Burkina Electric @ LPR 4/19/09

I was curious based on the listing, but I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I loved it so much I'm giving it its own post, even though it was an opening band.

It was modern African music. The instruments were all modern, drum kit, vibes, guitar, laptop, . But then there were 2 male dancers and all the songs were stories. The dancers really added a lot and they were awesome.

I was thrilled to find out Lucas Ligeti is in it. He just curated The Stone. He was awesome.

While the music had an African flair, it was very much today. It rocked! I hope to see them again.

Here's the listing. What made me skeptical was the part about electronica band. I'm not that familiar with electronica, but it was way better than I thought electronica could be. I stopped reading after the 1st sentence, so I didn't know it is the type of thing I would love.

Burkina Electric is the first electronica band from Burkina Faso, in the deep interior of West Africa. Based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, it is, at the same time, an international band, with members living in New York, U.S.A. and Düsseldorf, Germany, as well as in Ouaga. In Burkina Electric's music, the traditions and rhythms of Burkina Faso meet and mingle with contemporary electronic dance culture, making it a trailblazer in electronic world music. Before starting Burkina Electric in 2004, band members Maï Lingani, Wende K. Blass, Pyrolator, and Lukas Ligeti had become close friends as members of Beta Foly, a group that emerged from a workshop led by Lukas and Pyrolator in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, which, among other experiments, created some of the earliest fusions of techno/trip-hop with African traditional music.

The core band consists of four musicians and two dancers, often augmented by guests. Rupert Huber, of the well-known Austrian electronica duo Tosca, collaborates and performs with the group for selected occasions. All songs are composed and choreographed collaboratively by all group members.