Hannah Montana, Radiohead and the Master Musicians of Tanzania

Hannah Montana scares me, or Miley Cyrus, either way it’s a hideous fusion that I don’t fully understand. It makes me nostalgic for the days where I danced around in my bedroom blissfully listening to Five …wait ... I mean… I didn’t listen to fi… ok well at least they didn’t threaten to “ruin” Radiohead. For those of you who don’t waste their life reading Who Weekly, lil’ Miley made this ever so formidable threat after Radiohead snubbed her at some music bigwig awards show. I presume she would ruin them by singing to them, which of course would induce simultaneous Radiohead suicide, and that little piece of paparazzi encased gold was the most entertaining piece of trash gossip I had read since I found out that Suri Cruise eats only with chopsticks. I mean, if I had those things near me at her age I’m pretty sure they would have entered some sort of orifice where chopsticks are NOT supposed to go. Is that weird?

Anyway in this day and age where miss Mon-Cyrus is dominating the airwaves and Lady Gaga is singing shit like “lets have fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” I advise looking beyond our western shores and some what depressing mainstream music and look to Africa.

Two records that I have been listening to nonstop lately are “Missing You (Mi Yeewnii)” by Baaba Maal and “Mateso” by The Master Musicians of Tanzania. Yes I know these two cds are hardly discs to go flaunting around Oxford Arts Factory to demonstrate your highly educated indie ear, but they are amazing. African culture has a completely different perspective on music, rather than being cerebral (like dear Morrisey's angst) it is much more spiritual and almost trance inducing. The cyclic motions of the polyrhythms are insane; I cannot even understand how they play some of the rhythms they do.

It’s quarter past one in the morning, and I could stay up all night telling you how brilliant African music is, but one must sleep apparently. I highly recommend these two cd’s, they are not for the feint hearted, don’t be expecting too many verse/chorus/verse/chorus, but fuck. They are amazing.

Both of these cds are available on Amazon. Look them up and give in to the hypnotic African grooves

Mateso- Master Musicians of Tanzana:



Missing you- Baaba Maal: