Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu 1972-1991
Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991)
by Various
Joe Brockmeier
Joe Brockmeier
Really interesting and fun music, some stellar tracks on this, and no bad ones.
bonnieprince
bonnieprince
some seriously great funky tunes here!
Favorite track: Check Up Your Head.
Vik Srinivasan
Vik Srinivasan
Wow - immediately got hooked but it’s also a grower. Hearing new sounds every time I listen! An incredible melting pot of tunes.. 10/10. Analog Africa can seriously do no wrong!
Favorite track: Gobonimada Jira (Choose Freedom).
gon(ç)alo
djgrahamsicle
Michael Mullen
bookshopiain
Hugh
Charlottenburg
africathy
DyNEk
schmirki
jas282
Floteum
mkmpfr
DAviD
SoulKoffi
whereislove
Tandem Tapes
Zephan Page
misadias
almourot
shari_luna
TImothy Alexander
Seb
ize
Joseph Baca
Jonathan Richards
vangogh01
DJ caralarm
Menilsmith
Josh Reed
Roar Groove
esoteric_soundscapes
earsafari
mr_ig
joe_mayooo
harrisondavid33
John Farley
michael tull
Maddie
nic_o_tronic
Mikey Roberts
Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg
Osunlade
stephenkilleen
Marc Mayer
dghost_
al-from-lyon
Funkyan
Neil Zimmerman
sam
procky
schmalck
Nick Curnow
tjeerdo
liquindoy
Andrew Scuffam
ellipis
littleblackegg
shakty
D'nardo Colucci
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift card
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumIncludes unlimited streaming of Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 7 daysPurchasable with gift card
€16 EUR or more
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Full Digital Discography
Get all 44 Analog Africa releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cameroon Garage Funk, Trujillo - Perú 1971-1974, Edo Funk Explosion Vol.1, Take One, La Locura de Machuca 1975-1980, Fundo De Marê Palinha (Limited Dance Edition), Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical (Limited Dance Edition), Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991), and 36 more.
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LP with Gatefold with a fantastic 16-pages magazine-format booklet containing 50 pictures
Record/Vinyl + Digital AlbumIncludes unlimited streaming of Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Sold Out
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2. |
Hab Isii (Hug Me)
05:35
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Check Up Your Head
05:50
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6. |
Sirmaqabe (No Secrets)
06:29
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7. |
Baayo (Hey Woman)
05:35
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9. |
Shaleedayaa (By Myself)
03:44
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about
After being blown away by a few tunes – probably just as you will be after listening to this - Samy Ben Redjeb travelled to the infamous capital city of Somalia in November of 2016, making Analog Africa the first music label to set foot in Mogadishu.
On his arrival in Somalia Samy began rifling through piles of cassettes and listening to reel-to-reel tapes in the dusty archives of Radio Mogadishu, looking for music that "swam against the current".
The stars were aligned: an uncovered and unmarked pile of discarded recordings was discovered in a cluttered corner of the building. Colonel Abshir - the senior employee and protector of Radio Mogadishu's archives - clarified that the pile consisted mostly of music nobody had manage to identify, or music he described as being "mainly instrumental and strange music". At the words "strange music" Samy was hooked, the return flight to Tunisia was cancelled.
The pile turned out to be a cornucopia of different sounds: radio jingles, background music, interludes for radio programmes, television shows and theatre plays. There were also a good number of disco tunes, some had been stripped of their lyrics, the interesting parts had been recorded multiple times then cut, taped together and spliced into a long groovy instrumental loop. Over the next three weeks, often in watermelon, grapefruit juice and shisha-fuelled night-time sessions behind the fortified walls of Radio Mogadishu, Samy and the archive staff put together "Mogadisco: Dancing Mogadishu, 1974–1991".
Like everywhere in Africa during the 1970s, both men and women sported huge afros, bell-bottom trousers and platform shoes. James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations' funk were the talk of the town.
In 1977, Iftin Band were 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 come back with an award but they also returned with Afrobeat. While Fela Kuti's 'Shakara' had taken over the continent and was spreading like wildfire throughout Latin America, it was the track 'Lady' that would become the hit in Mogadishu.
At the same time Bob Marley was busy kick-starting reggae-mania in Somalia, which became such a phenomenon that even the police and military bands began playing it. Some say that it was adopted so quickly because of the strong similarities with the traditional beat from the western region of Somalia, called Dhaanto.
But then suddenly the trousers got tighter as the disco tsunami hit the country. Michael Jackson appeared with a new sound that would revolutionise Somalia's live music scene. You couldn't walk the streets of Mogadishu without seeing kids trying to moonwalk.
"Somalia had several nightclubs and although most use DJs to play records, some hotels like Jubba, Al-Uruba and Al Jazeera showcased live bands such as Iftin and Shareero" - so ran a quote from a 1981 article about the explosion of Mogadishu's live music scene. The venues mentioned in that article were the luxury hotels that had been built to cover the growing demands of the tourist industry. The state-of-the-art hotel Al-Uruba, with its oriental ornaments and white plastered walls, was a wonder of modern architecture. All of Mogadishu's top bands performed there at some point or another, and many of the songs presented in this compilation were created in such venues.
Mogadisco was not Analog Africa's easiest project. Tracking down the musicians - often in exile in the diaspora - to interview them and gather anecdotes of golden-era Mogadishu has been an undertaking that took three years. Tales of Dur-Dur Band's kidnapping, movie soundtracks recorded in the basements of hotels, musicians getting electrocuted on stage, others jumping from one band to another under dramatic circumstances, and soul singers competing against each other, are all stories included in the massive booklet that accompanies the compilation - adorned with no less then 50 pictures from the '70s and '80s.
As Colonel Abshir Hashi Ali, chief don at the Radio Mogadishu archive - someone who once wrestled a bomber wielding an unpinned hand-grenade to the floor - put it: "I have dedicated my life to this place. I'm doing this so it can get to the next generation; so that the culture, the heritage and the songs of Somalia don't disappear."
On his arrival in Somalia Samy began rifling through piles of cassettes and listening to reel-to-reel tapes in the dusty archives of Radio Mogadishu, looking for music that "swam against the current".
The stars were aligned: an uncovered and unmarked pile of discarded recordings was discovered in a cluttered corner of the building. Colonel Abshir - the senior employee and protector of Radio Mogadishu's archives - clarified that the pile consisted mostly of music nobody had manage to identify, or music he described as being "mainly instrumental and strange music". At the words "strange music" Samy was hooked, the return flight to Tunisia was cancelled.
The pile turned out to be a cornucopia of different sounds: radio jingles, background music, interludes for radio programmes, television shows and theatre plays. There were also a good number of disco tunes, some had been stripped of their lyrics, the interesting parts had been recorded multiple times then cut, taped together and spliced into a long groovy instrumental loop. Over the next three weeks, often in watermelon, grapefruit juice and shisha-fuelled night-time sessions behind the fortified walls of Radio Mogadishu, Samy and the archive staff put together "Mogadisco: Dancing Mogadishu, 1974–1991".
Like everywhere in Africa during the 1970s, both men and women sported huge afros, bell-bottom trousers and platform shoes. James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations' funk were the talk of the town.
In 1977, Iftin Band were 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 come back with an award but they also returned with Afrobeat. While Fela Kuti's 'Shakara' had taken over the continent and was spreading like wildfire throughout Latin America, it was the track 'Lady' that would become the hit in Mogadishu.
At the same time Bob Marley was busy kick-starting reggae-mania in Somalia, which became such a phenomenon that even the police and military bands began playing it. Some say that it was adopted so quickly because of the strong similarities with the traditional beat from the western region of Somalia, called Dhaanto.
But then suddenly the trousers got tighter as the disco tsunami hit the country. Michael Jackson appeared with a new sound that would revolutionise Somalia's live music scene. You couldn't walk the streets of Mogadishu without seeing kids trying to moonwalk.
"Somalia had several nightclubs and although most use DJs to play records, some hotels like Jubba, Al-Uruba and Al Jazeera showcased live bands such as Iftin and Shareero" - so ran a quote from a 1981 article about the explosion of Mogadishu's live music scene. The venues mentioned in that article were the luxury hotels that had been built to cover the growing demands of the tourist industry. The state-of-the-art hotel Al-Uruba, with its oriental ornaments and white plastered walls, was a wonder of modern architecture. All of Mogadishu's top bands performed there at some point or another, and many of the songs presented in this compilation were created in such venues.
Mogadisco was not Analog Africa's easiest project. Tracking down the musicians - often in exile in the diaspora - to interview them and gather anecdotes of golden-era Mogadishu has been an undertaking that took three years. Tales of Dur-Dur Band's kidnapping, movie soundtracks recorded in the basements of hotels, musicians getting electrocuted on stage, others jumping from one band to another under dramatic circumstances, and soul singers competing against each other, are all stories included in the massive booklet that accompanies the compilation - adorned with no less then 50 pictures from the '70s and '80s.
As Colonel Abshir Hashi Ali, chief don at the Radio Mogadishu archive - someone who once wrestled a bomber wielding an unpinned hand-grenade to the floor - put it: "I have dedicated my life to this place. I'm doing this so it can get to the next generation; so that the culture, the heritage and the songs of Somalia don't disappear."
credits
released December 13, 2019
Graphic Design: Kathrin Remest
Mastering: Nick Robbins (Soundmastering)
Lacquers: Frank Merritt (The Carvery)
Interview and Biography:
Samy Ben Redjeb, Abdullahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’, Ali Mohamed Hussein, Mohamed Khalif and Jay Freistadt.
Propaganda Machine, Reel vs. Cassette and Disco Tsunami written by: Abdulahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’, Jay Freistadt and Samy Ben Redjeb
Translation:
Abdullahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’,
Ali Mohamed Hussein and Mohamed Khalif.
Text Editing:
Jay Freistadt and Ian Preece
Pictures Courtesy of:
Xiddigta Oktoobar, Abdullahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’, Salah Hariri and the Library of Congress.
Special Thanks to:
All the good people at Radio Mogadishu:
Nasser Hussein, Abdullahi Amin, Abdullahi Barre and Hamud Ibrahem Hamud
And to the MogaDisco Collective for selflessly allowing us to use the name they coined:
Yemi Brown, Kaspar Loftin, Jack Bryant and Iyobosa ‘Bosa’ Igbinoba.
This Compilation is dedicated to Colonel Abshir Hashi Ali.
Graphic Design: Kathrin Remest
Mastering: Nick Robbins (Soundmastering)
Lacquers: Frank Merritt (The Carvery)
Interview and Biography:
Samy Ben Redjeb, Abdullahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’, Ali Mohamed Hussein, Mohamed Khalif and Jay Freistadt.
Propaganda Machine, Reel vs. Cassette and Disco Tsunami written by: Abdulahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’, Jay Freistadt and Samy Ben Redjeb
Translation:
Abdullahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’,
Ali Mohamed Hussein and Mohamed Khalif.
Text Editing:
Jay Freistadt and Ian Preece
Pictures Courtesy of:
Xiddigta Oktoobar, Abdullahi Ahmed ‘Somaliyow’, Salah Hariri and the Library of Congress.
Special Thanks to:
All the good people at Radio Mogadishu:
Nasser Hussein, Abdullahi Amin, Abdullahi Barre and Hamud Ibrahem Hamud
And to the MogaDisco Collective for selflessly allowing us to use the name they coined:
Yemi Brown, Kaspar Loftin, Jack Bryant and Iyobosa ‘Bosa’ Igbinoba.
This Compilation is dedicated to Colonel Abshir Hashi Ali.
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