Awesome Tapes From Africa

Say You Love Me wasn’t “Om” Alec Khaoli’s first solo recording but the 1985 EP solidified the bass player and songwriter’s standing as one of South Africa’s most consistently innovative pop auteurs. He built a career on ubiquitous rock, pop and soul hits with groundbreaking bands like the Beaters, Harari and Umoja. But Khaoli’s seemingly endless fountain of music continued outside these ensembles, where he usually played bass and contributed songwriting and vocals.Khaoli released several successful solo works while he made records with Umoja and worked on other productions with friends. This creativity was aided by Khaoli’s own recording studio. He was the first South African to have a privately-owned studio. As black artists were forced to record during lunch breaks and didn’t get sufficient access and time in the white-owned studios, having his studio allowed Khaoli to develop in his own way. Hence his productive output during the 80’s and early 90’s, releasing 5 LPs with Umoja and 5 solo LPs, along with numerous singles and EPs.There’s something broad and dynamic about the almost epic pop sound Khaoli creates on Say You Love Me. Being the first South African to take control his recording process and thereby free himself from one of apartheid’s many strictures, he took his vision of music to new realms and made timeless music for the dance floor in the process.

Awesome Tapes From Africa continues to unearth must-hear gems for a wider audience with its reissue of South African bubblegum music stars Umoja's 1988 EP 707.Bubblegum music was defined by its call-and-response vocals and catchy synthesizer-led melodies. Helmed by 'Om' Alec Khaoli, who turned to the pure pop form as an escape from apartheid in the mid-80s, Umoja's EP 707 was a chart-topping, radio-friendly hit for the genre in 1988 that achieved double-platinum status.Umoja translates as 'oneness' or 'unity' in Swahili. 'Bubblegum music was about escape', explains Khaoli in the press release. 'If you had grown up in South Africa at the time, there was nothing more in your life than oppression. It was even in your dreams. Anything that was a way out was welcome 'When this music was playing everyone just wanted to dance, just have a good time.'

Awa Poulo is a singer of Peulh origin from Dilly commune, Mali, near the border with Mauritania. Largely pastoral and often nomadic, Peulh- (or Fula-)speaking peoples are found from Senegal to Ethiopia but predominate in the Sahel region of West Africa.Awesome Tapes From Africa releases Poulo's newest recording of highly virtuosic folk-pop, fresh from the studio, broadcasting her vision of Peulh music beyond the grazing grounds and central markets of her remote home region in southwestern Mali. It's not very common to find a female singer performing publicly among the Peulh. But Poulo's mother's co-wife is Inna Baba Coulibaly, who is a celebrated singer most Malian music fans know. Coulibaly herself was brought into music by forces outside her control when a regional music contest required an entry from her village and she was chosen to be a singer. So, set in motion by a surprising series of events, young Poulo's entree into the music world was auspic ious as she gained popularity across the region. After several locally released tapes and CDs, this record is Poulo's first internationally-distributed record. On Poulo Warali, she and her band combine the hallmarks of Peulh music—warm flute floating over cross-rhythmic n’goni (lute) riffs and resonant calabash gourd hand percussion—with broader Malian sounds like lightly-distorted guitar and a heavier, rollicking inertia. Shapeshifting layers of rhythm and woody overtones match Poulo’s commanding voice in a jocular yet deliberate dance. This is a relatively rare example of Malian Peulh music played in a modern, cosmopolitan context, reflecting the mixed society of Dilly, where Bambara, Soninke and Peulh-speaking people live among each other. Poulo’s conscious lyrics about community concerns speak to the distinctive identity of her broadly-flung people. While Peulh represents less than 10% of Mali’s melting pot of languages, the dynamic music here powerfully resonates well beyond the linguistic borders

Awesome Tapes From Africa surely scored one of the best reissues this year with the vinyl and CD edition of Obaa Sima, a quite startling album from Ghanaian musician Ata Kak that covered highlife, rap, pop, and more. The fact the discovery of the original tape was ATFA founder's Brian Shimkovitz original reason for starting the label made it all the more special. With copies of that album no longer in press, Awesome Tapes From Africa have tempered demand with a series of 12" releases featuring cuts from Obaa Sima. Here the title track makes the transition, pressed nice and loud at 45rpm (do try it at 33 too for a different vibe), whilst the slower electro funk-edged bliss of "Adagya" lines the B-side.