With the release of Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast, the track record of Vik Sohonie’s Ostinato Records remains unimpeachable, at 14 releases quite the impressive feat. This latest set, available June 24 on 180gm black vinyl and digital, features six highly pleasurable selections by Noori & his Dorpa Band, a contemporary outfit from the region of the title, and specifically Port Sudan, which is located on the eastern side of their home country. Like so much of the music released by Ostinato, it is a revelation made all the more powerful through its relationship to the present.
The reason the music on Beja Power! is so revelatory is directly political in nature. In short, the Beja people’s home territory in Eastern Sudan is rich in gold, with the rights having been long ago sold off to foreign companies. What’s more, numerous Sudanese governments have not just ignored Beja’s calls to right this injustice, but under leader Omar al-Bashir (ousted in 2019, though little has changed), there were calculated attempts at erasing Beja language, music and culture. In turn, this release is an act of political defiance.
The Dorpa Band, formed in 2006, consists of Naji on tenor sax, Gaido on bass, Tariq on rhythm guitar, Fox on congas, and Danash on tabla, with Noori the leader playing the Tambo-Guitar, a one-of-a-kind instrument, pictured on the album’s cover, that Noori made by fusing the neck of an standard electric guitar to an electric tambour, a traditional instrument found in East Africa.
The Beja people trace their ancestry back thousands of years, with some historians claiming they are descendants of Ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush. And yet, there are hardly any recordings of the Beja that have survived. Ostinato’s release is indeed the first recording of the Beja sound that’s been made internationally available, issued in part to bring attention to Beja people’s insistent plight.
For those with some knowledge into the diversity of African musical styles, Beja Power! will present a few possible points of familiarity, and right away as opener “Saagama” offers a blend of Tuareg string incessance and, courtesy of Naji on tenor, an aura reminiscent of Ethio-jazz (unsurprising as Ethiopia borders Sudan to the southeast).
However, the guitars aren’t as barbed as they can get in uncut desert blues, and neither is the track as heatedly swinging as so much Ethio-jazz. “Saagama” is also more succinct than the rest of the tracks on this set. “Qwai” spreads out a bit, and in doing so combines a deeper rhythmic presence with a sort of ceremonial regality (as these songs span back millennia) and guitar playing that recalls raga-tinged psychedelia.
Most impressive is how seamlessly it all comes together, and subtly, as “Al Amal” heightens both a similarity to expansionist rock and the aforementioned Ethio-jazziness while avoiding any palpable sense of genre grafting. And it’s necessary to emphasize the subtle; the release notes of Beja Power! cite the influence of Dick Dale, a connection that can be felt as the album plays rather than explicitly heard (this is to the good).
There is also range of intensity, with “Jabana” a more meditative experience as the tabla and conga lay out for a cut. But then “Wandeeb” comes rhythmically roaring back, setting the table for the album’s most exploratory (and simultaneously relaxed) selection, the 11-plus minute gliding finale “Daleb,” also the track on Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast that’s the least comparable to neighboring African styles. This level of quality has come to be expected from Ostinato, and yet Noori & his Dorpa Band still manage to deliver a sense of surprise.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
