Sub Saharan Vibes — Sept. 25, 2023
- Nahawa Doumbia — Kanawa
- Amadou & Miriam — Sénégal Fast Food
- Hailu Mergia — Tezeta
- Miriam Makeba — Choo Choo Train (Shuku Shuku)
- Sorry Bamba — Yayoroba
- Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars — Living Like a Refugee
- M’Bamina – Mbongui
- Arya Starr — Rush
- Kokua Kanza — Mungu
- Lokua Kanza — Yoka
- Leon Keita — Diarabi Mana
- Cheikh Lo — M’Beddemi
- Sona Jobarteh — Fatafina
Playlist for Lost in the Stacks, Sept 15, 2023 (“Digital Instruction, Digital Learning”), Episode 573
Hear the show at https://traffic.libsyn.com/lostinthestacks/LITS_0915.mp3
“Warsaw” by Joy Division
Interview with Justin Ellis, Digital Learning and Instruction Librarian at Georgia Tech
File this set under SB453 .P6:
“Green Fingers” by Siouxsie and the Banshees
“Outdoor Miner” by Lush
Continued interview with Justin Ellis
File this set under Z104 .K76:
“Athol-Brose” by the Cocteau Twins
“Machine Gun” by Slowdive
Continued interview with Justin Ellis
File this set under LB1044.87 .I534:
“Soon” by My Bloody Valentine
“Black Planet” by Sisters of Mercy
continental drift 9/11/23 – cabo verde
Today, we’re switching back over to the Western hemisphere to talk about Cabo Verde! You can find the playlist here and listen back to the episode here.
The Republic of Cabo Verde is an island country off the west coast of Africa, consisting of a ten-island archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of almost 600 thousand, its population is 172nd in terms of size, but interestingly, far more Cabo Verdeans exist outside of Cabo Verde than in it. The official language of Cape Verde is Portuguese, though most Cape Verdeans additionally speak a Portuguese-based creole language which is actually significant from a linguistics standpoint as the oldest extant creole language.
The islands that make up Cabo Verde were actually completely uninhabited until the Portuguese set up shop on the island of Santiago in 1462. Eventually, as more Europeans started jumping on the transatlantic bandwagon, Cape Verde began to flourish economically, as their placement made them very useful for the slave trade. As tends to occur, the slave trade led to the fusion of European and African cultural elements, resulting in an emergent cultural identity that includes the music of today’s episode.
Funaná Segment
Bitori Nha Bininha // Bitori
Ká Bô Bem Dzoriental // Tchiss Lopes
Odio Sem Valor // Pedrinho
All 3 of the previous songs belong to a genre of music called funaná, which is very heavily associated with accordions that are usually accompanied rhythmically by an instrument called a ferrinho (literally, “little iron”), which is a metal bar that you can whack or scrape with another metal object. On top of that, though, it has a sort of characteristic rhythmic element to it. There’s multiple types of funaná, but the most popular type has a rhythmic setup that looks something like the picture below this paragraph:
A common funaná rhythm
All of this episode’s music genres have some kind of characteristic rhythm to them, as we’ll see the further we progress.
Batuque Segment
Dispidida // Mayra Andrade
Maria Julia // Gil Semedo
Batuque is characterized by a triple-meter rhythm that looks like this:
Batuque rhythm
Batuque encodes a 3:2 polyrhythm in the songs, either implicitly or explicitly, so there’ll be one percussion part keeping 3/4 time, and then either the rhythm of the song or a second percussion part will highlight a secondary rhythm that completes 2 evenly-spaced beats every time the main rhythm completes 3 evenly-spaced beats. The other Cabo Verdean genres don’t have this tendency, so it’s cool to see it arise somewhere!
Coladeira Segment
Tchapeu di padja // Simentera
Beju Cu Jetu // Rene Cabral
One of the more recent Cabo Verdean genres is coladeira, which tends to have a somewhat lively tempo and lyrics. Its rhythmic pattern can vary, but in general will tend to look like either of the following patterns:
Coladeira Rhythm 1
Coladeira Rhythm 2
Coladeira is unique among this episode’s genres because it actually gets its sound from a different Cabo Verdean genre known as morna.
Morna Segment
Petit pays // Cesaria Evora
Pontin Pontin // Bana
Both of the artists featured in this segment are well-known internationally; Cesaria Evora herself is the best-known Morna artist outside of Cabo Verde. Morna is like the “signature” music of Cabo Verde, simply because of how popular it and its performers are both inside and outside of the country. Morna tends to have a slow, somber feel, with wistful, emotionally heavy themes like love and longing and missing your home. Morna and coladeira are actually pretty similar rhythmically, it’s just that coladeira is played with a faster tempo.
Last Song Because I Wanted It But Couldn’t Easily Categorize It
Afeto // Mayra Andrade
And that’ll be the episode!
SASSAFRAS 08/10/23
Microswitch – Mandroid
Science – Bass Junkie
We Are in Control – Exzakt
Paranoid Protential – Transparent Sound
Fist of the North Star – Paul Blackford
Fantazy Bezerk – Luke Eargoggle
Keep Hanging – D.I.E.
Mxyzptik – Der Zyklus
Cerebral Cortex Malfunction – Transllusion
Lab Rat 1 – Lab Rat XL
Girl Rock 9/8/2023
Worship The Whip // Be Your Own Pet
On Hold // Rosie Ryden
Trampoline to Me // Kindsight
Nothing Left To Lose // Bleach Lab
i’m not crying you’re crying // Pinkshift
yellow is the color of her eyes // Soccer Mommy
Sappho // Frankie Cosmos
Why Am I Like This? // Orla Gartland
Dog Eat Dog // Tommy Lefroy
Empty Air // Valeria Stoica
confident // Her Skin
Swimming Pools // Francis On My Mind
Trouble in Mind // Larkin Poe
Whiskey Please // Whissell
Tennessee Rive Runs Low // The Secret Sisters
Pet Carrot // Palehound
House Song // Searows
Tell That Devil // Jill Andrews
