Berlin label give a second life to rare Somalian funk and disco tracks on ‘Mogadisco – Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991)’
Label creator Samy Ben Redjeb travelled to the infamous capital city of Somalia in November of 2016, making Analog Africa the first music label to set foot in Mogadishu. They discovered an uncovered and unmarked pile of discarded recordings in a cluttered corner of the building of Radio Mogadishu.
The pile turned out to be a cornucopia of different sounds: radio jingles, background music and television shows, but there were also a good number of disco tunes. Some had been stripped of their lyrics, the interesting parts had been recorded multiple times then cut, taped together and spliced into a long groovy instrumental loop.
Mogadisco was not Analog Africa’s easiest project. Tracking down the musicians – often in exile in the diaspora – to interview them and gather anecdotes of golden-era Mogadishu has been an undertaking that took three years. As Colonel Abshir Hashi Ali, chief don at the Radio Mogadishu archive put in: ‘I have dedicated my life to this place. I’m doing this so it can get to the next generation; so that the culture, the heritage and the songs of Somalia don’t disappear.’
Mogadisco – Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991), out December 13th via Analog Africa. Find below the album cover art and pre-order it now.
