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It’s hard to remember a time when Somalia was mentioned in reference to something other than bloody civil war, greedy warlords, harsh Islamic fundamentalism, and open seas piracy, but ever since the days of the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, when rebels shot down a U.S. helicopter (aka Black Hawk Down), that has seemed like the only context for information about the east African country. Of course, things weren’t always like that, and the great folks—well, Evanston Glenview native Brian Shimkovitz—behind the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog and label are offering a modest antidote to all of the bad news and negativity. In February Shimkovitz is releasing Volume 5 by Mogadishu’s Dur-Dur Band, an impossibly rare cassette from 1987 that reflects the exciting popular music scene that Somalia once possessed. The sound quality is pretty murky, with loads of hiss, but the performances are too good to ignore.
