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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Manteca CD Sampler 2002 (Manteca)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
World music label Manteca's 2002 sampler has one strike against it in that it could and should have been packed with more than 8 tracks and 49 minutes. This is a label with a great deal to offer, and samplers are supposed to be showcases. Labels, pack your samplers!
That being said, let's get to the quality of this music, which, of course, reflects on the quality of Manteca Records. These are most definitely quality tracks collected from various important albums of the past several years. For a few of them, Manteca goes way back into the 70s.
Africando are a group mixing New York instrumentals and Senegalese vocalists who sing in many dialects. Tierra Tradicional was recorded in 1994, as far as I know, and I've been unable to find mention of a 2002 update, so this may be from a compilation. No matter, if you haven't already got it, you need it. It has a minimalist approach to the Latin music beneath the vocals, save for very bright trumpets, and it's one of those tunes that gets you dancing involuntarily. I only speak English (and I'm barely fluent in that), so I'm not certain about this, but I think they change between two African dialects on this one. Things get faster and funkier for Manu Dibango's "Big Blow." The Cameroon sax star, who once played with the great Fela Kuti and obviously came away the better for it, recorded this tune in 1978 for his Afrovision album. This may be your first exposure to Dibango, and if that's the case I suspect you're going to be off searching for more of his work. Hint: If you see a card in the CD bin that says "African Jazz," check, because he led a band by that name, and many people miss it thinking it's a genre-name card.
Another standout track is by the Congo's "Sorcerer Of Guitar," Franco. The man most often cited as the architect of soukous music recorded "Attention na SIDA," a typically up tempo song with a strong warning about AIDS, shortly before dying of the disease himself in 1989. He's little known outside Africa and Europe, and this one song should be enough to send many of you into your Franco collecting periods. Also, if you've yet to discover soukous music, here ya go. Get it from the master, then fan out (and I recommend looking into Loketo while you're out there). After four tracks of African music, Netzer takes the CD in a completely unexpected direction. The German trio of Markus Birkle (guitar), Markus Kossler (bass) and Oli Rubow (drums) offer up a beautiful acoustic jazz piece called "El Copito (Yorulamenta!)" that may seem out of place until the next track takes things further afield. That would be "Kirwani," courtesy of Jolly Mukherjee with the Madras Cinematic Orchestra, a chill out track from Bombay.
Wha?
See, it's only an 8-song sampler, but you do sample. Festivities close with "Crazy Horse," a 1996 track from the only release by the native American group, Clan/Destine. A traditional native drum beat, bells, calls and chants are set against less primal acoustic guitars and synths. I'd never heard this before, but I think I'd love to hear a remix without all the modern gloss. Still, it's a nice addition to the diversity of this sampler, which I recommend for anyone interested in these styles of music, as well as anyone who wants to discover a label that seems to have an interesting licensing deal.
Track List:
Tierra Tradicional (Africando) * Big Blow (Manu Dibango) * Attention Na Sida (Franco) * Mbatu Mbtau (Symbiose) * El Copito (Yorulamenta!) (Netzer) * Kirwani (Jolly Mukherjee with the Madras Cinematic Orchestra) * Nsalfik (Cheb Sahraoui with Fadela) Crazy Horse (Clan/Destine)
© 2002 - DJ Johnson