To compensate for the lack of actual sunshine, Dónal Dineen takes a trip closer to the equator in this episode to visit the Cape Verde islands and Haiti in search of the perfect summer soundtrack.

The journey starts off in land-locked Mexico where we hear an example of the Rebajada sound - where the sonideros (sound-system operators) were fond of slowing down the Cumbia beat to make it more tangible music to dance to.

The temperature rises and tempo increases as we skip to the Sao Nicolau island on Cape Verde to hear the first of two dynamic masterpieces from Abel Lima. The island's strategic position in the mid-Atlantic meant that all kinds of influences seeped into the musical melting pot. We hear a couple of examples of raw Funaná dance music which comes across like a trans-Atlantic sibling of Columbian Cumbia.

The Cape Verdean diaspora in Lisbon added layers of electronic sounds to the already hybrid sound to create a kind of proto-house sound personified by the Conjunto Jovens Africanos tune Nhu Djon which still rips up the dance-floors forty years later.

Before leaving the islands we listen to a piece of contemporary acoustic magic from The Ano Nobo Quartet.

Another island where the Cumbia beat dominated was Haiti and we hear a couple of examples of how that influence added an extra layer of heat to the Haitian dance floor sound exemplified by Coupé Cloué and Nemours Jean Baptiste.

Our journey ends on Sudan’s Red Sea Coast where we hear some extraordinary new sounds from Noori & His Dorpa Band.

Support the music-makers on Bandcamp:

Conjunto Tipico Contreras - https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/track/capricho-egipcio

João Cirilo - https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/track/po-dterra

Abel Lima - https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/track/corre-riba-corre-baxo

Conjunto Jovens Africanos - https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/track/nhu-djon

Peps Love - https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/track/pom-um-grogu

The Ano Nobo Quartet - https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/track/tio-bernar

Nemours Jean Baptiste - https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/track/haiti-cumbia

Noori and his Dorpa Band - https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/beja-power-electric-soul-brass-from-sudans-red-sea-coast

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