they return with an award, but they also came back with afrobeat. Fela Kuti’s “Lady” was to become a hit in Mogadishu. At the same time Bob Marley was launching a reggae movement that became a true local phenomenon to the point of being played by the police and the military, music quickly adopted certainly because of the strong resemblance to the traditional rhythm of the western region of Somalia called Dhaanto. Then the disco tsunami hit the country, Michael Jackson appeared with a new sound that revolutionized the Somali live scene. The Mogadishu music scene began to explode thanks to a few luxury hotels that started booking live bands such as Iftin and Shareero'. Mogadisco was not Analog Africa’s easiest project. Tracking down the musicians - often in exile in the diaspora - to interview them and gather anecdotes about Mogadishu’s golden age was an undertaking that took three years. The stories of the kidnapping of Dur-Dur Band, film soundtracks recorded in hotel basements, musicians getting electrocuted on stage, others moving from one band to another under dramatic circumstances, and soul singers engaged in fierce competition, are stories included in the huge booklet that accompanies the compilation. It also features no fewer than 50 images from the 70s and 80s!