Today's selection - and Bandcamp Friday recommendation - is Luka Productions aka Luka Guindo, bursting out of Bamako in Mali.
Mali is such a hotbed of talent that when Ernie Goggins of 27 Leggies stopped there on the (excuse the pun) 32nd leg of his astonishing African Odyssey back in April, he doubled the size of his music and video selection and was still unable to include Luka Productions.
However, being the arbiter of good taste that he is, Ernie was there long before, spotlighting Luka Productions in December 2020, when this here Dubhed blog was mere weeks old.
Always happy to bring up the rear, on my obligatory stop at Sahel Sounds last Bandcamp Friday, I popped all three of Luka Productions' albums on the label into my bag.
The Sahel Sounds biog describes Luka as a "rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist and producer of contemporary Malian Hip Hop [who has] built a reputation as one of the most prodigious beatmakers".
All good though it doesn't do justice to the breadth of ambition, stylistic changes and musical growth across the three albums. Whilst not quite on the same level as Talk Talk's astonishing evolution between The Party's Over and Spirit Of Eden, the leaps from 2016's debut Mali Kady to follow up Fasokan in 2017 and third album Falaw in 2019 is astonishing.
This 12-song selections bounces back and forth from frenetic hip hop pop to ambient soundscapes with a deeper political message to traditional sounds given a contemporary spin.
Luka has continued to be active musically in the last five years, though with an increasing focus on politics and patriotism. His latest release, posted on YouTube at the weekend, is a thirty-one and a half minute piece, effectively setting Malian Deputy Prime Minister Abdoulaye MaÏga's address to the United Nations the previous day to music, Luka proving an in-the-studio introductory rap.
If that's a bit much for a Wednesday morning, then stick on this Dubhed selection for three quarters of an hour of Luka Productions, so that you might say with confidence that you preferred his earlier stuff.
1) Teri Ya Djara (2016)
2) Dignètignena (2017)
3) Ne Be Massa Wofo (ft. Kandiafa) (2020)
4) A Tara (2019)
5) Yelen (2017)
6) Droit Humaine (2016)
7) Dogonodoon (2019)
8) Terriya (2017)
9) Kora Koukan (2017)
10) Badjan (2019)
11) Nadoumananikadi (2016)
12) Falaw (2019)
2016: Mali Kady: 1, 6, 11
2017: Fasokan: 2, 5, 8, 9
2019: Falaw: 4, 7, 10, 12
2020: Music From Saharan WhatsApp 06 EP: 3
Thank you for your kind words. Like you I think "Falaw" is the pick of the bunch - it is probably the only one I've listened to regularly since my post - but inspired by this I'm going to dig out the other two.
ReplyDeleteThank you (again) for highlighting Sahel Sounds and their fantastic Name Your Price sale every Bandcamp Friday. Always interesting, never disappointing.
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