Hamad Kalkaba And The Golden Sounds, Hamad Kalkaba And The Golden Sounds  
Hamad Kalkaba And The Golden Sounds
Hamad Kalkaba And The Golden Sounds
GER 1xLP 
Label: Analog Africa
Release Year: 2017
Style: Latin & Brasil & Afro
 
  Tracks  
  1. Astadjam Dada Saré Hamad Kalkaba 03:40
2. Touflé Hamad Kalkaba 04:24
3. Fouh Sei Allah Hamad Kalkaba 04:48
4. Lamido Hamad Kalkaba 05:34
5. Gandjal Kessoum Hamad Kalkaba 05:14
6. Tchakoulaté 03:56
 
  "Hamad Kalkaba and His Golden Sounds 1974 - 1975" I remember the day clearly. I was searching for treasures in a record shop in Yaoundé, the Capital city of Cameroon, when suddenly I came across a 7-inch record with a picture of a young man wearing a traditional hat and bearing the marks of several imposing vertical scars on the side of his face, carved when he was just a boy as a reminder of his heritage in the Musgum tribe of the northern part of the country.

The record contained two songs – ‘Gandjal Kessoum’ and ‘Touflé’ – by an artist I had never heard of before named Hamad Kalkaba. Both cuts were raw classics of fuzzed-out bass, pin-sharp horns, built upon the unshakable foundation of Northern Cameroon’s mightiest rhythm: the Gandjal. The shop owner - who noticed that was listening to the same record over and over again - finally said to me ‘There is another single with a green cover of the same artist, if I am not mistaken’.

Over the next six years I searched for that ‘green cover’ and finally found it in a record collection belonging to an old bar in Parakou in northern Benin. While most of the records had been beaten and worn by a life spent in the jukebox, this one had been sitting in its paper sleeve for forty years, untouched and unplayed, seemingly waiting for us to pick it up and rip the two soulful Gandjal tunes from it, the masterpieces ‘Fouh Sei Allah’ and ‚Tchakoulaté’.

These two records, plus a third simply named ‘Nord Cameroon Rhythms’ constitute the entire discography of Hamad Kalkaba. Neglected for decades by all but the most devoted collectors of Afro music, Hamad Kalkaba and the Golden Sounds at long last gathers together the body of work of one of Cameroon’s forgotten geniuses.

But unlike many musicians who emerged from nowhere, recorded a few singles and vanished again, Kalkaba hadn’t disappeared. Far from it. He was a distinguished public figure, a retired Colonel in the army of Cameroon, and a former member of Cameroon’s Olympic Selection Committee. When we tracked him down he was serving as president of the Confederation of African Athletics. And Although Kalkaba’s job kept him busy, and he seemed initially dismissive of the music he’d made as a young man, he turned out to be an enthusiastic ally in this project. He arranged interviews, helped fill in the blanks and, when we finally met him in Yaoundé in 2016, provided us with photographs, lyric sheets and notes.

During the interview Kalkaba explained how the songs recorded in the mid 1970s were part of a movement, a movement initiated by musicians from all around Cameroon who, with the help of keyboards, drum kits and electric guitars, had started to modernize the traditional rhythms of their regions. For Kalkaba it was no different and backed by his band the Golden Sounds, devoted himself to the promotion of the sounds of northern Cameroon.

One of the aims of Analog Africa is to showcase the colorful diversity of styles that exist in Africa and its diaspora and today we are very proud to be able to give these Gandjal tunes their first worldwide release.
 
      Wish List  
  Price: CHF 30.00   Currently not on stock!
Please check back later or call us for more information:
+41 (0)43 322 02 04
 
  Releases of the same artist  
  No items found ..  
  Releases of the same label  
  Amara Toure, Amara Toure  
Amara Toure
Amara Toure
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 30.00 Restocking!
 
  Dur-Dur Band, Dur Dur Of Somalia  
Dur-Dur Band
Dur Dur Of Somalia
[Analog Africa]
GER 3xLP  Wish List
CHF 45.00 Restocking!
 
  Leon Keita, Analog Africa Limited Dance Edition No. 16  
Leon Keita
Analog Africa Limited Dance Edition No. 16
[Analog Africa]
EUR 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 34.00 Add To Cart
 
  Rob, Funky Rob Way  
Rob
Funky Rob Way
[Analog Africa]
TIP  
GER 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 30.00 Add To Cart
 
  V/A, Afro-Beat Airways  
V/A
Afro-Beat Airways
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 38.00 Restocking!
 
  V/A, Diablos Del Ritmo - The Colombian Melting Pot 1975 -1985 Part I  
V/A
Diablos Del Ritmo - The Colombian Melting Pot 1975 -1985 Part I
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 32.00 Restocking!
 
  V/A, Diablos Del Ritmo - The Colombian Melting Pot 1960 -1983 Part II  
V/A
Diablos Del Ritmo - The Colombian Melting Pot 1960 -1983 Part II
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 32.00 Restocking!
 
  V/A, Angola Soundtrack Vol.2  
V/A
Angola Soundtrack Vol.2
[Analog Africa]
TIP  
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 35.00 Add To Cart
 
  V/A, Space Echo  
V/A
Space Echo
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 35.00 Restocking!
 
  V/A, Edo Funk Explosion Vol.1  
V/A
Edo Funk Explosion Vol.1
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 40.00 Restocking!
 
  V/A, Take One - Hallelujah Chicken Run Band  
V/A
Take One - Hallelujah Chicken Run Band
[Analog Africa]
GER 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 36.00 Restocking!
 
  Various, Cameroon Garage Funk  
Various
Cameroon Garage Funk
[Analog Africa]
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 41.00 Add To Cart
 
  Verckys & Orchestre Veve, Congolese Funk, Afrobeat And Psychedelic Rumba  
Verckys & Orchestre Veve
Congolese Funk, Afrobeat And Psychedelic Rumba
[Analog Africa]
TIP  
GER 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 31.00 Restocking!
 
  Vincent Ahehehinnou, Best Woman  
Vincent Ahehehinnou
Best Woman
[Analog Africa]
GER 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 65.00 Add To Cart
 
21 Savage
American Dream
[Slaughter Gang]
Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru
Souvenirs
[Mississippi Records]
James Alexander Bright
Fall For You
[Athens Of The North]
Major Arcana
Major Arcana
[Out-Sider]
Manillio
Deheim
[Bakara Music]
Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Magnetic Sunshine
[Library Of The Occult]
Papa Bear & His Cubs
You're So Fine
[Athens Of The North]
Samizdat / Michael J.Blood
Disenfranchised Refuseniks
[Blood]
Tara Clerkin Trio
On the Turning Ground
[World Of Echo]
  1. Earl Sweatshirt & Alchemist
Voir Dire
 
  2. Mogwaa
Translucent
 
  3. CCO
Sonic Atmospheres
 
  4. TamTam
Ramble In The Rainbow
 
  5. Benedek
Southland Mystic EP
 
  6. Dimitri Grimm
For Beauty's Source
 
  7. Fugees
The Score
 
  8. VA
Instrumental Dubs 2
 
  9. Arctic Monkeys
AM
 
  10. Che
The Incident