Afropop Worldwide

Quantic (AKA Will Holland) is an excellent collector and selector of old-school styles of African and Afro-diasporic popular music. Although we sometimes wish that he would do a little bit more posting of tracklists, we continue to share his historically rooted mixes because the music is so damn good! Late last week, Quantic posted “Luanda Sonó,” a luscious half-hour mix of his favorite 45s of Angolan semba tunes, probably from the late 70s. [soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/88532312" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] Themes of longing, nostalgia and political struggle echo throughout this mix. It starts with a song praising the MPLA (the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which has ruled Angola since they gained independence for the country in 1975) and ends with a gorgeous ballad in which the singer bemoans his own poverty and inequality in Angola in general, singing (in Portuguese) “Workers, students, revolutionaries, all of us have nothing!” Two weeks ago, Quantic posted a mix of 45s of “folkloric and outer-regional” music from Ethiopia, which features lots of guitar, krar (one of the ancient ancestors of the banjo), swinging bands and powerful vocalists. Enjoy! [soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/86142076" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]