201: Love Songs, Vol. 2, by Yishak Banjaw

Yishak Banjaw (Ethiopia)
Love Songs, Vol. 2 (1986/2016)
8 tracks, 46 minutes
Bandcamp ∙ iTunes

When I first heard this it blew my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I certainly couldn’t stop telling people about it, and playing it to anyone foolish enough to stand still next to me for enough time for me to get me iPod out. I’d listened to a lot of Ethiopian music before – and even been there myself – so when I was asked to review another Ethiopian album (one called Love Songs, no less), I thought I knew what was coming. Obviously I did not.

Yishak Banjaw’s music is traditionally Ethiopian in its scales, its rhythms and its composition. The only thing he really does differently is play it all on a Casio PT keyboard with enthusiastic use of all the various synth options and some programmed beats. And it seems to change it completely. There are similarities with Charanjit Singh’s 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat in terms of the story of how the records came to be and the way they were made, but whereas the Indian record came out sounding like acid house five years before that even became a thing, Banjaw’s music gives me realｖａｐｏｒｗａｖｅtingles.

Everything about this record sounds a little off-kilter. It’s all ever-so-slightly warped and washed out, and there’s a hiss from the tape transfer, which all lend a faintly unsettling vibe to it in a way that is hard to pinpoint. As all the synths swirl together in those unmistakably Ethiopian shapes while using the alien-sounding timbres, your mind gets dragged along into the maelstrom, having the same effect as the hypnotist’s spiral.

I really love this album and its retro vibes, but what’s really exciting is that I just found out he’s still making music and releasing albums as late as 2017, and they’ve not stopped being any less enigmatically cool as his work from the 80s. Check this shit out. The synths are more modern, the sound is a little cleaner and the sensibility is slightly more to the pop side of things, but it’s so good to hear that he’s still making his unique music three decades later. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more Ｅｔｈｉｏｐｉａｎｗａｖｅ to catch up on…