Pop Matters
Monday September 17, 2018
By Adriane Pontecorvo
It's hard to imagine that, not so long ago, Dur-Dur Band was almost
lost to the broader musical world, obscured by time and Somali political
upheaval. Ever since Awesome Tapes from Africa reissued the 1987
cassette Volume 5 back in 2013, the band has become a staple
for any collector of vintage African music. Now, Analog Africa returns
with 18 more tracks from the legendary 1980s group on the heftily named Dur-Dur of Somalia: Volume 1, Volume 2 and Previously Unreleased Tracks.
Of varying technical quality, the recordings are invariably full of
what makes Dur-Dur Band so captivating even decades after their initial
rise to fame in Mogadishu: entrancing funk, disco beats, and East
African melody.
Somalia, the tip and southern border of the Horn
of Africa, wraps around Ethiopia, a nation that has long been seen as
the world music jewel of East Africa. Though Ethiopia bears the
distinction of having never been colonized by the European groups that
ripped apart the rest of the continent, including its eastern neighbor,
Somali popular music also has certain aesthetic features that mark it as
East African. The modes and brass here will strike a literal chord with
fans of classic Ethio-jazz, while hypnotic choruses recall any number
of trance-like traditions, especially those found along the Nile.
Dur-Dur Band was, in fact, almost blackballed from the Somali music
scene for focusing on those sounds less meant for a global market -
which is where the disco comes in.
Dur-Dur Band is often specifically marketed as retro Somali disco,
especially in retrospect. Certainly, the repetition lends itself well to
the unstoppable quality of disco, as do the horns and synths that make
up the bulk of Dur-Dur's sound. The production values, though, make the
Dur-Dur sound stripped-down by necessity. The group's straight reggae
jam "Diinleeya" embraces this with slow and open textures, while "Caashaqa Maxaa Il Baray"
compensates with singer Sahra Abukar Dawo's voice in full melismatic
force over psychedelic electric guitar. Never does the group sound like a
thin take on their more orchestral disco influences; to the contrary,
differences in resources force the group to make something entirely
unique, a style that is funk, is jazz, is Somali, is global - and is
sometimes none of those things, but is surely infectious.Between the tracks of Volume 1 and Volume 2 are the two previously unreleased tracks, which could hardly be more different from each other as samples of Dur-Dur's music. "Salkudhigey"
is fast music for sweaty dance floors, rising vocals soft over a genius
guitar ostinato and staccato trumpets. On the other side of the Dur-Dur
spectrum, "Haddi Aanan Gacaloy" has soulful organs and reggae backbeats, a sweetly-crooned jam for a distant VIP lounge. They are fantastic finds, no question.
A detailed booklet tells the abbreviated tale of Dur-Dur Band's rise
from radio-run singing competition winners to superstardom, and it makes
for an enlightening read. The narrator of the story is lead singer
Shimaali Ahmed Shimaali - another good move on the part of Analog
Africa, a label that, unlike many, typically makes at least an effort to
get the original artists of a reissue involved. It also includes the
thrilling tale of label founder Samy Ben Redjeb's "discovery" of Dur-Dur
in 2007 and his death-defying ventures into Somalia - and these come
across as a little unnecessary and perhaps even inappropriate next to
the actual story of a singer who had to flee his own country and risk
musical obscurity. On the whole, though, Dur-Dur Band continues to be
one of the most transfixing East African pop groups of the 1980s, and
this release is a stellar collection of even more gems.