Happy New Year, in Kinyarwanda. To 2008 being better than 2007. New beginnings, including with this site.

There are now some links buried on the bottom of the right-hand side; just some places I go to read and hear things that are interesting. I'll keep adding more. But I was inspired to do that when I ran across a link for Awesome Tapes from Africa earlier today. I went to Ghana about five years ago, and probably my biggest regret is that I didn't buy a whole suitcase-full of tapes before I left, because with the exception of some Daddy Lumba mp3's I found on Soulseek, I've never been able to locate much in the way of real African music, either here or in Europe. I mean the stuff people in Africa actually listen to (which varies so widely in quality), not just the lucky few who travel around the world, are well marketed, play venues in Paris and New York, and are heavily marketed by Western record companies.

Awesome Tapes has a... well... awesome collection of the other stuff, and as far as I could tell, the links to files are still good all the way back to February of this year. Get downloading, because this is the very rare kind of stuff you're not going to see floating around the internet very often. And plane tickets to West Africa are expensive.

In news on the more polished side of things, I just got hold of Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi's latest effort, Tsimba Itsoka. I also have his earlier album, Nhava, and have to say that I'm pretty lukewarm on the guy. Well, mainly he needs to ditch the synthesizers and (more urgently) the soprano sax noodling, but his guitar playing and singing are really gorgeous. He has this kind of charcoal, smoke-and-ashes, gravel undertone to his voice which sits in really nice contrast to the smoothly rolling drums, mellifluous back-up singers and his crystal-clear guitar lines. I managed to find one track which is sax and (mostly) synthesizer free, which just lopes along, slowly evolving over the course of five fantastic minutes. I just wish he'd make a whole album of this, but it's better than nothing. Have a happy holidays, dream of warmer places, and enjoy this.

Oliver Mtukudzi - Hapana Kuti Mbijana