Picture, if you will, 1980s Mogadishu, East Africa. Vibrant nightclubs, hotels and theatres filled with a plethora of musicians and Somali melodies merging with funk, disco, reggae, soul and jazz. At the heart of this musical melting pot were Dur-Dur band, formed by childhood friends Adan Handal and Isse Dahir Qassim who started in school competitions and formed their own band after playing in the military band Bakaka. They succeeded in bringing together some of the best young Mogadishu players to explore new directions in Somali music. This was the genesis of Dur-Dur Band who became the house band of the Jubba Hotel in 1984.
Spend any time on Analog Africa label’s website or Bandcamp pages and you quickly realise how much they invest in their releases; a real labour of love. Samy Ben Redjeb curates, collates and celebrates so much of the best African music (read their incredible story here) and beyond crate-digging the best sounds their vinyl releases are objects of real beauty with intoxicating titles such as Galaxia Tropical, Roots Rocking Zimbabwe, African Scream Contest – Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo 70s, and Congo Funk! and the label has already released Dur-Dur Band Volumes 1 & 2 with Dur-Dur Band – Volume 3 (1988) & 4 (1989) newly released.
Dur-Dur Band’s music is constantly moving; rolling, spinning, flexing, and bouncing. Vocals are punctuated by blasts of horns, drums punch out beats doubled up with brass stabs and bass lines are incapable of staying still and walk around the songs happily restless. Percussion is constantly bubbling away, tickling, cajoling, daring you to try not to move. If you heard any of these tunes in a club while you were on the way to the bar your feet would force you to detour to the dancefloor.
The story of Dur-Dur Band is not without its dramas as the liner notes describe, “The making of Volume 3 was marked by tragedy when singer Shimaali Ahmed Shimaali was badly injured in a car accident and later left Dur-Dur to join Iftin Band, one of their main rivals. Shortly before the recording of Volume 4, Baastow — the band’s male lead singer from the beginning — left for Saudi Arabia. Another devastating blow followed when founder and bandleader Isse Dahir Qassim died in an electrical accident during a theatre soundcheck. For a time, the future of Dur-Dur was uncertain.”
Tragedy, like necessity, can be the mother of invention and the music on Volume 4 brought new members and the inclusion of electronic percussion and unusual drum textures such as you hear on ‘Ileyn Hoheey (Oh! Surely)’. But everything is still unmistakably Dur-Dur Band.
Once again Analog Africa have brought the past dancing joyously into the present. Their Dur Dur Band releases are as close as we can get to accessing a time machine to experience to the amazing nightlife of Somali’s capital city in the 1980s. There is an abundance of positivity radiating from the infectious rhythms, upbeat vocals and those glorious call and response horns. Play, dance, repeat.
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Review by Paul F Cook
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