Mississippi US レコード& CD

Review: Mississippi have unearthed a lost classic from what is widely considered Ethiopia's 'golden age' of music before an authoritarian crackdown on arts and culture in the 70s. Aselefech Ashine and Getenesh Kebret perform a captivating duet over the distinctive sound of Ethic jazz - fans of Mulatu Astatke will instantly find themselves on familiar ground here, but it's the singers' voices which truly shine. While Beauties was a hit upon release, it was soon quashed by the Derg regime, and has since been out of print. It's been carefully remastered and presented with its stunning artwork intact - a true gem for anyone enthralled with the unique sound incubated in Ethiopia in the mid-20th Century.

Review: Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff is a drum collective from Dental that has been, nay all accounts, tearing up their local nightlife scene in Dakar. An array of 14 different percussive instruments plus horns, winds, balafon and accordion all back the Senegalese poet Djiby Ly as they coo up spiritually infused polyrhythms, the energy of Fela's orchestras and the grooves of Tony Allen. Though steeped in ancient rituals and tradition, there is plenty modern thinking on display here in a collection of vital, exciting music that is very much alive with purpose as well as groove.

Review: Souvenirs is the first vocal album from Ethiopian nun, composer and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru. It was recorded between 1977 and 1985 in a lo-fi setup in her family home in Addis Ababa shortly before she was exiled to Jerusalem. Playing the piano and singing through a boom box, Gebru captured the solemn mood of the time as she faced the prospect of leaving her homeland to escape the upheaval brought about the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia. Her playing fuses Western classical with Ethiopian traditional and Orthodox music, while her Amharic lyrics touch on the tumultuous situation she found herself in, in profoundly poetic ways. The accompanying 16-page booklet offers translations of these words, so the message can land for listeners beyond the powerful impact of the recordings themselves.

Review: The first vocal album by beloved Ethiopian nun, composer, and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Souvenirs is a profound and deeply moving home collection of cassette recordings made amidst political upheaval and turmoil. These are songs of wisdom, loss, mourning, and exile, sung directly into a boombox and accompanied by Emahoy's unmistakable piano. Though written and recorded while still living at her family's home in Addis Ababa, Emahoy sings of the heartache of leaving her beloved Ethiopia, a reflection on the 1974 revolution and ensuing Red Terror in her homeland, and a presentiment of her future exile in Jerusalem. Rich with the sound of birds outside the window, the creak of the piano bench, the thump of Emahoy's finger on the record button, they create a sense of place, of being near the artist while she records. Emahoy's lyrics, sung in Amharic, are poetic and heavy with the weight of exile; she dreamt of releasing this music to a larger audience before her passing in March of 2023, so in her honour, Mississippi present this album in collaboration with her family now, in what would have been her 100th year.

Review: Reissued in the aftermath of her passing away in 2023, Souvenirs is probably the best-known album by Ethiopian legend Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, whose morphing from nun to composer, pianist and vocalist tracks an exquisitely bleak but powerful history. The first album to feature her own voice, the album was written and recorded at her family home in Addis Ababa, and deals in personal themes of loss, homesickness and transience, reflecting on Emahoy's experiences of the turmoil of the 1976 Red Terror in Ethiopia, in which the provisional Derg military dictatorship violently suppressed the rise of other competing revolutionary militia groups, and in so doing caused mass upheavals and migrations. With lyrics sung in Amharic and overlaid against uniquely mournful DIY instrumentations, Mississippi's CD reissue reminds us of its heart-warmer status, betraying Emahoy's deep familial fidelity and integrity.

Review: It's amazing to think the now-legendary Fred Cole and his Weeds comrades were forced to change their band name for fear of marijuana references. Rising to prominence in the mid-late-1960s, long before the main man would find himself on the honorary list of garage rock greats (not that this period didn't contribute to that), management and labels deemed it a much better idea to release his music under The Lollipop Shoppe, which is how Just Colour saw the light of day.
One quick listen proves how unsuitable that decision was, with the contents of this highly sought after boxset anything but the bubblegum those misguided but powerful minds wanted to cash in on. Presented with two reconfigured 7" singles alongside the full album - the idea being to give fans all the essential cuts in one - it's a stunning way to remember we should never, or rarely, listen to The Industry.