Heads Up

Two compilations of Somali music from the 1970s and 80s:

1. Au Revoir, Mogadishu Vol.1: This 90-minute cassette has just been released by the German label ÇAYKH Recordings. You can buy the tape here.




2. Light & Sound of Mogadishu will be released on 29 August on LP and CD by the Helsinki-based label Afro7.

LMB Compilation

A few guests mailed a request for more music by the theater troupe Libaaxyada Maaweeliska Banaadir (Banaadir Entertainment Lions). I've some of their tapes but the sound quality of most of the 25- to 35-year-old songs is, unfortunately, no longer apt for human consumption. LMB's traditional repertoire is as big and varied as its modern stock and it's a real pity almost all the traditional acoustic tracks are on a silence strike. Understandable as they, apparently, got fed up with being constantly listened to. Who knows, they may have decided to turn the tables on the inter-galactic spies by eavesdropping on the unconscionable universal tappers.

R.I.P. Shiikh Cabdi (Iftin's Guitarist)

Cabdi Cabdullaahi Maxamed ("Shiikh Cabdi") sadly passed away a few weeks ago in Denmark, where he's been ill for sometime. He started his career with the band Malkad in Mogadishu in 1973. After a short stint with Bakaaka in Kismaayo, a port city in the South of Somalia, he joined Iftin in 1977 and played on many of their albums till the onset of the civil war in Mogadishu in 1991. With the death of Shiikh Cabdi, Somali music has lost a self-taught, talented, versatile, innovative and intuitive guitarist and a warm, engaging and friendly personality. A.U.N../R.I.P.!