Friday, September 25, 2015
MUSIC (Kenya): Here's H_ART THE BAND's Ode to Beauty and Love ~ "Nikikutazama"
Nikikutazama, a Kiswahili phrase for "when I look at you", has an undeniable happiness-inducing beat about it. The artistes, likewise, have a happy, calm and collected, comedic mien. Truly infectious.
A few months ago I was at a Kenyan wedding in Nairobi where the chorus of this anthem of a song was cheerfully and naughtily 'misread' by the MC, a well-known comedian, as: "O Aoko O, O Aokoo..."
Aoko, it so happens, is a girl's name. In DhoLuo it means, as I reckon, "Girl from the Outside". And on that fine (sunny, sunny) Saturday aft, when matrimony happily joined two ethnic identities, it was promptly added to the bride's name -- a Samburu beauty (with a name that seems to trace back to the era of the pyramids) getting married to a fine Luo groom.
I don't think that Aoko features in the extant Samburu dictionary, or vocabulary. Perhaps it will in the distance. But no matter. Everyone was so much the happier for that union on that wonderful day. Me and mine certainly were.
Nikikutazama is an ode to beauty. And to Love.
Click here to watch the song's video clip
Thursday, September 24, 2015
MUSIC (Kenya): H_ART THE BAND Sings a Different Sort of Tune in Love Phobic
With Love Phobic, H_ART THE BAND reinforces its self-assigned image as both the 'under-class' and the coolest of Kenya's musical fraternity. The artistes seem determined to be different, musically, and to stay the course of a unique stylistic journey. This is fine, culturally. It may just take time to become a sustained commercial success as well. It has logged 65,167 YouTube views so far
I think the band and the song are really, rally good, really. They're laid back. They're not in-your-face voluble. But they get to grab your attention. That's an interesting sort of psychology.
Just listen to the song to the end, without distractions, and be entertained. It's only 5:25 minutes long, for goodness' sake! OK that's about a minute longer than most hits, but worth the patience.
The music fuses two artistic streams: the singers are -- effortlessly, I dare say -- both rappers and balladeers. These are local boys comfortable in their skins, and their talents. And yet...
And yet the lyrics are crafted around the anomic type/brand of anxiety that's as perennial and as global, in its ebb and flow, as Love itself: "She loves me, she loves me not." These are "ebb" times, for sure. Remember back in the day -- over 50 years ago already (in the last millennium!) -- when The Beatles sang "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah" with so much self-assurance?
The set is certainly a truly colorful production, very tastefully put together. This cannot be by accident, but the result of great and sustained immersion in the creative (ad)venture. A wonderful multiple-blend, then, of color codes and high definition snippets of motion. A clean, bright, sunny, tropical set.
Wholly artistic and wholly wholesome in the visual sense, is what I'm trying to say.
I think the band and the song are really, rally good, really. They're laid back. They're not in-your-face voluble. But they get to grab your attention. That's an interesting sort of psychology.
Just listen to the song to the end, without distractions, and be entertained. It's only 5:25 minutes long, for goodness' sake! OK that's about a minute longer than most hits, but worth the patience.
The music fuses two artistic streams: the singers are -- effortlessly, I dare say -- both rappers and balladeers. These are local boys comfortable in their skins, and their talents. And yet...
And yet the lyrics are crafted around the anomic type/brand of anxiety that's as perennial and as global, in its ebb and flow, as Love itself: "She loves me, she loves me not." These are "ebb" times, for sure. Remember back in the day -- over 50 years ago already (in the last millennium!) -- when The Beatles sang "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah" with so much self-assurance?
The set is certainly a truly colorful production, very tastefully put together. This cannot be by accident, but the result of great and sustained immersion in the creative (ad)venture. A wonderful multiple-blend, then, of color codes and high definition snippets of motion. A clean, bright, sunny, tropical set.
Wholly artistic and wholly wholesome in the visual sense, is what I'm trying to say.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
CSO 587: Emergency Toolkit Lab ~ Class Presentation Topics, Sept-Dec Semester, 2015
Welcome to this Blog Post. You may wish to:
(a) Click Here to Access this Semester's Class Presentation Topics ; and,
(b) Note that the said topics are built around themes covered in the CSO 587 Course Outline
Monday, September 21, 2015
AFRICAN MUSIC: Gbemileke Remix ~ An Exercise in Thick Description
The article which appears here, below the video image, is a substantial update (a retro-update, to boot) of an earlier piece titled "Skuki and diva Tiwa Savage Sing Gbemileke". Today's piece carries material which was inexplicably lost to me in toto inside my own hard-drive, when I sought (when I 'rushed') to publish, without any ado, something on Gbemileke -- as I was itching to, following my tweet on the matter on March 14, 2015. Something which, all can see, had such 'zero' added-value as I had available, but which I nonetheless wanted to share beyond Twitter.
I have only today found the 'lost' material. So I'm making amends. I have decided to publish it under a different title, the title which it always in fact had, and indeed had even while lost. So that my thoughts on Gbemileke, flawed as the reader may find them, will now appear under two different titles: the 'old' title that's already published, and the 'old' title only presently found (in the last 60 minutes or so) and which 'graces' the piece I am publishing today -- in 'a moment' from now.
I have only today found the 'lost' material. So I'm making amends. I have decided to publish it under a different title, the title which it always in fact had, and indeed had even while lost. So that my thoughts on Gbemileke, flawed as the reader may find them, will now appear under two different titles: the 'old' title that's already published, and the 'old' title only presently found (in the last 60 minutes or so) and which 'graces' the piece I am publishing today -- in 'a moment' from now.
Gbemileke (Remix)[1] is a super allegorical piece of video music. I see that it has two narratives. One is anchored on the lyrics, and the artistes who sing the song or play the instruments. Another on the visuals that run parallel to the artistes’ performance on the virtual ‘stage’ and involve an entirely different set of, let me say, lay actors with a story-line to execute.
It is the story of a boy who had, since childhood, a great passion for football. He grows up in hardship, without the guiding hand of a father who died early of an unstated cause, and with a mother who worries constantly about what the future holds for him (and what he will possibly make of himself), and obviously despairs. That’s a familiar thread, but merits a re-telling.
Boy endures, wedded to his passion for the beautiful game, and a steeply declining interest in school work. He is finally signed up with an unnamed professional team, of one league or another, Gbemileke. All grown up, he makes good and buys mom a house beyond dreams. As one Jimmy King has not-so-finely put it in Donnett’s (2015)[2] blog, he rises from “grass to grace.”
All through the video, though, the artistic duo, who go by the name Skuki, and diva Tiwa Savage, take their lyrics and dance on a wholly different trajectory, in a beautiful flow of visuals. At the heart of this flow are, first, Tiwa Savage herself and, second, the anonymous guitarist in a sort of finger-lite, man-machine free-flight with strings.
The guitar adds some stand-out twist and zest to the whole thing, though it is more Zairois than Nigerian in style and execution.
For more comments on the video, see Ikeji (2015)[3]
[1] Several songs with the title Gbemileke have recently been sung in Nigeria. My comments here refer to the remix version of the song sung by Skuki and Tiwa Savage. The Skuki duo has a previous version – sans the storyline and the guitarist, and featuring Shizzi (https://youtu.be/63tgI5r94FE ) – which is quite fine too (see https://youtu.be/1fHDA_68oQo ). Gbemileke is a Yoruba word which means “God made me conquer” (see DJRuffee (2014) http://jaguda.com/2014/05/03/new-music-jay-smart-gbemileke-just-like/ )
[2] Jim Donnett (2015) “TX Review: Flavour –‘Olalufe’ ft. Chidinma + Skuki – ‘Gbemileke Remix’ ft. Tiwa Savage [VIDEO] http://tooxclusive.com/downloadmp3/tx-review-flavour-ololufe-ft-chidinma-skuki-gbemileke-remix-ft-tiwa-savage-video/
[3] Linda Ikeji (2015) “New Video: Skuki ft Tiwa Savage – Gbemileke (Remix)” http://lindaikeji.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-video-skuki-ft-tiwa-savage.html
MUSIC: Japan's Heavy Metal Genre ~ Road of Resistance by BABYMETAL
BABYMETAL's official video of Road of Resistance came out only on May 6, 2015. It already has 3,184,096 YouTube views!
This live show has such a dramatic start -- such a rousing out-of-this-world tune, such a roar from an enraptured fandom -- that it pushes aside all ideas of counter-resistance. We know we're on to a good thing. And it's good, truly. And it's monumental. And we don't want this road, long as it is, to come to an end. Yet it surely will.
The BABYMETAL gals -- resplendent in rich red and black, bathed in foggy light, doll-like -- do know a thing or 2, of course, about conserving some energy in the middle of this charmed/contested road, power to the swayed audience thusly 2 chip in with quality, with "necessary", with qualified noise. So they do. And so they do.
When that's done with, as time flies, we're left with the 1 assured 'tin': the dolls's 'armed' return to the magical middle of the road, the middle of the magical road -- the Road of Resistance -- for a final full-blast of a push. Final full-throttle of 'clanging' steel n imagined brass pieces, strumming of string arrays, throbbing of taut animal skin at the center of a collective beat, flare of 'atomic' fireballs, and a summing-up spirit-chant of driven, irrepressible babes.
And then, we knew from the start that something like this would/should happen at the end, a measured fade-away into that space that joins together -- in the mind and on our blessed and 'hard-nosed' blue marble -- the imaginary, red-all-over asphalt and a sky whose color, behind all that vapor of delight, it's upon you, you alone, to paint, as u plait.
And den de gals r gone.
Click here to watch the video
PS: Click here for a review and video of BABYMETAL's Gimme Chocolate
This live show has such a dramatic start -- such a rousing out-of-this-world tune, such a roar from an enraptured fandom -- that it pushes aside all ideas of counter-resistance. We know we're on to a good thing. And it's good, truly. And it's monumental. And we don't want this road, long as it is, to come to an end. Yet it surely will.
The BABYMETAL gals -- resplendent in rich red and black, bathed in foggy light, doll-like -- do know a thing or 2, of course, about conserving some energy in the middle of this charmed/contested road, power to the swayed audience thusly 2 chip in with quality, with "necessary", with qualified noise. So they do. And so they do.
When that's done with, as time flies, we're left with the 1 assured 'tin': the dolls's 'armed' return to the magical middle of the road, the middle of the magical road -- the Road of Resistance -- for a final full-blast of a push. Final full-throttle of 'clanging' steel n imagined brass pieces, strumming of string arrays, throbbing of taut animal skin at the center of a collective beat, flare of 'atomic' fireballs, and a summing-up spirit-chant of driven, irrepressible babes.
And then, we knew from the start that something like this would/should happen at the end, a measured fade-away into that space that joins together -- in the mind and on our blessed and 'hard-nosed' blue marble -- the imaginary, red-all-over asphalt and a sky whose color, behind all that vapor of delight, it's upon you, you alone, to paint, as u plait.
And den de gals r gone.
Click here to watch the video
PS: Click here for a review and video of BABYMETAL's Gimme Chocolate
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Africa's 25 Happiest Songs of 2014 ~ #TheYamboSelection
"O Happiness! What's one to make of ya!" ~ MY
I. INTRODUCTION:
Happiness is a state of mind, a feeling - with feelers to the 'outside'. Outside becomes what things we allow it to become, and what things we have no control over and so impose themselves.
Happiness and Love? They are twins. Twins, which, sometimes, alas, we find in mortal combat.
Good music!
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino utters these immortal words: "If music be the food of life, play on; / Give me excess of it ..." I just want to endorse that here. If good music be, let it be. Give me more, is all!
Good music is at once a convergence of happiness - happy feelings - and its source. Happy songs make people happy, happy people arguably happier, and less sad sad people - and even, perhaps, happy; if they're not too deep into their own sadness. They breed happiness through the joyfulness of the words in the song and the soulfulness of the song in the words, the melody in the tunes, the liveliness of the body-language and suppleness of the assembled 'bodies', the harmony of the charged instruments, the pulsating visuals of the video, and the warmth of the stage upon which everything, and everything else, is set.
There is magic in the happy song, then. The song that makes people happy has magical power over 'em. So, oh my goodness, does the song that makes people truly sad.
There are times, if I may digress, that I have thought (sensed would be too strong a word) that truly throbbing drumbeat among the prayerful carries within it the voice of God in its surreal, surround beat, as it's heard among the gathered, and as it cascades across the land - and even among the landless and the faithless.
So good music, howsoever it is delivered, has the powers -- howsoever we c these powers. But, I ask:
Why is it that music videos that elicit the most happiness seem generally to have a street motif?
II. MEASURING HAPPINESS:
Can happiness be measured? That's a question for another day.
BUT READ THIS IN THE MEANTIME: World Happiness Report 2015
DO ALSO READ: "The Happiness Contagion" that I posted on December 9, 2008
III. HERE, THEN, IS THE 2014 YAMBO SELECTION:
[For the selection and ranking criteria used in creating this list, go to the bottom of this post]
1. Dorobucci by Mavin Don Jazzy, Reekado Banks, Dr. Sid, Korede Bello, Tiwa Savage ... (2014):
Dorobucci was voted Africa's best single of the year (2014) earlier this year at the MTVMAMA2015. This is a verdict that I, having myself already arrived at it before MTVMAMA2015, fully endorse. All of Africa does. It is for me also the happiest song of 2014.
2 Tchelete by Davido and Mafikizolo ft. Uhuru and Oskido (2014):
Davido and Mafikizolo? A super-charged duo delivers a song made in musical heaven. davido also scored big at the MTVMAMA2015.
3. Ole Themba by Linah (2014):
Linah delivers a wonderfully, delightfully charming bouquet of colors and sound. And beauty. And verve. The dancing girls are a feast for the eye. The lyrics, in Kiswahili, are superbly, artfully, put together. The melody -- the whole ambience -- transports us, all of us, to a place no one wants to come back from in a hurry.
Linah is a pleasantly surprising 'discovery', and a full member of the superstar group that populates this Yambo Selection 2014. She brings along with her everyone, everyone bar none, in the video.
4. Skelemba by Olamide ft Don Jazzy (2014):
Skelemba represents a winning combination of two greats. It's a song full of melody and enigmatic charm. Self-assured. True harmony of sound and color.
5. Double Wahala Part 2 by Oristefemi ft. D'banj (2014):
Truly animated duo. Electric performance. Happiness itself. D'Banj needs no help to stay on top. Among our musical elite, Oritse Femi is to me the greatest purveyor of happiness across Africa. He certainly was in 2014. Due rewards will surely come.
6. Fiko Fiko Fion by Claudia Bakisa ft. Koffi Olomide (2014):
All laid back, two great sophisticates join to drop a lovely track: Fiki Fiko Fion. Koffi Olomide reigns still, an unobtrusive monarch. Claudia Bakisa patiently waits, with pent-up energy, for Africa's playing field to level.
7. Taste The Money by PSquare (2014):
PSquare are the crown princes of African entertainment
8. Chop Am by Reekado Banks (2014):
Reekado Banks can always be counted upon to deliver quality and refinement
9. Awelewa Most Beautiful, Gabriel Afolayan (2014):
Wraps you up in good feelings
10. Oshe by Praiz and Awilo Longomba (2014):
Truly happy to have Longomba here
11. All Eyes on Me by AKA, Bourna .... Boy (2014):
Lovely ambience. AKA and Bourna Boy outperform here. What a great voice BB has!
12. Be Happy By Eddy Kenzo (2014):
Eddy Kenzo fully merits inclusion here
13. Johnny by Yemi Alade (2014):
Johnny has a throbbing sort of magic on all who hear it. Yemi Alade is Africa's Queen Diva.
14. Sura Yako by Sauti Sol (2014):
Sura Yako has become the 'anthem' song at weddings these days, certainly in Nairobi. Sauti Sol are Kenya's leading artiste group today.
15. Caracara by KO Kid ft X (2014):
Youthful charm is what I see here. Calm and collected.
16. Prokoto by Victoria Kimani ft Ommy Dimploz and Diamond Platnumz (2014):
VK's a Kenyan gal who's already going places, as you can see from her two friends, OD & DP
17. KooKoo by Elani (2014):
Happy to have Elani's wonderful voice featured here, singing KooKoo for all to hear.
18. Ungowami by Uhuru ft Wizkid, Donald and Speedy (2014):
Ungowami is a lovely song, sung passionately by two of Africa's greats (Uhuru and Wizkid), and their two friends (Donald and Speedy). It fully belongs in this list
19. Lemi Lere by Moelogo ft. Oritse Femi (2014):
A cheeky performance that I like a lot, except for one uncalled-for moment of foolishness.
20. Koze Kuse by DJ Merlon ft Mondli Ngcobo (2014):
A refreshing urban walk-about, this. This example of the street motif tweaks the fun out of day-to-day life.
21. Wale Wale by Jose Chameleone (2014):
Jose Chameleone is a sun-shiny sort of guy. Solar-powered.
22. Dabby Gololi by Emma Jalamo (2014):
Emma Jalamo is a snake-charmer, for sure. Be careful he doesn't snatch your gal for the Show.
23. Face a Face by Mani Brlla (2014):
Mani Brila is irrepressible, resourceful.
24. Bakule by Cabo Snoop (2014):
Remember Cabo Snoop from Big Brother? Still tantalizing, after these several years.
READ: Mpho Lehlongwe (2015) "Re-introducing Cabo Snoop"
25. Nikikutazama by H_ART THE BAND (2014):
Nikikutazama, a Kiswahili phrase for "when I look at you", has an undeniable happiness-inducing beat about it. The artistes, likewise, have a happy, calm and collected, comedic mien. Truly infectious.
A few months ago I was at a wedding in Nairobi where the chorus of this anthem of a song was cheerfully and naughtily 'misread' by the MC, a well-known comedian, as "O Aoko O, O Aokoo..." Aoko, it so happens, is a girl's name. It means, as I reckon, "Girl from the Outside". And on that fine (sunny, sunny) Saturday aft it was promptly added to the bride's name -- a Samburu beauty (with a name that seems to trace back to the era of the pyramids) getting married to a fine Luo boy.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++
SPECIAL MENTIONS (Pre-2014 Hits)
Here are three pre-2014 tracks I couldn't resist giving special mention:
1. Nek-Unek by MC Galaxy ft. Davido (2013):
NeK-Unek is highly infectious, be warned.
2. Khona by Mafikizolo ft Uhuru (2013):
This is a radiant, happy song. Explosive
2. Oyi Remix by Mr. Flavour and Tiwa Savage (2012):
Image of a pair breathlessly in love - to the last breath, Even!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++
IV. SELECTION/INCLUSION CRITERIA:
To Qualify for inclusion in this list, a song Was required to meet The Following criteria:
1. Released as music video in 2014. Broadly in any of these genres: Pop, RnB, Hip-Hop, Reggae
2 Available via YouTube or Otherwise available online
3. Predominantly sung by an artiste or artistes from Africa, PARTICULARLY Sub-Saharan Africa
4. Regularly played on one or more of Africa's leading music channels: Afro Pop and HipTV Music, in particular (they pay sustained attention to their African audience); Sound City, MTV Base and Trace Urban (all three of whose fare is significantly more diffuse).
5. Have a discernible "happiness" (or sunny) content/slant in terms of the following mix of considerations: beat, language (verbal or body), lyrics, melody, visuals (dance routines, 'stage sets' and video quality), voice (and audio quality) and use of vocal and technical instruments
6. Broad sensitivity to sub-regional tastes and artists' bases of operation (East, West, Central or Southern)
7. Gender: Minimum of 1/3 Rule, if short-listed songs make this possible.
V. RANKING CRITERION FOR INDIVIDUAL SELECTIONS:
1. How does Yambo rate the song relative to the other 24?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A call for comments: Your comments on individual selections and ranking criterion will be highly appreciated.
Note: I can imagine a future in which all I have tried to do here is open to public participation.
I. INTRODUCTION:
Happiness is a state of mind, a feeling - with feelers to the 'outside'. Outside becomes what things we allow it to become, and what things we have no control over and so impose themselves.
Happiness and Love? They are twins. Twins, which, sometimes, alas, we find in mortal combat.
Good music!
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino utters these immortal words: "If music be the food of life, play on; / Give me excess of it ..." I just want to endorse that here. If good music be, let it be. Give me more, is all!
Good music is at once a convergence of happiness - happy feelings - and its source. Happy songs make people happy, happy people arguably happier, and less sad sad people - and even, perhaps, happy; if they're not too deep into their own sadness. They breed happiness through the joyfulness of the words in the song and the soulfulness of the song in the words, the melody in the tunes, the liveliness of the body-language and suppleness of the assembled 'bodies', the harmony of the charged instruments, the pulsating visuals of the video, and the warmth of the stage upon which everything, and everything else, is set.
There is magic in the happy song, then. The song that makes people happy has magical power over 'em. So, oh my goodness, does the song that makes people truly sad.
There are times, if I may digress, that I have thought (sensed would be too strong a word) that truly throbbing drumbeat among the prayerful carries within it the voice of God in its surreal, surround beat, as it's heard among the gathered, and as it cascades across the land - and even among the landless and the faithless.
So good music, howsoever it is delivered, has the powers -- howsoever we c these powers. But, I ask:
Why is it that music videos that elicit the most happiness seem generally to have a street motif?
II. MEASURING HAPPINESS:
Can happiness be measured? That's a question for another day.
BUT READ THIS IN THE MEANTIME: World Happiness Report 2015
DO ALSO READ: "The Happiness Contagion" that I posted on December 9, 2008
III. HERE, THEN, IS THE 2014 YAMBO SELECTION:
[For the selection and ranking criteria used in creating this list, go to the bottom of this post]
1. Dorobucci by Mavin Don Jazzy, Reekado Banks, Dr. Sid, Korede Bello, Tiwa Savage ... (2014):
Dorobucci was voted Africa's best single of the year (2014) earlier this year at the MTVMAMA2015. This is a verdict that I, having myself already arrived at it before MTVMAMA2015, fully endorse. All of Africa does. It is for me also the happiest song of 2014.
2 Tchelete by Davido and Mafikizolo ft. Uhuru and Oskido (2014):
Davido and Mafikizolo? A super-charged duo delivers a song made in musical heaven. davido also scored big at the MTVMAMA2015.
3. Ole Themba by Linah (2014):
Linah delivers a wonderfully, delightfully charming bouquet of colors and sound. And beauty. And verve. The dancing girls are a feast for the eye. The lyrics, in Kiswahili, are superbly, artfully, put together. The melody -- the whole ambience -- transports us, all of us, to a place no one wants to come back from in a hurry.
Linah is a pleasantly surprising 'discovery', and a full member of the superstar group that populates this Yambo Selection 2014. She brings along with her everyone, everyone bar none, in the video.
4. Skelemba by Olamide ft Don Jazzy (2014):
Skelemba represents a winning combination of two greats. It's a song full of melody and enigmatic charm. Self-assured. True harmony of sound and color.
5. Double Wahala Part 2 by Oristefemi ft. D'banj (2014):
Truly animated duo. Electric performance. Happiness itself. D'Banj needs no help to stay on top. Among our musical elite, Oritse Femi is to me the greatest purveyor of happiness across Africa. He certainly was in 2014. Due rewards will surely come.
6. Fiko Fiko Fion by Claudia Bakisa ft. Koffi Olomide (2014):
All laid back, two great sophisticates join to drop a lovely track: Fiki Fiko Fion. Koffi Olomide reigns still, an unobtrusive monarch. Claudia Bakisa patiently waits, with pent-up energy, for Africa's playing field to level.
7. Taste The Money by PSquare (2014):
PSquare are the crown princes of African entertainment
8. Chop Am by Reekado Banks (2014):
Reekado Banks can always be counted upon to deliver quality and refinement
Wraps you up in good feelings
10. Oshe by Praiz and Awilo Longomba (2014):
Truly happy to have Longomba here
11. All Eyes on Me by AKA, Bourna .... Boy (2014):
Lovely ambience. AKA and Bourna Boy outperform here. What a great voice BB has!
12. Be Happy By Eddy Kenzo (2014):
Eddy Kenzo fully merits inclusion here
13. Johnny by Yemi Alade (2014):
Johnny has a throbbing sort of magic on all who hear it. Yemi Alade is Africa's Queen Diva.
14. Sura Yako by Sauti Sol (2014):
Sura Yako has become the 'anthem' song at weddings these days, certainly in Nairobi. Sauti Sol are Kenya's leading artiste group today.
15. Caracara by KO Kid ft X (2014):
Youthful charm is what I see here. Calm and collected.
16. Prokoto by Victoria Kimani ft Ommy Dimploz and Diamond Platnumz (2014):
VK's a Kenyan gal who's already going places, as you can see from her two friends, OD & DP
Happy to have Elani's wonderful voice featured here, singing KooKoo for all to hear.
18. Ungowami by Uhuru ft Wizkid, Donald and Speedy (2014):
Ungowami is a lovely song, sung passionately by two of Africa's greats (Uhuru and Wizkid), and their two friends (Donald and Speedy). It fully belongs in this list
19. Lemi Lere by Moelogo ft. Oritse Femi (2014):
A cheeky performance that I like a lot, except for one uncalled-for moment of foolishness.
20. Koze Kuse by DJ Merlon ft Mondli Ngcobo (2014):
A refreshing urban walk-about, this. This example of the street motif tweaks the fun out of day-to-day life.
21. Wale Wale by Jose Chameleone (2014):
Jose Chameleone is a sun-shiny sort of guy. Solar-powered.
22. Dabby Gololi by Emma Jalamo (2014):
Emma Jalamo is a snake-charmer, for sure. Be careful he doesn't snatch your gal for the Show.
23. Face a Face by Mani Brlla (2014):
Mani Brila is irrepressible, resourceful.
24. Bakule by Cabo Snoop (2014):
Remember Cabo Snoop from Big Brother? Still tantalizing, after these several years.
READ: Mpho Lehlongwe (2015) "Re-introducing Cabo Snoop"
25. Nikikutazama by H_ART THE BAND (2014):
Nikikutazama, a Kiswahili phrase for "when I look at you", has an undeniable happiness-inducing beat about it. The artistes, likewise, have a happy, calm and collected, comedic mien. Truly infectious.
A few months ago I was at a wedding in Nairobi where the chorus of this anthem of a song was cheerfully and naughtily 'misread' by the MC, a well-known comedian, as "O Aoko O, O Aokoo..." Aoko, it so happens, is a girl's name. It means, as I reckon, "Girl from the Outside". And on that fine (sunny, sunny) Saturday aft it was promptly added to the bride's name -- a Samburu beauty (with a name that seems to trace back to the era of the pyramids) getting married to a fine Luo boy.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++
SPECIAL MENTIONS (Pre-2014 Hits)
Here are three pre-2014 tracks I couldn't resist giving special mention:
1. Nek-Unek by MC Galaxy ft. Davido (2013):
NeK-Unek is highly infectious, be warned.
This is a radiant, happy song. Explosive
2. Oyi Remix by Mr. Flavour and Tiwa Savage (2012):
Image of a pair breathlessly in love - to the last breath, Even!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++
IV. SELECTION/INCLUSION CRITERIA:
To Qualify for inclusion in this list, a song Was required to meet The Following criteria:
1. Released as music video in 2014. Broadly in any of these genres: Pop, RnB, Hip-Hop, Reggae
2 Available via YouTube or Otherwise available online
3. Predominantly sung by an artiste or artistes from Africa, PARTICULARLY Sub-Saharan Africa
4. Regularly played on one or more of Africa's leading music channels: Afro Pop and HipTV Music, in particular (they pay sustained attention to their African audience); Sound City, MTV Base and Trace Urban (all three of whose fare is significantly more diffuse).
5. Have a discernible "happiness" (or sunny) content/slant in terms of the following mix of considerations: beat, language (verbal or body), lyrics, melody, visuals (dance routines, 'stage sets' and video quality), voice (and audio quality) and use of vocal and technical instruments
6. Broad sensitivity to sub-regional tastes and artists' bases of operation (East, West, Central or Southern)
7. Gender: Minimum of 1/3 Rule, if short-listed songs make this possible.
V. RANKING CRITERION FOR INDIVIDUAL SELECTIONS:
1. How does Yambo rate the song relative to the other 24?
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A call for comments: Your comments on individual selections and ranking criterion will be highly appreciated.
Note: I can imagine a future in which all I have tried to do here is open to public participation.
Heavy Metal Music (Japan): BABYMETAL's Gimme Chocolate
BACKGROUND READ: BABYMETAL: Japan's Way of Redefining Heavy Metal Music
READ (1): The Pros and Cons of Hip Hop vs. Heavy Metal
READ (2): Comparison Essay -- Heavy Metal vs. Hip Hop
BABYMETAL is the source of such a voice, happy to say -- though I heard of it, then heard it, for the first time, as far as I can remember, only today (less than three hours ago), via a tweet (from @Japan_Info_ ).
A trio of young female singers from Japan, BABYMETAL is making intriguing heavy-metal waves in parts of the world. As a generic thing, heavy metal never ceases to intrigue, of course. It's so much a part of modernity's DNA, post the Stone Age. Both of which we own,
There's a soft side to BABYMETAL, is what I see in Gimme Chocolate. And I don't think the girls would like to be seen, to be read, as too hard -- hard as they're, p'raps, trying. Chocolate is dark, smooth and to be savored -- with a cool and deliberate and wait-a-minute demeanor. A spin-and-blend of metaphors, then.
So, what exactly do we have here, in Gimme Chocolate? Why is Yambo interested? Yambo is, of course, always interested in sound and doubly/trebly moving things. More? Simply this: The video starts with a very African flourish. I like that. And it's playful (that, too), which shouldn't faze any adults in the room (Loom?). The sounds are well-controlled. The lights. The colors. All rich, all good in their colorful Ness. All (en)chanting. I didn't want to say magical.
The crowd's fully engaged and having a gud, gud tyme. Here, somewhere, a little touch of Jimi Hendrix's inimitable stringplay. There, everywhere: good afternoon (ph)un. Night fun. Morning fun. All depending on your GMT longitude.
It all ends with a true, uplifting, crowd-sourced cheer! And so cheerio.
PS: Click here for a review and video of BABYMETAL's Road of Resistance
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