One of the greatest gifts recorded music gives us is a little piece of life from places we may never otherwise know. There was a time when Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, was often referred to as the "pearl of the Indian Ocean." Before dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 and the country plunged into civil war, it was a beautiful, cosmopolitan city with the nightlife and bands to soundtrack it. Today, it's a scarred place under persistent threat from the country's still-powerful religious militias and al-Shabaab suicide bombers.
In the 1980s, Mogadishu swung in spite of the country's oppressive leadership, and one of its best-known acts was the Dur-Dur Band. Awesome Tapes From Africa has reissued some of their other albums before this, but this release of Dur-Dur's Volume 5 is true to the label's name-- it's directly mastered from a cassette copy of the album, one of about 10 that the band recorded. As you might imagine, the preservation of master tapes has been low on the priorities list in Mogadishu for the last 20-odd years, so this is a case of making the best of what's available. For the most part, the sound is excellent. What hiss there is can easily be chalked up as part of the experience-- this music has never existed in a state of digital clarity.
Like many of the great African dance bands, Dur-Dur was a big, versatile group, with three horn players, four lead singers, three backing singers, two guitarists, a keyboardist, a drummer, two percussionists, and a bass player. The vocalists trade off from song to song, singing what the liner notes reveal to be mostly songs about relationship trouble (the novelty for Western listeners will be that a few deal with competition between wives in polygamist households), but unless you speak Somali, you'll be following the melody and not the story-- and the melodies are excellent.
The band's sound is funky throughout, with apparent influences from American funk and soul and possibly even West African music-- the static harmony of their heavy vamps is well matched to the modal, more traditional Somali vocal melodies. The group's one female singer, Sahra Abukar Dawo, also may have watched a handful of Bollywood films-- the edge on her held notes and the way she makes sudden leaps from legato to staccato phrasing is reminiscent of Asha Bhosle.
The songs on the tape were clearly not recorded at the same session, as the instrumentation and audio quality vary a fair amount. I wonder whether the musicians may have been updating their gear around the time they recorded this music-- some tracks feature meaty, old-school organ, while others feature tinny synth and what's either a drum machine or a very convincing approximation of one; the Caribbean-styled "Dholey" is replete with bendy synth lines and accent percussion that would sound at home on Phil Collins' No Jacket Required.
In the early 90s, unable to continue playing in their city, Dur-Dur Band broke up and scattered abroad. Their competition did too, and the cinemas, studios, hotels and theaters that once played host to their music closed, or were forced to. In 2006, Mogadishu was briefly dominated by Islamic extremists who attempted to outlaw music. The place where this music was made is still listed on the map as though nothing changed, but it's not the same city today as it was in 1987. This record is a superb glimpse of what was and what's been lost.
