Blowing the horn
Off-kilter dancefloor action from Radio Mogadishu’s dusty archive. A great find, says Andy Cowan.
Various ★★★★ Mogadisco – Dancing
Mogadishu (1972-1991) ANALOG AFRICA. CD/DL/LP
MOGADISHU WAS not immune to disco fever. The 1970s residents of Somalia’s otherwise tense, politically turbulent capital made their allegiance known via towering afros, bicycle-chafing flares and impractical platform shoes. The local musicians who reflected this welcome explosion (and leapfrogged chaotically from one outfit to another) made luxury hotels like Jubba, Al-Uruba and Al Jazeera their stamping grounds, mixing up well-worn covers of James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye with the incoming sounds of Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, Michael Jackson and a smattering of expectant originals.
Much of Mogadisco… is lifted from those performances, rescued by Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb during a monthlong sift through over 20,000 crackly radio station reel-to-reels and discarded recordings.
First to leap out is Bakaka Band. Explicitly funded by the Aboow Liberation Front, the likes of Gobonimada Jira (Choose Freedom) and Geesiyada Halgamayow (Brave Fighters) were designed to boost the morale of troops fighting on the Ethiopian border. You can hear why. While the latter track rattles with dance energy, the former buffers its skanking low-end against a Hammond screech as Shimaali Ahmed Shimaali’s vocal snakes between trumpets punching out a motif for eight delirious minutes.
By the late 1970s, Bakaka had evolved into the Dur-Dur Band and were in exile from their war-torn homeland. Powered by Adan Handal’s unstoppable rhythms, his unique combo of electronic drums and bongos mesh with primitive analogue dabbles that push the creative envelope on the keys-driven Ladaney and Daradaa Muxibo’s Eastern motifs, although it’s the off-note hook in Shaleedayaa’s central riff that cuts deepest.
Many singers passed through Dur-Dur Band’s ranks, but few boasted Mukhtar Ramadan Iidi’s raw power. Already a fastrising star after his tenure in Soomaali Jaas, his quavering passion enlivens the stop-start interface of Check Up Your Head and taut, insistent groove of Baayo – the most traditional disco track here. He might have been a huge Marvin Gaye fan, but Iidi’s voice is more redolent of a young Tom Jones (who really should cover the latter as Boyo).
Iidi’s unfettered plea bargaining is more than matched by Omar Shooli, who marries the yearning refrain “Hold me against your breast” to a dubby Heliya beat (Hug Me), and a trembling turn from Shimaali & Killer (on a coiled reworking of traditional chant Hoobeya), leaving Iftin Band to ramp up the bizarro quotient once again by lobbing stringy spaghetti western melodies and sub-Duane Eddy licks into the fevered mix.
Finding joy in the midst of turmoil, the strangely beautiful bounty of Mogadisco… reveals more telling detail with each listen.