The mystical leprechauns over at Atlanta’s Dust-to Digital have followed the world music rainbow to yet another pot of undiscovered tune-gold. This time, the wise record geeks who brought you such drool-worthy compilations as I Belong to This Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings, Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva, and the just-released John Fahey collection are taking you on a time-traveling journey to all parts of Africa, where the discerning collector will come face to face with the 100 tracks of Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM. Over the course of four CDs and a 112-page book, fans will travel with LA-based compiler/writer/researcher/collector Jonathan Ward across the entire continent and several decades.
Opika Pende (which means, variously, “be strong,” “stand firm,” and “resist” in the Lingala language of Central Africa) starts off in Egypt and ends in South Africa. The collection includes traditional music and popular jams, all of it never before available on CD. For, as you can guess from the name of the collection, 78s were the preferred method of music listening in most of Africa till the mid-60s, when most of the population still used hand-cranked gramophones. Opika includes songs from 1909 all the way to the mid-60s and, and it’s available now from the Dust-to-Digital website, where you can also see the full tracklist (with language/country specified when possible).
• Dust-to-Digital: http://dust-digital.com
[Photo: The Wire]
