Jeri-Jeri boys warming up for a taniber (sabar session) in the Ndangane neighbourhood of Kaolack, Senegal some time after midnight, February 6, 2012

Filmed in Kaolack, Senegal and Prince Arts studio (formerly Xippi) in Dakar, also featuring Laye Lo (drums), Assane Ndoye Cisse (guitar) Paul Diouf (keyboard), Abdourakhmane Fall (bass), Fatou Mboup and Sidy Diop (dancers).

Ndagga ND-01 ( 12″ / Download )

A: Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh
B: Dub Dafa Nekh

A stunning new production by Mark Ernestus, drawn from his recordings with some of Senegal’s greatest musicians — a griot clan of Sabar drummers from Kaolack in Senegal, led by Bakane Seck, with guest players and vocalists. Jeri-Jeri’s style of Mbalax is swingeingly masterful — heady and hard-grooving, with highly complex, fiercely succinct poly-rhythms — an ancient-futuristic music, mesmeric but sharp as nails, super-charged with drama. Featuring the lovelorn vocals of guest Mbene Diatta Seck, Sabar traditions are fused with furious Afro-Cubanismo, hard funk-rock, and shards of high-life. Ernestus’ nasty, hypnotic, stripped dub — a Mbalax first — edges in the bass, profiles the talmbat and thiole drums, and scoops the semantics out of the vocal.

12″: Hard Wax • Honest Jon’s
Download: Hard Wax • iTunes • Boomkat • Juno