The Finnish electropical ensemble Maajo is releasing their second full-length album "Kuru Kuru" on Queen Nanny records on March 2020. Three years after their sought-after debut, Maajo's African and Balearic influences now include more of the mysticism of Northern nature. The record resonates with a desire to connect across borders, and aspire to marvel at life on planet Earth. Live percussion, traditional balafons and kalimbas rattle and clang on top of drum machines and lively basslines. African High-life guitars dialogue with cheap vintage synths, electric pianos, birdsong, homemade flutes as well as the masterly vocalists: Senegalese Ismaila Sané, Zambian Waina and Beninese Akim Color. The album begins upbeat with the drumming song Soma, followed by Esukey, a slice of Afro-pop cassette nostalgia with maestro Ismaila Sané on the vocals. A Song For Spring steers into mid-tempo funk, while Meje Ibo is a Turkish style 7-beat with West-African guitars and minimalist choir. The sparkly Ghana-inspired beach dancer Nkoranza and the acidy kalimba disco of Aamuapoltan head straight for the dancefloor, the midpoint of the journey. Ismaila Sané's bonfire chant on Ito Urok leads the second half of the album on a nocturnal adventure. The hypnotic African mallets continue their work on the mysterious Jacana. Gbêmen Nayon is a ride down a flowing stream, while Akim Color sings a dirge. The percussive shamanistic hum-along trance of Yara Mantra points the way to the Waina-lead conscious dance anthem Lost Road. More

Finnish electro-tropical ensemble Maajo is delivering a new Queen Nanny EP with Ismaila Sané from Senegal. Currently based in Finland, Sané started his career as a dancer and percussionist in Dakar in 1974. He has since pursued an extensive international career and worked with the likes of Jimi Tenor and Piirpauke. Ismaila and Maajo have produced two powerful songs in Jola language, spoken in Casamance, Southern Senegal. Sèmbè is an off-beat mix of disco reggae grooves, dancehall rhythms, trancey synths, and African gospel. The dub version on the flipside does what a dub is supposed to do, strips the track to its bones for bass-heavy sound system. The second track, Anaata, is a dark and mellow dub disco groover with an equally sublime vocal performance from Ismaila Sané. More

The Finnish tropical troupe Maajo is back with a two-track EP. In contrast to the Afro-Balearic sound of their 2016 debut Tropic of Tulli, the new Defo / Mansaba EP is a step in a deeper and sometimes darker direction. Defo kicks off the EP with a driving 5/4 rhythm. Reminiscent of Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga sounds, it is a tribal tune with Maajo’s signature ethereal disco elements. Trevor Deep Jr.’s version straightens out the original’s unconventional time signature and focuses on a four-to-four beat and plenty of Berliner dub. The remix is a solid dancefloor tool, traversing the original like a train making its way through a dark rainforest. The B-side is entirely covered by Mansaba, a 14-minute long journey into inwards. This studio jam, recorded largely live, is a wild mixture of polyrhythmic sequences, krautrock guitar licks, equatorial forest percussion and violin synths. The trip starts slow and soothing, sneakily picks up pace and keeps grow and growing, eventually exploding into a full-on tribal dance. More

21st century urban electric gospel reggae More

Originally released in October 2016 - 'Maajo' marked the inauguration of a new imprint: Queen Nanny. Spread across 4 sides of vinyl, the LP was a 'meandering journey' that saw a newly formed Finnish five-piece expand and develop a canon set by Herman Prime's EP under the same title that was released via Seagull in 2015. Following it's warm reception, Queen Nanny returns with an all-star remix package that sees Luke Vibert, Call Super and Dengue Dengue Dengue all interpret selections from the original album. Altogether a tougher and more contorted collection of music - the remixes effectively pull Maajo out of it's habitual home-listening environment and drop it directly on the dancefloor to stunning effect - TIP.

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