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NEW RELEASE OUT TODAY. SF124 The Handover Digital and pre-order LP Links in bio There is, and has been, a prevailing orthodoxy permeating the Egyptian musical hierarchy that would render this spectacular piece as scandalous. But let us remember that over the past 100 years, Said Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Halim El Dabh, Ahmad Adaweya, and the modern Mahraganat movement have all experienced their fair share of scandal and opposition. Music must always be pushed forward – it may not always succeed as revelatory, but in this particular case, it does. Much like the venerable magic carpet, the Handover slowly builds to escort you into its swirling, ascending expression of the psychedelic, eventually descending, step by step, back to earth, landing as a wondrous spaceship with wide open doors inviting us inside for repeat listening. Perhaps this should have been happening in Egyptian music 50 years ago but it's here right now, and that's what matters. We are often asked an impossible question to answer: "What constitutes a Sublime Frequencies release?" For the moment, we can point to this record as the answer to that question. - Alan Bishop/Sublime Frequencies (March 2024) #sublimefrequencies #egyptianmusic

Edited · 3w

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It is with tremendous sadness that we announce that Mamadou Sanou (Baba Commandant) passed away in his home town of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso yesterday. All we know at the moment is, a fatal bout of malaria was the reason.

I would like to thank everyone who was a part of this incredible tour in 2023 that we all helped to make such a success. Baba was truly beaming with joy from the love and hospitality that was afforded to all of us.

Sincerest condolences to his family, friends and all who had the honor of witnessing one of the greatest to ever do it!

A library has burned.

-HM

#baba commandant #sublime frequencies #african music #afropop #Mamadou Sanou #Instagram

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2023 Reissue now shipping!

#sublime frequencies #erkin koray #turkish psychedelic music #Bandcamp

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Sublime Frequencies Presents 20-Year Anniversary show with co-founders Hisham Mayet and Alan Bishop featuring Dwarfs of East Agouza (Egypt) and Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band (Burkina Faso)

Wednesday, Oct 18, 2023

at TV Eye, The Ballroom

Ridgewood, NY

Doors: 7:00PM | Show: 8:00PM

Event Location:

1647 Weirfield St, Ridgewood, NY

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, other forms of human and natural natural expression not documented sufficiently enough by various communication channels.

BABA COMMANDANT AND THE MANDINGO BAND

Burkina Faso has always marched to its own drummer. The small West African nation has sometimes been overshadowed by its more populous northern neighbor Mali, and was once the southeastern frontier of the sprawling medieval Malian Empire. This empire spanned 10 modern nations and dozens of ethnic groups, and was knit together by the Mandé or Mandinka language and cultural complex—a language of kings, scholars, and epic poetry still spoken today. But “The Land of Upright Men” is a cultural powerhouse in its own right, and few artists embody the creative, independent spirit of Burkina Faso as Baba Commandant & the Mandingo Band, a four-piece ensemble that reimagines ancient Mandé musical traditions for the 21st century.

The group is led by the charismatic, enigmatic singer Baba Commandant (aka, Mamadou Sanou), an activist for traditional Mandinka music who began his career as a dancer with the Koule Dafourou troupe, before making his mark as a singer—or shouter—with various local bands. Baba originally hails from Burkina Faso’s second city, Bobo-Dioulasso—a bustling railway town with deep Mandinka roots. There he grew up immersed in Mandé traditions, and attended initiation rites for the Donso hunter society, from whom Baba learned his signature instrument, the donso n’goni.

A traditional, six-stringed harp with a gourd resonator, the donso n’goni conjures up earthy tones that create hypnotic, trance-like patterns. The instrument’s name translates as “hunter’s harp” and originated among the Senufo hunters of Burkina Faso, one of the regional Donso hunter societies of Mandinka culture. These semi-secret fraternities are spread across the historic Wassoulou region of Mali, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso, and its members are highly respected as traditional healers, mystics, seers, and storytellers. The Donso accompany their storytelling and songs with the n’goni, preserving genealogies, proverbs, esoterica, and generational knowledge.

Today Baba Commandant & the Mandingo Band make their home in the capital, Ouagadougou, and are a fixture on the city’s burgeoning music scene. Their debut album, Juguya, caused a stir in 2015—winning critical acclaim for its unique fusion of traditional Burkinabé instruments; propulsive, Afrobeat-inspired horns; and raw guitar power that created an unstoppable groove. Their sound is anchored by Baba’s donso n’goniand gravelly vocals, as well as by the electric guitar heroics of Issouf Diabate, and a battery of traditional and modern percussion, including the balafon (the West African predecessor of the xylophone), which adds a piquant, rhythmic punch to so much Mandinka traditional and pop music.

Baba Commandant draws on his intimate knowledge of Donso traditions whenever he takes up his n’goni; alternately growling, whispering, and chanting his way through the group’s repertoire. Their sound has evolved over time, jettisoning the horns in favor of a tighter focus on the interplay between Diabate’s sparkling guitar and the n’goni’s gutbucket funk. The result is a leaner, meaner, four-piece touring outfit who are bringing their road-tested sound to North America for the first time in 2023.

DWARFS OF EAST AGOUZA

Dwarfs Of East Agouza are a leading force of improvised musical excitement and stand apart from wider parts of a post-punk underground scene that doesn’t fit neatly into any post-punk genre of the last twenty years. Founded in Cairo circa 2015 by Alan Bishop (ex-Sun City Girls and co-founder of Sublime Frequencies) with Sam Shalabi (Land Of Kush, Karkhana) and Maurice Louca (Karkhana) the trio developed a unique and always recognizable sound, but with many faces to show. The group started playing together in Cairo’s Agouza district in 2012 to explore hypnotic local traditions, as heard on their excellent debut album “Bes.” Improvisation on the highest level. Organic, never arty. On their latest recording, The Green Dogs of Dashur, the band breaks off all constraints and reveals a resolutely free album offering the listener variations of seductive melodies and unhinged improvised trance.

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#sublime frequencies #baba commandant #dwarfsofeastagouza

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Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band Mid-Tour -

#sublime frequencies #baba commandant #african music #ethnomusicology

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#sublime frequencies #asian music #bandcamp #thai music #thai pop #Bandcamp

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Sublime Frequencies is thrilled to announce the Baba Commandant and The Mandingo Band are returning to the USA after an absolutely legendary first American tour in the spring of 2023. A tour that has been hailed unanimously as “show of the year” by anyone who had the privilege to see any of the spring concerts.

Touring on the success of their latest LP -- Sonbonbela, the third LP released by Sublime Frequencies with the band, recorded in 2022 in the Republic of Burkina Faso. The group continue to hone their trademark fusion of Mandingue and afro-beat styles. The Mandingo Band are a hit machine, sculpting seven new tracks of near Beefheart/Magic Band dynamics, Fela inspired groovers dusted out in the Sahel zone, rather than the humidity and sweat of Lagos, creating one of the most original and propulsive musical statements to come from the contemporary West African cultural juggernaut. As with previous releases, the band features the legendary guitar pyrotechnics of Issouf Diabate, truly one of the greatest West African (or Earth for that matter) guitarists of the last forty years. The band is completed by a near bottomless barrel of artistry from the Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso musical talent pool. On bass guitar, Wendeyida Ouedraogo and on drums Abbas Kabore. Leading the charge again is the captain himself, Mamadou Sanou on the Doso Ngoni featuring one of the most distinctive voices of the modern era. The opposite of the banal trends of auto-tune that have pervaded most of West African popular music, Baba’s voice still impresses with its gravel and grit, showcasing a range that is ancient and defiant in equal measure. This LP and the power of the band’s live concerts showcase a non-stop hit parade of afro-beat bangers destined to light dance floors and living rooms ablaze!!!

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#sublime frequencies #rudra veena #classical indian music #raga #Bandcamp

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#Bandcamp #sublime frequencies #baba commandant #african music

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Sublime Frequencies & Third Man Records

presents

Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band

wsg Ultimate Ovation

Doors 8pm

Music 9pm

Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a contemporary group from Burkina Faso. Coming from Bobo-Dioulasso, the group is steeped in the Mandingue musical traditions of their ancestral legacy. The enigmatic lead singer Baba Commandant (Mamadou Sanou) is an original and eccentric character who is well respected in the Burkinabé musical community. A sort of punk Faso Dan Fani activist for traditional Mandingo music, Baba continues to redefine the boundaries between traditional and modern. In 1981, he joined the Koule Dafourou troupe as a dancer. Later, he embarked on his current musical direction as a singer first in Dounia and then in the Afromandingo Band.

His current band — when he’s not playing with the now-famous Burkinabé musician Victor Démé — is the Mandingo Band. At present, he is a practitioner of the Afrobeat style, drawing inspiration from the golden era of Nigerian music. Fela Kuti/Africa 70 and King Sunny Adé are big influences, as is the legendary Malian growler Moussa Doumbia.

Baba Commandant plays the ngoni, the instrument of the Donso (the traditional hunters in this region of Burkina Faso and Mali). His audience comprises multiple generations and strata of Burkinabé society; he accordingly adapts his repertoire to his surroundings, which range from cabaret Sundays in Bobo-Dioulasso to the sound systems of Ouagadougou. Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a formidable force steeped in Ouagadougou’s DIY underground musical culture.

#sublime frequencies #african music #baba commandant #third man records

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King Tubby’s Kingston New York Ticket Link

https://tubbyskingston.lyte.com/3707195

#sublime frequencies #african music #baba commandant #king tubby

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Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band - Sonbonbela

Sublime Frequencies is honored to release the third LP from Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band. Sonbonbela was recorded in the beginning of 2022 in the Republic of Burkina Faso. The group continue to hone their trademark fusion of Mandingue and afro-beat styles. The Mandingo Band are a hit machine, sculpting seven new tracks of near Beefheart/Magic Band dynamics, Fela inspired groovers dusted out in the Sahel zone, rather than the humidity and sweat of Lagos, creating one of the most original and propulsive musical statements to come from the contemporary West African cultural juggernaut. As with previous releases, the band features the legendary guitar pyrotechnics of Issouf Diabate, truly one of the greatest West African (or Earth for that matter) guitarists of the last forty years. The band is completed by a near bottomless barrel of artistry from the Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso musical talent pool. On bass guitar, Wendeyida Ouedraogo, on drums Abbas Kabore, and on percussion and balafon, Nickie Dembele. Leading the charge again is the captain himself, Mamdou Sanou on the Doso Ngoni featuring one of the most distinctive voices of the modern era. The opposite of the banal trends of auto-tune that have pervaded most of West African popular music, Baba’s voice still impresses with its gravel and grit, showcasing a range that is ancient and defiant in equal measure. This LP is a non-stop hit parade of afro-beat bangers destined to light dance floors and living rooms ablaze!!! This album is dedicated to the memory of Massimbo Taragna, the bass player extraordinaire who was an integral part of the Mandingo Band’s trance stun musical power who passed away in early 2022. Auteur compositeur BABA COMMANDANT (Mamadou SANOU) Co-composition Issouf Diabaté Sauf Sere Jugu de Victor DEME Guitar: Issouf DIABATE, Simon CHENET sur “sonbanbela” Bass : Wendeya Jessie Josias OUEDRAOGO Drums, Choeurs : Cheick Abbas KABORE Percussion, Balafon : Nickie DEMBELE

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Listen/purchase: Kuni Majagani by Group Inerane

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Sublime Frequencies is thrilled to announce the Baba Commandant and The Mandingo Band are returning to the USA after an absolutely legendary first American tour in the spring of 2023. A tour that has been hailed unanimously as “show of the year” by anyone who had the privilege to see any of the spring concerts.

Touring on the success of their latest LP -- Sonbonbela, the third LP released by Sublime Frequencies with the band, recorded in 2022 in the Republic of Burkina Faso. The group continue to hone their trademark fusion of Mandingue and afro-beat styles. The Mandingo Band are a hit machine, sculpting seven new tracks of near Beefheart/Magic Band dynamics, Fela inspired groovers dusted out in the Sahel zone, rather than the humidity and sweat of Lagos, creating one of the most original and propulsive musical statements to come from the contemporary West African cultural juggernaut. As with previous releases, the band features the legendary guitar pyrotechnics of Issouf Diabate, truly one of the greatest West African (or Earth for that matter) guitarists of the last forty years. The band is completed by a near bottomless barrel of artistry from the Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso musical talent pool. On bass guitar, Wendeyida Ouedraogo and on drums Abbas Kabore. Leading the charge again is the captain himself, Mamadou Sanou on the Doso Ngoni featuring one of the most distinctive voices of the modern era. The opposite of the banal trends of auto-tune that have pervaded most of West African popular music, Baba’s voice still impresses with its gravel and grit, showcasing a range that is ancient and defiant in equal measure. This LP and the power of the band’s live concerts showcase a non-stop hit parade of afro-beat bangers destined to light dance floors and living rooms ablaze!!!

#sublime frequencies #baba commandant #african music

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#erkin koray #turkish music #turkish psychedelic music #sublime frequencies

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TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT. BABA COMMANDANT AND THE MANDINGO BAND FALL TOUR 2023 After the now legendary spring tour, the band returns for an encore. DO NOT MISS THIS BAND. They are incredible live! See you there!

#sublime frequencies #baba commandant #african music