the musical selection from “World Africa” #211

Every Friday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. This week, make way for unclassifiable pieces that fuse genres and geographies, between Egyptian mahraganat, North African trance and Sudanese pop.

“Rare Baby”, by Cookie

“The spirit of Kill Bill transported into an Egyptian scenario. » This is how the clip of Rare Baby, a piece released at the end of November as a prelude to a future Kukii EP planned for February. Behind this pseudonym hides Yasmine Dubois, known until now under the name “Lafawndah”, an identity under which she has published several experimental pop projects since 2014. French artist of Egyptian origin (among others), it is the favor of a return to Cairo that she has undergone her transformation, delivering here a supercharged mixture of devastating percussions and hypnotic arghoul which is reminiscent of the energy overflowing with the mahraganate, this genre so popular with Egyptians but repressed by the authorities.

« Promises », d’Al Qasar (feat. Mamani Keïta & Cheik Tidiane Seck)

Energy is also on the menuUndercover, the new album from the international collective Al-Qasar, released at the end of November. It includes seven tracks (including four covers, notably by Sean Paul and Depeche Mode) which fuse Middle Eastern groove, American psychedelia and North African trance. To do this, Thomas Attar, the leader of the group, invited several African artists. On the title Promises, it is the Malian singer Mamani Keïta and her compatriot Cheik Tidiane Seck (keyboards and choirs) who blend into a heady electric magma, while we also find the oudist Nada Mahmoud and the singer Mariam Hamrouni (Tunisia), but also Sami Galbi (Morocco) and Alsarah (Sudan).

« Disco Star », d’Alsarah & The Nubatones

It is this same Alsarah who, accompanied by her Nubatones, is preparing to publish the album Seasons of the Road, scheduled for February. The Brooklyn-based band brings together percussionist Rami El Aasser, oudist Brandon Terzic, bassist Mawuena Kodjovi and singer Nahid around the artist of Sudanese origin. It took five years to produce this opus, a period marked by a revolution followed by a civil war in Sudan – where the group went to shoot a music video – and by confinements linked to Covid-19. Disco Star, a first extract from this “East African retro-pop” Who “evokes the dark tunnels we pass through while waiting for a dream to blossom”, is already available.