Noori & His Dorpa Band - Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan's Red Sea Coast (Ostinato)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Protest music has rarely sounded as good as the new LP from Sudan's Beja Power! on Ostinato. Hailing from the East African melting pot, the musical waters are further muddied by homemade instruments, elements of (improved) desert blues, jazz, folk rock & whatever sounds good, all locked into the sort of killer hypnotic grooves that can only come from Africa.

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What The RElease Notes Say

A soundtrack of Sudan's revolution and the first ever international release of the Beja sound, performed by Noori and his Dorpa Band, an unheard outfit from Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea coast in eastern Sudan and the heart of Beja culture. 

Electric soul, blues, jazz, rock, surf, even hints of country, speak fluently to styles and chords that could be Tuareg, Ethiopian, Peruvian or Thai—all grounded by hypnotic Sudanese grooves, Naji's impeccable, haunting tenor sax, and of course, Noori's tambo-guitar, a self-made unique hybrid of an electric guitar and an electric tambour, a four-string instrument found across East Africa. 

A truly ancient community, Beja trace their ancestry back millennia. Some say they are among the living descendants of Ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush. Beja melodies—nostalgic, hopeful and sweet, ambiguous and honest—are thousands of years old. 

The Beja community has been on the forefront of political change in Sudan for decades because successive Sudanese governments have turned a blind eye to their calls for recognition and access to the gold wealth of their own soil. Noori believes an unleashing of Beja music would form the most potent act of resistance in their quest for equity and justice. 

Read the full story and finer details:  www.okayafrica.com/sudan-music-noori-dorpa-band/

CREDITS
Tambo-Guitar: Noori 
Tenor Sax: Naji 
Bass: Gaido 
Rhythm Guitar: Tariq 
Congas: Fox 
Tabla: Danash 

Produced by Omer Alghali, Janto Djassi & Vik Sohonie 
Recorded & Mixed by Janto Djassi 
Mastered by Michael Graves (Osiris Studio) 
Design by Pete 'Piwi' White 
Recorded in Omdurman, Sudan 
Special thanks to Ogali Creative Events, Tamador Sheikh Eldin Gibreel & Sonarworks

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IF YOU LIKE BEJA POWER! YOU MIGHT LIKE THE SLOW WORLD PLAYLIST

You can stream the Slow World Playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud