a little while ago, when we dug around asian music that fits with cumbia or beninese funk, we came across vikram sohonie's "rare and obscure tropical gems 1965 - 1981" - which included a hard driving luk-thung from thailand or indian cabaret jazz with angolan semba or tumbele from martinique.
yep! it was exactly what we wanted.
vikram grew up in many different countries. it allowed him to develop an appreciation for the various cultures around the globe and raised him a tropical kid full of love for music.
here he takes you on a grand tropical adventure again - freetown, bamako, accra, cotonou. pointe-a-pitre, fort-de-france, barranquilla, rio de janeiro and bangkok...
ok, let's catch a taxi and go to the first place - luanda!
"after university in the us, i moved back to singapore where i worked as an editor on a global news desk - where, because of my knowledge of africa, i was often assigned to news from that part of the world. unfortunately, all the news about africa is negative and involves some kind of violence and instability. i have always thought that africa has a lot to offer the world, and the music from the 70s only proves my theory of how rich that continent is and does a lot to smash negative perceptions, which makes me very happy"
