Trance Percussion Masters of South Sudan

This hypnotic set comes from a village on the outskirts of Juba, the river port on the banks of the Nile that became a military centre when the Sudanese were fighting the SPLA rebels, and which is now the capital of South Sudan, Africa’s newest country. Today, it’s a town of oil men, NGOs and over-priced new hotels, but as this recording proves, powerful traditional music still survives. It’s based around the sound of one of Africa’s great instruments, a wooden xylophone known locally as the kpaningbo. The xylophone can be found in different forms right across the African continent, from the balafons of West Africa through to the mbila of Mozambique, and the most remarkable instruments are those that are played by three musicians at once. Uganda is famous for such music, and these kpaningbo players of South Sudan are clearly fine exponents.

It’s well recorded by Ian Brennan, who was responsible for the delightful Malawi Mouse Boys album, though as a package, it’s short on information. They make a great noise and it would be good to know more. This is an album of insistent, interlocking rhythms, driven on by additional percussion, and with sometimes repetitive chanting vocals added by female villagers. It’s worth playing loud, and should appeal to a wider audience than ethnomusicologists.