Sunday 21 March 2010

Luanda Doho Jazz Band

Thought I'd put up another track I've ripped from my 7"s, this time from an awesome Luo band called Luanda Doho Jazz Band. Again, I can't seem to find anything about them on the internet at all - maybe I'm just horribly inefficient at research. What i do know is that they were a Kenyan band from the Western Province playing Luo-based Benga music. The guitars are all over the place and the guitarists play over each other throughout the whole track. The singing is rough and verges on out of tune, the fidelity is low and its super repetitive, so basically - its amazing.

I'm only posting the a-side because the b-side is basically identical, I've got a couple more 7"s from this label and they're all pretty great so i'll upload them at some point.

I should also make clear that these tracks I'm uploading have nothing to do with Dream Beach Records, we're not releasing them or anything, just some cool hard to find stuff for you to check out

Luanda Doho Jazz Band - Rose Mary Mugoya


Anyhooey, i'll upload more soon, no diggity.

Saturday 13 March 2010

First DBR post - Orchestra Gem Lucky Friends

So this is the first posting on the Dream Beach blog, and i'm damned excited.

Dream Beach Records has been set up to release raw sounding modern underground music from Africa in super limited runs. We're not a big deal, and the people who we release probably aren't going to be playing the Barbican or Jools Holland any time soon, but they are going to be awesome. All we're hoping for is that this little label can go a small way towards making punk and indie kids want to buy records by Kenyan or Ugandan artists, just like they'd buy records by a bunch of hipster dorks from London or LA.

This isn't "world music", this is just awesome music.

So to celebrate the first posting on the Dream Beach blog i thought i'd put this up for download. This is a Kenyan Benga record from - im guessing - sometime in the mid 70s. The only mention i've found of them on the internet is in a list of Kenyan releases associated with Daniel Misiani and Shirati Jazz, seems these dudes were on a compilation with them. So with no information save for the awesome music, here's the a and b side to this record.

Orchestra Gem Lucky Friends - Rispher Adero by Dream Beach Records
Orchestra Gem Lucky Friends - Joseph Oloo by Dream Beach Records