Checking out The Very Best of Ethiopiques volume 2 right now, so good. What the hell is up with all the good music that came out of Ethiopia and Eretria in the 60s and 70s? I don't know much about that time in that country, but all of the Ethiopiques collections that I've checked out are all 100% gold, really cool jazz but mixed with Middle Eastern and African vibes, sounds like the soundtrack from some pulp 70s spy movie. Too bad both countries are now pretty badly off, fighting each other over their barren border areas and generally just totally messed up.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Ethiopiques
Checking out The Very Best of Ethiopiques volume 2 right now, so good. What the hell is up with all the good music that came out of Ethiopia and Eretria in the 60s and 70s? I don't know much about that time in that country, but all of the Ethiopiques collections that I've checked out are all 100% gold, really cool jazz but mixed with Middle Eastern and African vibes, sounds like the soundtrack from some pulp 70s spy movie. Too bad both countries are now pretty badly off, fighting each other over their barren border areas and generally just totally messed up.
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3 comments:
This is what I need, "The Very Best Of..." I got like 3 gigs of Ethiopiques shit, maybe from you, like volumes 1-8, and it was a bit overwhelming to weed out the straight heaters.
the mid 70's is when shit started getting bad for ethiopia. a military dictator took over with much support at first, but then people started disappearing. he was apparently worried that the revolutionaries would revolt against him.
the video professor at wellesley is ethiopian, and she makes work about her home. her brother was amongst the dictator's early supporters, and he just disappeared one day. i'm guessing that the sweet jams ended when shit like that started happening.
i have a ton of ethiopiques. i love em. i love the recording quality, and i love the way the bands sound. the bandliness reminds me of 60's garage rock. you know these bands were hired to play parties for like 6 hours, and they were accustomed to just playing. they were playing machines. they weren't always polished, but they were tight and the recordings pulsate with energy. the recording quality adds to this. so good.
although i like many of the records individually, and i'd have no trouble listening to them in their entirety, i hear what don is saying about wanting the "very best of" for those days when you want a steady stream of top shelf goodness.
We lived in Ethiopia when i was a kid and literally had to flee overnight when Col. Mengistu took over in the coup. Selassie was no picnic, but this guy became a mass murderer and started the spiral that Ethiopia is in to this day. These disks take me back.
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