Rather than raise your eyebrow quizzically at this, a second post in a month, think of this more as a faltering Part Two to last week’s post about the wonderful Mogadisco record that you’re all getting for Christmas this year.
This is an absolute banger from the same record.
Bakaka Band / Dur Dur Band
Just lend an ear to the lumbering bass line that sprawls all over the vocals and off-beat reggae sound of this track. You’ll be hooked in no time at all.
I’ve said “reggae” but as I am thinking about it, it occurred to me that it’s kinda like an idea of reggae that someone once read about in a book, or heard rumours of and thought they’d have a bit of lash at, without having heard the original.
[It turns out that interpretation is a little crass (who’da thunk…?) – the Dhanto rhythm from the north of Somalia is apparently remarkably similar to the Jamaican bluebeat.]
Be that as it may, that monstrous bassline is the thing that jumps out straight away but the brass riff is also something of a collar-grabber and it’s hard to ignore the I-Threes style girlgroup in the background, not so much complimenting Shimaali Ahmed Shimaali’s lead vocals as much as leading him by the nose through the song.
The Bakaka Band (for it is they) were one of the state-sponsored outfits that were a result of Siad Barre’s extravagant policy of promoting Somali culture as inspiration during the war with Ethiopia of the late-seventies, which often led to them playing dates on the frontline itself. The title of this track itself translates as “Choose Freedom!”
After the war, the band were left in limbo and gradually transformed themselves into the Dur Dur Band. Vocalist Shimali took the Dhanto songs, but for their other directions they used the beautiful Sahra Dawo and a second male vocalist known as Baastow (his nickname apparently derived from the Somali word for “pasta”, with some sort of connection to his languid style).
There are quite a lot of clips of the Dur Dur Band on YouTube (and they’re now the subject of an Analog Africa compilation – which is ace) but the best one, I reckon is this one. Forty six minutes of quivering, Somali funk that is somehow complimented by the less-than-perfect quality of the original VHS. The other Bakaka Band track on the Mogadisco collection is much more like this.
It’s actually some sort of collection of TV performances, mangled a little by the recorder (God love him, whoever he was) but all the more beguiling for it. It’s far from clear what all the songs are, let alone the musicians, but I’m pretty sure the female vocalist heavily featured in the first half will be Sahra Dawo and that by half way through we’re being treated to the spaghetti-limbed stylings of Baastow.
Throughout, the Dur Dur Band are superb, rock solid and as loose-limbed and horizontal as the recordings suggest, with the rhythm section standing out, delicately embroidered by the frailest of electric guitars. Even the trees seem to sway along…
If you can’t make it through the whole forty minutes (and frankly, if you can’t, we need to talk…), I’d at least suggest you skip onto 37:50 where Baastow (resplendent in custard-yellow shirt and slacks) is crudely cut off and the Sharero Band, complete with a troupe of abrasive chanteuses, begin to hove into view (through a hedge). The lead vocalist looks to me a little like Fadumo Qasim, but who knows? It’s a massive treat you can’t afford to deny yourself….
Heady, exotic stuff.