
Uncovering Somalia's forgotten music of the 1970s - miraj
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/07/uncovering-somalia-forgotten-music-1970s-170704123301195.html
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dfps
Cool share. If anyone has more links to these songs, plz share here. The
article just has one.

EDIT. Actually, the Soundcloud its from has a ton:
[https://soundcloud.com/ostinatorecords](https://soundcloud.com/ostinatorecords)

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javiramos
Beautiful music! It would be wonderful to have a website where you could
choose a region or a country, a time period, and it automatically generates a
relevant playlist.

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Itaxpica
There's a site called Radiooooo that does pretty much exactly that.

[http://www.radiooooo.com](http://www.radiooooo.com)

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ZenoArrow
Looks promising, doesn't work for me on mobile but I'll check out the desktop
version later. Thanks for the link.

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nurg91
I've received my copy of the CD a couple of days ago. Great music and the back
story is incredible! According to the the liner notes this is the blog that
inspired the whole project: [http://tix-iyo-tiraab.blogspot.com](http://tix-
iyo-tiraab.blogspot.com)

It's a small blog full of awesome Somali music from the 1970s and 1980s.

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nurg91
The Wire has more tracks from the same release. All good, but who'd believe
that the last track by Waaberi Band is from Somalia of 1969!:
[https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-to-tracks-
from...](https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-to-tracks-from-a-new-
compilation-of-somali-music)

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WalterBright
A CD of this music on Amazon and you can listen to samples:

[https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-As-Broken-Dates-
Somali/dp/B073M...](https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-As-Broken-Dates-
Somali/dp/B073MDHRZW)

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abrowne
You can listen to the whole thing — and buy it in lossless format — on
Bandcamp: [https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-as-
broken-d...](https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-as-broken-dates-
lost-somali-tapes-from-the-horn-of-africa)

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blacksmith_tb
Happily listening to the FLACs now - though given that the tracks were
recovered from old cassettes (and recorded on fairly limited rigs in the first
place) I am not sure they really need to be in a lossless format...

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alanlammiman
I personally know vik, knew of the project, and so was so excited to see this
article here by coincidence. He's personally investing great effort to rescue
music that otherwise wouldnt be heard. Super recommend his other albums (one
is like a Haitian Buena Vista).

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jjcm
Tangentially related, but it really makes me sad that what.cd died. It was a
haven for these types of obscure music collections, tens of thousands of
albums worth that simply aren't available via streaming services. I hope some
sort of service finds a way to operate legally while still rewarding rarity
like what did, otherwise more things like this will just be lost to the sands
of time.

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etplayer
Between Discogs and RateYourMusic there are plenty of rare albums there, with
track listings etc. but there's stuff that I find which isn't on either of
them, and I wonder what I could have found on what.cd, if I had an account,
and indeed downloaded beacuse many of these obscure albums were limited
release or completely out of print for a decade or more.

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tomcam
What a find. Thank you.

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KGIII
Indeed.

If I may?

Somalia is a beautiful country. I've been twice, the second time was when I
was able to spend six months.

While I didn't go to an music venues, there was still a great deal of music.
Yes, people sing and dance - even when they are oppressed. I was last there to
hand out aid and it was beautiful to see how people with so little, to the
point of requiring aid, were still so generous.

What irks me is the people who try to claim that Somalia is a land without
government. No, they have lots of government. People just don't recognize this
and they are illegitimate. You may know them by another name, warlords.

These fiefdoms have everything from taxation to laws, to paperwork and
permits, and more. They are very much a governed people. In some areas, we
even needed permission from multiple groups in order to travel.

Anyhow, if you get the chance, go. Before I went, I got a phone call from some
guy who worked for the State Department. They used some choice words to tell
me that my government would be unable to help should something go wrong. Yeah,
it's a dangerous place but it was worth the risks. It really is a beautiful
place that is full of (mostly) wonderful people.

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slazaro
Small question. The call you got, was it from the State Department of your
country or from Somalia?

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KGIII
My country. It was from the US State Dept. They wanted me to come in and talk
to them, after I'd asserted that I was still going. I didn't. The guy on the
phone got unreasonably angry with me. I'd no intentions to ask for government
help, regardless of outcome. I was quite willing to accept any/all risks.

