Abstract Index playlist - Jan 25/06

Nostalgia is a funny thing. I couldn’t help but think about the selectivity of what's revived and what's not when playing one of the rump-shakingest tracks on last week’s show, by Nymoba et Kamale Dynamique from the recently reissued compilation of his early 80s work. Its’ fatback bassline provides more conviction in the bottom end than most soukous would by the end of the decade. I wonder how much more soukous would be complimented by contemporary DJ mixers with their tremendous EQ possibilities. Nowadays, you could boost the entire bass shelf at the flick of switch, which tended to be deficient in the original recordings (though not this one…)

Nyboma is now a singer with the highly popular Kekele, an acoustic, nostalgic group reviving the lovely sounds of Congolese rumba. The Kamale Dynamique stuff represented a sea change in Afro-pop that replaced the rumba sound in the first place. For many years, soukous ruled the roost, then big-beat club oriented tunes in the wake of Mory Kante’s million-selling “Yeke Yeke” upped the ante, the tempos, and the electronics. With the success of Buena Vista Social Club in the 1990s, many labels began to encourage nostalgic and acoustic sounds from around the world that came around full circle with Kekele, and revived the careers of Orchestra Baobab, Bemebeya Jazz and many others.

Stern’s, the best African label on the planet, is having it both ways: they’re responsible for both Kekele’s and Kamale Dynamique’s releases. So you can choose your Nyboman pleasure: Mr. White Suit or the ‘back in the even earlier day’ version. Soukous is ripe for revival – the twenty-year statute of limitation for nostalgia has come and gone, and far less worthy stuff from the 80s has gotten its due.

Here’s last week’s playlist:

fringe bananas - carsick (drip audio)
fall in fall out - biosphere (touch)
helicopter de cristal - lucky dragons (pregnancy series)
love theme - robert stillman (mill pond)
clubland - david buchbinder (indie)
mizrab - gabor szabo rmx. by prefuse 73 (impulse)
urban practice - dell & flugel (laboratory instinct)
mr. right now - apollo nove (crammed)
set sweet no worries - eccodek (indie)
garden of light in the shade of grey - dub gabriel (azra)
i can't take that - brother resistance (victory world)
nandeha izahay homaly - donne roberts (indie)
sure know how to love me - darondo (ubiquity)
apurate - lebron brothers (nascente)
som, sangue e raza - antonio carlos e jocafi ( strut)
the ghetto 74 - leroy hutson (curtom)
double double - nyboma et kamale dynamique (sterns)
shout at the disco - little scotty (p & p)
ginnigong miser - bobby ellis and the professionals meet the revolutionaries (third world)
yes yes yes - errol 'flabba' holt (blood and fire)
woman of the ghetto dub - phyllis dillon (question) - great link...