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Ilando Gima Onge
From the Pitchfork Media review: Extra Golden is an international collaboration between members of two bands: Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari of the Nairobi, Kenya based benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson of the Washington D.C. based rock bands Weird War and Golden. The musicians met as a result of Ian's doctoral research on Kenyan music. Since 2000, Otieno had been assisting Ian in documenting benga, a guitar-heavy kind of dance music similar to Congolese rumba that has been popular in Kenya since the 1960s. Eventually, Ian, Alex and Onyango ended up in Otieno's portable studio in Nairobi, laying down tracks adapted to a benga style, augmented by Alex's bluesy riffs and Otieno's vocal melodies. The title "Ok-Oyot System", which translates to "It's Not Easy", reflects well upon the struggles our boys faced in making this record. Plagued by liver ailments since 2000, Otieno Jagwasi succumbed to HIV-related liver failure in the year following the sessions. The album is dedicated to his memory.
( Read more... )
From the Pitchfork Media review: Extra Golden is an international collaboration between members of two bands: Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari of the Nairobi, Kenya based benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson of the Washington D.C. based rock bands Weird War and Golden. The musicians met as a result of Ian's doctoral research on Kenyan music. Since 2000, Otieno had been assisting Ian in documenting benga, a guitar-heavy kind of dance music similar to Congolese rumba that has been popular in Kenya since the 1960s. Eventually, Ian, Alex and Onyango ended up in Otieno's portable studio in Nairobi, laying down tracks adapted to a benga style, augmented by Alex's bluesy riffs and Otieno's vocal melodies. The title "Ok-Oyot System", which translates to "It's Not Easy", reflects well upon the struggles our boys faced in making this record. Plagued by liver ailments since 2000, Otieno Jagwasi succumbed to HIV-related liver failure in the year following the sessions. The album is dedicated to his memory.
( Read more... )
