listen: africa in your earbuds #22

Happy Friday!  Since you’re probably not going to get any work done today anyway, why not expand your musical horizons?

One of those musical resolutions I often make (and break) is to listen to music that comes outside the US and UK.  In fact, a quick look at my record collection tells you I am doing a terrible job of it.  But the reality is, finding music outside of your comfort zone – whether it be genre, region, or language – isn’t an easy task.  Sometimes you need a little help.

So today, I turn to tUnE-yArD‘s Merrill Garbus, who has put together a fantastic thirty-minute mix as part of Okay Africa‘s Africa In Your Earbuds series.  The seven-song mix features music from Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, and DR Congo.

If any of y’all are rolling your eyes at the idea of an American-born white women making a mix of African music, give Merrill a little credit for her self-awareness.  About the mix, she says,

No doubt, I have a limited knowledge of African music, because, well, that’s an entire continent and thousands of years of music, and a girl from Connecticut only has so many hours in a day. So for this mix I delved into my old favorites, artists who have influenced what I do now, as well as some things I’ve been introduced to fairly recently.

Listen for: the influences tUnE-yArDs brings into her own music

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If you’ve got some extra time on your hands, go check more of Okay Africa, which highlights ” all the latest music/culture/politics coming from Africa and the Diaspora.”  I also came across a solid Kony 2012 piece they posted back in March, so you know I like them.