Tuesday, April 13, 2010

rock it Somali today


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Philip Glass & Allen Ginsberg, Hydrogen Jukebox (lala)
Waaberi - New Dawn (lala)

According to @OlafurArnalds and subsequently this AP story, music has been banned from Somali airwaves, which is a shame. I don't know a thing about Somali music and if things like this persist, nor will anyone else, so for little more than my own feeble edification, among ecstatic Philip Glass appearance runoff, I will rock it Somali today. And no, I didn't exactly know where Somalia was either until I looked it up.

According to the oracle:
As Somalia's foremost musical group, Waaberi spawned many popular artists who would go on to enjoy successful individual careers and shape the face of Somali music for years to come.
so that seems a good place to start. I dig the way Waaberi makes a joyous racket "with instruments that range from household items like tea cups and water bottles to bongo drums and the oud" according to their AMG description for New Dawn. Why ban your music when your music sounds as good as this?


Eerily, the piece from Hydrogen Jukebox I was listening to when I saw that news was "Jahweh and Allah Battle"


in which Old Father Death Ginsberg offers a litany of voices commanding him to "be here": Sadat, Arafat, Messiah, God, my mother, the Sphinx, etc, so in the face of the world, the least we can do is be here.

1 comment:

  1. though oppression and lawlessness suck, think about the possibility of completely new music emerging from Somalia as a result of the people not being able to hear music. Still sucks, but Im going to keep my eye on Somalia.

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