Journey Without Maps brings you vintage, rare, and underground global music from uncharted sonic territories. Every week, I unearth a new musical landscape: African soul & funk, Latin rhythms, eastern European electronica, Middle East psychedelic, Asian surf rock ⦠and more.
Journey Without Maps is a production of WERA-LP 96.7 FM and Arlington Independent Media. For archives, updates, and to broadcast the episodes on your station, contact:
On this episode soul, funk, and dance music from East Africa: Kenya and Tanzania. Infectious drumming, liquid electric guitar, hypnotic bass lines â the Nairobi sound of benga is a mash-up of traditional Kenyan music, Cuban rhumba, Congolese finger-picking guitars, and South African street buskers. Meanwhile, in Tanzania a similar sound was brewing. Based on Congolese rumba, muziki wa dansi (or "dance music" in Swahili), brought blistering horns and brass to nightclubs in Dar Es Salaam.