African Adventure Motorcycle Travel

Awesome

Great to see Awesome Tapes from Africa getting a little mainstream coverage in the Observer on Sunday.

The Awesome Tapes blog is hosted by New Yorker Brian Shimkowitz who has taken a shine to obscure recordings by African bands - mostly on cassette tapes. The tapes are digitally re-recorded by him and can be heard on his blog - the artwork is scanned and uploaded too like the ones above and below from Mali.

Most of the musicians cannot be traced (or paid) but the site has turned into a huge archive of music that otherwise might have only been available in a dusty corner of Africa. Check it out.

I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial doing anything my radio advised

Here's a good online radio station if you like African sounds. 

http://www.rainbowradioonline.com/ 

Don't expect to catch all the song titles or band names from the somewhat volatile presenters - based in Lambeth in London - but it certainly improves the daily work output.

Awesome Tapes From Africa

Many African singers and bands over the past few decades have recorded onto tapes - much more portable than vinyl - and many still record to tape, or at least copy to tape.

Now a Brooklyn-based blogger has taken the trouble to record many of these obscure tapes then digitally upload them - together with the cover information - onto Awesome Tapes From Africa. 

This is an excellent resource to discover all those short run cassettes from most countries in Africa, which will hopefully keep them safe forever.

Here is the tape cover from Abou Salam et les tendistes from Niger, chosen because that country had a military coup yesterday morning. I hope not too many people get caught in the inevitable crossfire.

Dimanche à Bamako (Sunday in Bamako) by Amadou & Mariam

You may like to see what Bamako, Mali, looks like on a beautiful Sunday. There's even a glimpse of the Bamako train on which I spent a memorable night on the Brew Ha-Ha. But I never gave a bride a ride on the back of my bike.

Good tune, too.

Orchestre Baobab from Dakar

Terrific group and not difficult to dance to this (he says). I saw a loose collection of this band in Senegal in late 2007 on the Brew Ha Ha. Despite being extremely drunk I knew then they were exceptional players.

If you know what Dee Moo Woor means, I'd love to know.