Charts June 23-29, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 LUKA PRODUCTIONS AND KANDIAFA | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 06 [EP] | Sahel Sounds
2 AMARIA HAMADALHER | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 05 [EP] | Sahel Sounds
3 NICO GOMEZ AND HIS AFRO-PERCUSSION INC | "Baila Chibiquiban" [Single] | Matasuna
4 ALKIBAR JUNIOR | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 04 | Sahel Sounds
5 HAILU MERGIA | Yene Mircha | Awesome Tapes From Africa
6 SILVERY BOYS, THE | The Silvery Boys | Vampisoul
7 JEICH OULD BALDU | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 03 [EP] | Sahel Sounds
8 ETRAN DE L'AIR | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 01 [EP] | Sahel Sounds
9 SUPERFONICOS | "El Adios" [Single] | Public Hi-Fi
10 BAHAMA SOUL CLUB | "Never Roam No More (feat John Lee Hooker)" [Single] | Buyu

Put your cellphone down, in the place of me

We'll start this week's program with four selections from Sahel Sound's new Music From Saharan WhatsApp series.  Throughout 2020, the label is releasing one EP a month that's been recorded by the artists on a cellphone in the southern Sahara, transmitted over WhatsApp, and uploaded to Bandcamp where it's available for a month before it disappears, just like a WhatsApp message does.

This subversive distribution model gives 100 percent of the proceeds to the musicians and reflects how most music is acquired in the region: by file sharing (with no payment to the artists, of course) over WhatsApp.  It's also resulted in an immediacy that you just won't hear in other recordings -- it's the next best thing to the live performances we're all missing right now.  You can read more about the series here.

Also this week (Monday June 29, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): kora shredding; a taste of Afro-Japanese music; the latest from Ukraine's DakhaBrakha; Latin psych-funk from the 60s and 70s; and a Hailu Mergia sampler.

Charts June 16-22, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 GROUPE RTD | The Dancing Devils Of Djibouti | Ostinato
2 POIRIER | Soft Power | Wonderwheel
3 MICHAEL MENDEZ | "Love TKO" [Single] | Purple Lion
4 CHALO CORREIA | "Kudihohola / Chercher Crioula" [Single] | Matasuna
5 BELLA BLAIR | "Gimmie A Light" [Single] | Frankie
6 ALBOROSIE | "Unprecedented Time" [Single] | VP
7 INNA DE YARD | "Skylarking (feat Horace Andy)" [Single] | Chapter Two / Wagram
8 SANTROFI | Alewa | Out Here
9 DAVID WALTERS | Soleil Kreyol | Heavenly Sweetness
10 JONAZ | "Cangrejita" [Single] | self-released

Shoulder dance

You might know it as the Harlem shake.  But like a lot of American dance crazes, it actually started in Africa.  The characteristic shoulder popping of the Harlem shake looks a whole lot like the traditional Ethiopian dance called esketsa (literally "dancing shoulders").  On this episode of Global A Go-Go, you'll hear the "chic-chic-ka" rhythm, the one you do the esketsa to, as performed by artists from Ethiopia, Djibouti and the USA.

Also this week (Monday June 22, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): British electric folk with a psychedelic haze; modern highlife from 1980 and 2020; four new reggae singles; a set of vintage Brazilian samba-soul; and the rhythms of Cote D'Ivoire's coupe decale.

Charts June 9-15, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 ORKESTA MENDOZA | Curandero | Glitterbeat
2 FALLE NIOKE AND GHOST CULTURE | "Barke" [Single] | PRAH
3 K FRIMPONG AND SUPER COMPLEX SOUNDS | Ahyewa Special | Hot Casa
4 KEVIN FLOREZ AND THE BUSY TWIST | "Champetizate" [Single] | Palenque / Farra Rap
5 WU FEI AND ABIGAIL WASHBURN | Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn | Smithsonian Folkways
6 ORCHESTRA GOLD | "Lemuru" [Single] | self-released
7 AKSAK MABOUL | Figures | Crammed
8 CALIBRO 35 | Momentum | Record Kicks
9 BELLA BLAIR | "Gimmie A Light" [Single] | Frankie
10 EL BUHO | "Black Catbird (feat The Garifuna Collective)" [Single] | Shika Shika

Super complex sounds

Alhaji Kwame Frimpong is one of African music's all-time greats, a Ghanaian bandleader whose work is equal parts vintage palm-wine highlife and modern Afrofunk-Afrobeat.  His second album Ahyewa Special (pictured above) was out of print forever, changing hands for as much as $1,000.

Paris' Hot Casa Records has licensed it from Frimpong's family and reissued it, so now we can all enjoy the glory and the family can earn some royalties.  I'll play you a side-long jam from Ahyewa Special this week on Global A Go-Go.

Also this week (Monday June 15, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site): a sampler of Tucson AZ's Orkesta Mendoza; African tradi-mod (traditional meets electronic) music; Malian garage rock; when American and Asian folk traditions collide; and ndombolo straight outta Cartagena.

Charts June 2-8, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 FRANCK BIYONG FEAT CRISTINA VIOLLE | Trouble [EP] | Hot Casa
2 GROUPE RTD | The Dancing Devils Of Djibouti [Advance Tracks] | Ostinato
3 NOHE AND SUS SANTOS | Tempestad | Avokado Artists
4 GREGORY ISAACS | "Babylon Too Tough" [Single] | 17 North Parade
5 TAMIKREST | Tamotait | Glitterbeat
6 DZAMBO AGUSEVI ORCHESTRA | Brasses For The Masses | Asphalt Tango
7 OLAMINA AND AWARENESS | Back To The Mission | Love City
8 AKSAK MABOUL | Figures | Crammed
9 KELEKETLA! | "Future Toyi Toyi" [Single] | Ahead Of Our Time
10 BARRINGTON LEVY | "Praise His Name" [Single] | 17 North Parade

Uplifter or downpressor?

Photograph by Michael Lease

I'm going to start this week's program with a tribute to George Floyd in honor of his family -- that is, all of us.

Rastafarians have a theory of language called Wordsound: a word should sound like what it means.  So 'oppressor' doesn't make sense -- you can't start a negative term with the "up" sound.  Rasta says 'downpressor' instead, giving you the image of a man with his knee on your neck, pressing down.

In these times, it's incumbent on all of us to choose: Am I an uplifter or a downpressor?  I don't think there's an in-between.

Also this week (Monday June 8, 3:00-5:00 PM on WRIR, for two weeks afterwards at wrir.org/listen, check your local listings for airing on other radio stations, and any old time at my podcast site), Global A Go-Go uplifts you with a song by Idir, who brought Algerian Kabyle music to the world; women of cumbia; Igbo Afrobeat from Nigeria; the first ever international release from Djibouti; and a Balkan beats dance party.

Charts May 23 - Jun 1, 2020

WRIR's NACC World Top Ten
1 SAHEL SOUNDS LABEL SAMPLER 2 | various artists | Sahel Sounds
2 OLAMINA AND AWARENESS | Back To The Mission | Love City
3 PRINCE FATTY AND SHNIECE MCMENAMIN | "Take Me As I Am (feat Horseman)" [Single] | Evergreen
4 PRINCE ALLA | "Nah Go A Them Burial" [Single] | 17 North Parade
5 KOKOROKO |  "Carry Me Home" [Single] | Brownswood
6 AMARIA HAMADALHER | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 05 [EP] | Sahel Sounds
7 ALBOROSIE | "Unprecedented Time" [Single] | VP
8 TAMIKREST | Tamotait | Glitterbeat
9 INNA DE YARD | "Skylarking (feat Horace Andy)" [Single] | Chapter Two / Wagram
10 ALKIBAR JUNIOR | Music From Saharan WhatsApp 04 [EP] | Sahel Sounds