Ndagga

Mark Ernestus' NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE:

Khadim

Ndagga ND-30 ( LP / Download / CD )

1: Lamp Fall
2: Dieuw Bakhul
3: Khadim
4: Nimzat

Download available now exclusively from Hard Wax
Vinyl, CD and digital release on 2025-05-09

Khadim is a stunning reconfiguration of the Ndagga Rhythm Force sound. The instrumentation is radically pared down. The guitar is gone; the concatenation of sabars; the drum-kit. Each of the four tracks hones in on just one or two drummers; otherwise the sole recorded element is the singing; everything else is programmed. Synths are dialogically locked into the drumming. Tellingly, Ernestus has reached for his beloved Prophet-5, a signature go-to since Basic Channel days, thirty years ago. Texturally, the sound is more dubwise; prickling with effects. There is a new spaciousness, announced at the start by the ambient sounds of Dakar street-life. At the microphone, Mbene Diatta Seck revels in this new openness: mbalax diva, she feelingly turns each of the four songs into a discrete dramatic episode, using different sets of rhetorical techniques. The music throughout is taut, grooving, complex, like before; but more volatile, intuitive and reaching, with turbulent emotional and spiritual expressivity.

Not that Khadim represents any kind of break. Its transformativeness is rooted in the hundreds upon hundreds of hours the Rhythm Force has played together. Nearly a decade has passed since Yermande, the unit’s previous album. Every year throughout that period — barring lockdowns — the group has toured extensively, in Europe, the US, and Japan. With improvisation at the core of its music-making, each performance has been evolutionary, as it turns out heading towards Khadim. “I didn’t want to simply continue with the same formula, says Ernestus. “I preferred to wait for a new approach. Playing live so many times, I wanted to capture some of the energy and freedom of those performances.” Though several members of the touring ensemble sit out this recording — sabar drummers, kit-drummer, synth-player — their presence abides in the structure and swing of the music here.


Lamp Fall is a homage to Cheikh Ibra Fall, founder of the Baye Fall spiritual community. The mosque in the city of Touba is known as Lamp Fall, because the main tower resembles a lantern. Soy duggu Touba, moom guey séen / When you enter Touba, he is the one who greets you. After a swift, incantatory start Mbene sings with reflective seriousness. Her voice swirls with reverb, over a tight, funky, propulsive interplay between synth and drums, threaded with one- two jabs of bass. Cheikh Ibra Fall mi may way, mo diayndiou ré, la mu jëndé ko taalibe… Cheikh Ibra Fall amo morome, aboridial / Cheikh Ibra Fall shows the way forward, he gives us strength, he gathers his disciples… Overflowing with grace, Cheikh Ibra Fall has no equal.

Interwoven with Wolof proverbs, Dieuw Bakhul is a recriminatory song about treachery, lies, and back-biting. Over moody, roiling synths and ominous, lean bass, Mbene throws out fluttering scraps of vocal, as if re-running old conversations in her head. The music shadows her despair to the verge of breakdown, at one moment seemingly so lost in thought and memories, that it threatens to disintegrate. Bayilene di wor seen xarit ak seen an da ndo… Dieuw bakhul, dieuw ñaw na / Stop judging your friends and companions… A lie is no good, a lie is ugly.

Khadim is a show-stopper; currently the centrepiece of Ndagga Rhythm Force live performances. The song is dedicated to Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, aka Khadim, founder of the Mouride Sufi order. Serigne Bamba mi may wayeu / Serigne Bamba is the one who makes me sing. The verses name-check revered members of his family and brotherhood, like Sokhna Diarra, Mame Thierno, and Serigne Bara. Though Islam has been practised in Senegal for a millennium, it wasn’t until the start of the twentieth century that it began to thoroughly permeate ordinary Senegalese society, hand-in-hand with anti-colonialism. The verses here recall Bamba’s banishment by the French to Gabon, and later to Mauritania, in those foundational times. During exile, his captors once introduced a lion to his cell: gaïnde gua waf, dieba lu ci Cheikhoul Khadim / the lion doesn’t budge, it gives itself over to Cheikh Khadim. Deep, surging bass, steady kick-drum, and simple, reverbed chords on the off-beat lend the feel and impetus of steppers reggae. A reed plays snatches of a traditional Baye Fall melody; the dazzling polyrhythmic drumming is by Serigne Mamoune Seck. Mbene compellingly blends percussive vocalese, narrative suspense, exultant praise, introspection, and grievance.

Nimzat is a devotional tribute to Cheikh Sadbou, a contemporary of Bamba, buried in a mausoleum in Nizmat, in southern Mauritania. Way nala, kagne nala… souma danana fata dale / I call upon you and wonder about you… If I am overwhelmed, come to my aid. The town holds special significance for Khadr Sufism. An annual pilgrimage there is conducted to this day. The rhythm is buoyantly funky; the mood is sombre, reined-in, foreboding. Punctuated by peals of thunder, Mbene sings with restrained, intense reverence; huskily confidential, steadfast. Nanu dem ba Nimzat, dé ba sali khina / Let us go to Nimzat, to seal our devotion.


Mbene Diatta Seck: vocals
Bada Seck: bougarabou, thiol, mbeung mbeung bal, tungune
Serigne Mamoune Seck: bougarabou, khine, mbeung mbeung, tungune

Text by Mark Ainley (Honest Jons)

Mastered by Rashad Becker
Everything else by Mark Ernestus

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live Summer 2024

25.07. DE Wuppertal • Open Ground
26.07. DE Bad Sulza • Auerworld
31.07. PL Warszawa • Pardon, To Tu
02.08. DE Berlin • Humboldt Forum
03.08. PL Garbicz Festival
13.08. DE Berlin • Tresor
15.08. SE Malmö • Malmöfestivalen
17.08. NO Oslo • Blå / Oslo Jazz Festival
20.08. UK London • Cafe OTO
21.08. UK London • Cafe OTO
22.08. UK London • Cafe OTO
23.08. UK Bristol • Strange Brew
25.08. UK Northamptonshire • Shambala

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live Spring 2023

25.05. DE München • Rote Sonne
26.05. AT Innsbruck • Heart of Noise
27.05. DE Moers • Festival
28.05. NL Amsterdam • Lentekabinet Festival
01.06. DE Berlin • Tresor
02.06. DE Köln • Stadtgarten
03.06. CH Düdingen Bad Bonn • Kilbi
06.06. DE Hamburg • MS Stubnitz
08.06. NO Oslo • Jäger
09.06. SE Malmö • Inkonst
10.06. DE Bremen • Theater
11.06. PT Lisboa • ZDB
12.06. PT Crato • Waking Life Festival

Lineup: Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Bada Seck (sabar), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Ousmane Ka (drum set), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live November 2019

07.11. BE Bruxelles • VK concerts
08.11. NL Utrecht • Le Guess Who?
09.11. HU Budapest • Trafò
10.11. RO București • Control
12.11. DE Düsseldorf • KIT-Café
13.11. DE Köln • Stadtgarten
14.11. CH Genève • La Gravière
15.11. FR Grenoble • La Bobine
16.11. FR Lyon • Opéra de Lyon

Lineup: Bada Seck (sabar), Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Mangone Ndiaye Dieng (drum set), Fatou Wore Mboup (dancer), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live Summer 2019

26.07. UK Manchester • Band on the Wall
27.07. UK London • Naked City
28.07. UK Lowther Deer Park • Kendal Calling
02.08. HU Ozora • OZORA Festival
08.08. DE Berlin • YAAM
09.08. UK Houghton • Houghton Festival
10.08. DK København • Badesøen
11.08. DE Leipzig • Ancient Trance

Lineup: Bada Seck (sabar), Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Mangone Ndiaye Dieng (drum set), Fatou Wore Mboup (dancer), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live Summer 2018

27.07. PT Lisboa • Noites de Verão
28.07. PT Sines • FMM
02.08. IT Milano • Teatro Continuo di Burri
04.08. NL Amsterdam • Dekmantel
07.08. SE Malmö • Sommarscen
09.08. PL Warszawa • Pardon, To Tu
12.08. NL Venlo • Zomerparkfeest
15.08. DE Berlin • Pop-Kultur
17.08. US Brooklyn, NY • Pioneer Works

Lineup: Bada Seck (sabar), Assane Ndoye Cisse (guitar), Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Mangone Ndiaye Dieng (drum set), Fatou Wore Mboup (dancer), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live July 2017

01.07. IT Foligno • Dancity Festival
02.07. DE Negenharrie • Off The Radar
06.07. DE Niedergörsdorf • Freqs Of Nature
07.07. FR Séte • Worldwide Festival
08.07. PL Katowice • Tauron Nowa Muzyka
09.07. RO București • Outernational Days

Lineup: Bada Seck (sabar), Assane Ndoye Cisse (guitar), Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Mangone Ndiaye Dieng (drum set), Fatou Wore Mboup (dancer), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live April 2017

07.04. BE Antwerpen • Het Bos
08.04. NL Amsterdam • World Minimal Music Festival
09.04. UK Glasgow • Counterflows Festival
11.04. DE Berlin • Festsaal Kreuzberg
14.04. DK København • Global
15.04. NO Oslo • Jaeger
19.04. DE Köln • Stadtgarten
20.04. GR Athens • Borderline Festival
22.04. UK London ¨ Café OTO
23.04. UK London ¨ Café OTO (matinee concert)
25.05. FR Lyon • Nuits sonores

Lineup: Bada Seck (sabar), Assane Ndoye Cisse (guitar), Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Mangone Ndiaye Dieng (drum set), Fatou Wore Mboup (dancer), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE:

Yermande

Ndagga ND-25 ( LP / Download / CD )

1: Lamb Ji
2: Walo Walo
3: Simb
4: Jigeen
5: Ndiguel
6: Yermande (Kick and Bass Mix)

LP (with download code): Hard WaxHonest Jon’sBoomkat
Download: Hard WaxiTunesBoomkat
CD: Hard WaxHonest Jon’s

Five years into the project, with two acclaimed albums and dozens of triumphant international performances to its name, Yermande announces a thrilling new phase for this Dakar-Berlin collaboration: emphatically a giant step forward. The group of players is boiled down to twelve for recordings, eight for shows; sessions in Dakar become steeply more focussed. ‘This time around I was better able to specify what I wanted right from the initial recording sessions in Dakar,’ says Ernestus, ‘and further in the production process I took more freedom in reducing and editing audio tracks, changing MIDI data, replacing synth sounds and introducing electronic drum samples.’ Right away you hear music-making which has come startlingly into its own. Rather than submitting to the routine, discrete gradations of recording, producing and mixing, the music is tangibly permeated with deadly intent from the off. Lethally it plays a coiled, clipped, percussive venom and thumping bass against the soaring, open-throated spirituality of Mbene Seck’s singing. Plainly expert, drilled and rooted, the drumming is unpredictable, exclamatory, zinging with life. Likewise the production: intuitive and fresh but utterly attentive; limber but hefty; vividly sculpted against a backdrop of cavernous silence.
Six chunks of stunning, next-level mbalax, then, funky as anything.

‘Lamb Ji’ is traditional wrestling, the most popular sport in Senegal, always introduced by hours of drumming, gris-gris magic and dancing (led by the fighters themselves). Born into the Momori griot clan in Tivaouane, Mbene moved as a teenager to Pikine on the outskirts of Dakar, where the late, great Ndongo Lo was first to invite her to sing at lamb events. Still a hard-core fan, here she pays hommage to all the popular fighters of recent times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npnvzg6gs60

Evoking the ancient cultural legacy of the griots, ‘Walo Walo’ is also the name of the sabar rhythm underlying this track, which features Ibou Mbaye’s percussive synth-work, Mangone Ndiaye Dieng’s kit-drumming, and Bada Seck’s rigorous jolts of lower-pitched thiol drum. 

‘Simb’ (‘lion’) refers to traditional drumming and dancing events, at which a cavorting ‘faux lion’ puts the frighteners on audience-members. ’This was most the most difficult one to mix,’ recalls Ernestus, ‘in the end the most reduced from its recording.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On51MhWznBk

‘Jigeen’ means ‘woman’. ‘Man should know every woman is your mother. Cherish a woman. Respect a woman’s dignity. My friend, don’t talk bad about a woman. My mother, my father, my family, my friends, it has been hard. Look after the people who were there when you had nothing.’

A tribute to the Baye Fall leader, Ndiguel is the most traditional cut on the album, showcasing Assane Ndoye Cisse’s insinuating guitar lines, Laye Lo’s super-elasticated snare-drumming, and Bada Seck playing the khine drums associated with the Baye Fall. (Short and wide; lightweight but low.)

Yermande takes a former associate to task. ‘Stop prompting the witchdoctor to curse us. Leave people alone and let them go their own way. Take yours; leave ours to us. Don’t put anyone down without knowing what their parents have sacrificed. Keep a clean heart and don’t wish anyone ill. What you wish for yourself, wish for others. Don’t steal my clothes, they don’t fit you. Leave badness, life is too short for that.’ Like Lamb Ji and Simb, featuring all four sabar players: Bada Seck, Serigne Mamoune Seck, Abou Salla Seck and Alioune Seck. Abdourakhmane Fall’s no-flim-flam bass-playing well and truly drops anchor.

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE:

Walo Walo

Ndagga ND-23 ( 12″ / Download )

A: Walo Walo Version
B1: Ndiguel Groove
B2: Walo Walo Rhythm

Three killers heralding the next phase of this dazzling expression of a dream Dakar-Berlin nexus.
All instrumental — though the opener has snatches of singing — with the vocal versions held back for the new album. The music just gets deadlier and deadlier — harder-boiled and deeper; more focussed, confident and dubwise. Evoking the ancient cultural legacy of the griots, ‘Walo Walo’ is also the name of the sabar rhythm underlying the opener, which features Ibou Mbaye’s percussive synth-work, Mangone Ndiaye Dieng’s kit-drumming, and Bada Seck’s rigorous jolts of lower-pitched Thiol drum. The ‘Groove’ version is tough as nails; well and truly gnarly. A tribute to the Baye Fall leader, Ndiguel Groove is a sparse, mellow interpretation of the most traditional cut on the album, showcasing Assane Ndoye Cisse’s insinuating guitar lines, Laye Lo’s super-elasticated snare-drumming, and Bada Seck playing the khine drums associated with the Baye Fall. (Short and wide; lightweight but low-pitched.) Pretty awesome.

12″: Hard WaxHonest Jon’s
Download: Hard WaxiTunes

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE Live Dates Summer 2015

31.05. PT Porto • Serralves em Festa
04.06. DE Berlin • Neue Heimat
05.06. NO Bergen • Nattjazz
06.06. SE Göteborg • Clandestino Festival
09.06. FR Strasbourg • Festival Contretemps
12.06. DE Köln • Stadtgarten
25.06. DE Lärz • Fusion
27.06. DE Düsseldorf • Open Source Festival
05.07. DE Rudolstadt • TFF

Lineup: Bada Seck (sabar), Assane Ndoye Cisse (guitar), Mbene Diatta Seck (vocal), Modou Mbaye (talking drum), Mangone Ndiaye Dieng (drum set), Fatou Wore Mboup (dancer), Ibou Mbaye (keyboard), Serigne Mamoune Seck (sabar)

Mark Ernestus’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE

…succeeds Jeri-Jeri.

From the initial meeting with a clan of sabar drummers in Senegal, Mark’s project has evolved into something new in its own right.

Stay tuned…