Awesome Tapes From Africa
With his Awesome Tapes From Africa project, Brian Shimkovitz turns the spotlight on the continent’s movements in sound for love rather than commercial gain
Lots of westerners spend time in Africa. Many return with tourist tat, shit anecdotes and an unctuous slacktivism that irritates more than it nspires. Brian Shimkovitz, however, spent years in West Africa studying and collecting music, later deciding to share it on his blog Awesome Tapes from Africa; it has since become an essential resource for anyone with an interest in African music. Along with labels like Soundway, Sofrito and Strut, Shimkovitz has done a lot to disseminate African music across the globe.
At first, Shimkovitz offered music for free, but then felt selling vinyl on his own label could “make a bigger impact”. Some have dubbed what he does ‘vinyl colonialism’ – that he is just the latest in a long line of westerners bent on extracting African goods for their own profit. Shimkovitz handles such accusations with disarming genuineness: “I am not making any money so it doesn’t really apply. I am hoping to get the artists a chance to tour and make a bigger thing out of their music internationally”. It’s working: the label has been a resounding success, now gearing up for its fifth release.
This is part of a more general increase in the popularity of ‘African music’ (a “clunky phrase”, he rightly points out) in the West. But how does he respond to another charge – that African music is only popular because it’s “esoteric, retro and exotic”? He says those things are “part of the appeal, but I think it’s an over-simplified statement to say it’s the only thing attracting listeners. I love hip-hop and disco and reggae. All these have roots in African music, and when I hear things I identify with or relate with or recognise and love the sound of, a pleasing connection is made in my head that has nothing to do with the music’s otherness”.
Linked to the above is the fact that more and more western dance music producers are sampling African music these days. While Shimkovitz says “it’s hard to generalise”, there appears to have been a shift from the gimmicky days of Douster’s King of Africa to now, where artists like Midland draw on African music as they would any other – for its effect on the dancefloor. It works both ways: “African artists are getting quicker access to current music from outside their locales so things are going to keep getting weirder – in a good way”. This is the kind of cross- cultural exchange that might appear new, but actually isn’t. “There have been several phases of international music growth spurts in the past 100 years” states Shimkovitz. You might counter that the internet has prompted an explosion of so-called ‘World Music 2.0’, of which Shimkovitz’s blog and label are a part. Perhaps his own charming humility prevents him for taking credit.
2014 will see Shimkovitz continuing to DJ his awesome tapes, and to release more records – if he “can track down the right people and do it properly”. While Shimkovitz has (literally) thousands of tapes he could put out, it’s this attention to quality that’s won fans – and will retain them.
As any writer wishing to slyly advertise their degree in African history & politics will imply over the course of an integrated interview feature, most West-Africa relations are burdened with ethical problems. Is what Shimkovitz doing exploitative? Is the appeal based on “otherness”? In his case, neither applies. Shimkovitz is not embarking on some anthropological package tour of African music – this is just music he likes that happens to come from Africa, and if he wasn’t releasing it, perhaps no one would.
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Words: Robert Bates
Illustration: Tyler Spangler
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