Cameroon music reviews

....led me to clamp on a pair of headphones at Hear Music. Whoa! Track after beautiful track. Lyrical, gorgeous. Makes you want to lie back and let the music wash over you. You'll love it.

This CD always brings my mood up by many points. It is something different!

I acquired this CD more or less by accident, discovering it at a record store sound station in the world music section. I immediately loved the easy-going, colorful songs and joyful sound of Henri Dikongue's voice. They represent for me what is enjoyable about so many West African performers and the rhythms and instrumentation of their music.

After listening to this CD several times, I realized that both singer and songs remind me somewhat of Paul Simon in what I think of as his "Kodachrome" period. The songs are upbeat, bright, and cheerful, and they have an engaging way of insisting that "all the world's a sunny day." I've listened to this CD many, many times and have never grown tired of a single cut on it. It's a rich musical offering for both ear and heart. A companion African pop artist whose work I've found equally accessible is Kanda Bongo Man from Congo.

after seeing baka beyond live in concert recently we were compelled to pick up this recorded work. though it does not reproduce the unique energy of the concert,it pleases on other levels. when martin craddick and wife su hart lived with the baka pygmies in africa in 1992, it was no doubt a life altering experience. much of that comes through in the music presented on
"spirit of the forest". craddick,who's resume includes OUTBACK, a similarly genre busting project,teams with hart(vocals),paddy le mercier(another veteran of OUTBACK on violin and flutes)and members of the baka people who play percussion and several african instruments, to create a mellow listening experience based on a fusion of musical ideas. i paticularly like using this as background music for various endeavors, but there is plenty here for those who wish to have a provacative listening session as well. the warm commraderie the participants shared really comes through. i don't see how any fan of acoustic based alternative music will be disappointed in this recording. as an added incentive to explore this work, it is stated in the liner notes that "all performance and compositional royalties due to the baka for this album will be collected for them to use to protect their forest and to develop in a sustainable way without losing their knowlege or their culture."

I just bought this CD and WOW, I can't get enough of it. I can listen to it over and over again and each time my toes are tapping and the fingers are drumming. This CD is so up-beat and happy. Guaranteed I'll be buying more CD's by Baka Beyond.

I've owned this CD for many years, and grateful for the GRACE that
helped me discover it. It always picks my spirits up, even if I'm not down! It always makes me feel like moving. You can feel the respectful and genuine relationship Martin Cradick and Su Hart had with the Baka Pygmies. Martins production truly honors the interelatedness of us human beings, especially through music.

I just 'discovered' this group a few weeks ago through the Amazon recommendations - ordered the Journey Between CD and then promptly ordered several more of Baka Beyond's titles. I also ran out to a CD store and bought a few to give as Christmas gifts. It's a very interesting cd. It seems a bit more mellow compared to Journey Between; so far, that's my favorite Baka Beyond CD. Tracks 5 and 6 are my favorites on The Meeting Pool, they are the ones with more pep I suppose. I also have East to West, and Spirit of the Forest CDs by this group. East to West is more slick, Spirit of the Forest has a more primitive sound...

I was introduced to this CD when it came out and I was awe inspired by it. The blending of Celtic and Traditional African music is flawless. All of the tracks on the CD are fantastic. My most favorite one is Track 8-Booma Lena because of it's unique melodies and harmonies as well as an excellect beat that you can dance too. My boss at work loves the song and the entire album, so I gave her a copy. In essence, Buy this Album. You won't regret it. It is an eye opener to other music of different cultures and a relaxing one at that.

All of the songs on this album are good, and I definitely like most all of them, but there is one thing that just bears mentioning. OHUREO IS THE GREATEST SONG EVER. This album is worth it JUST for that song. That woman's voice is utterly breathtaking. Seriously, everyone on Earth should hear that song at least once. It is PERFECT in every way. It sends chills down my spine, it's so perfect. The guitar, that violin, the light waterdrums, and that woman's voice simply SOARING above everything. When the chorus breaks in, I always picture some kind of Medieval sorceresses casting a spell--and then that amazingly pained, sad but uplifting violin comes back into the mix... wow!

All of the songs are great, but that one.... that is in a class by itself.

The whole makassi album is a classic but African Typic Collection is my favourite of all the tracks. Listening to this music in the '80s was like listening to any hit song you hear on the radio for up to 5 months and it is forgotten. I didn't know the name of the artist because all we were intested in is listening to the music. Listening to it after almost 20 years or more makes me appreciate the exellent work Sam Fan Thomas delivered back in the '80s which makes it a classic yesterday, today and forever. Worth buying.

I am a fan of Sam Fan Thomas, I have listened to all his music but African typic collection is the best so far. This is a music that is easy to dance to and rich in many ways. In this music he uses a cameroonian language(Bamiliki,his tribe in cameroon), mixed with pigeon english and the french language. If you love international music you must listen to African Typic Collection.

I listen to this Cd so many times but never get bored of it. Africa typic is especially an excellent piece and very wel done. What happened to Sam Fan Thomas with his Makossa dance ?

People ought to know, even though this music is from Cameroon, that it is not Afro-pop. The lyrics are all Born-Again Christian ("Be certain that Jesus will lead you to the Way of salvation", etc.) except for "Bayedi" ("Tribute to the Parents"), and very moralizing in tone, if we trust the translations provided in the notes. If you don't mind that, or the fact that the album is marketed in the wrong category, you'll love this voice and the smooth arrangements.

The vocal harmonies on SEPIA are outstanding: European influences are strongly felt, including classical. Her vocals, which are the most important parts of the arrangements, lean toward the soft ballad side.
�This is very pretty music: music for listening, not for dancing.

This is a very special album. At first, I liked it but it didn't hit the heart until the third time I heard it. Take a chance on this incredible young musical talent.

This is some of the most incredible music I have heard in years. Every aspect of this album is superb and played to perfection. I especially enjoy the African percussion, fiddle, guitar,and vocals. You will find this music to be extremely uplifting. A masterpiece!

I first heard Baka Beyond at a festival and was enthralled immediately. Their music is infectious and forces you to smile, sway and rock back and forth in your chair before finally being carried away and jumping up and dancing with full force in the aisle! Listen and be enchanted for yourself :)

It's good to see that Baka Beyond is not resting on its laurels but has come out with another great, creative CD. Existing fans should not hesitate to get this. I've only had one complete listen-through but this CD seems to have more of a celtic influence than predecessors which is fine with me. Plus the djembe playing is excellent and more pronounced. While the group stays true to its acoustic feel, I was happy to hear some experimentation with electric guitar as well. Congratulations to Martin Cradick and company.

I have maybe 25 CDs of music from the continent, and this is still far and away my favorite. The one-disc "sampler" is like a "Best of..." -- very good, but as many listeners will know from first hand experience, some of the finer, and more subtle pieces are in the original complete recordings. True here in spades. If you only own one set of discs to represent Africa and all its nations and sounds, this is it.

If you're interested in listening to some African music and don't know where to start, you can't do better than this. It's got modern and traditional stuff on it -- mostly modern -- from all over the continent. My tapes of this set live in my cassette road case, and I listen to them when I go on long trips. The variety and quality are both excellent.

The booklet's a nice touch, too.

If you like soukous or zouk, or are interested in pan-African music, or like to jump around, this is your album. The high energy tracks have great arrangements, and the beats are non-stop. The style on the album is based on the makossa, and features some great tracks by the King, Sam Fam Thomas. It is a hybrid of different types of modern African pop from the 80's (compilation came out in early 1990's), fusing soukous guitar licks, horn arrangements, and the electro-synth Caribbean zouk rhythm, which was popular in France and West Africa in the 1980's and early 1990's. This album is perfect for dancing, parties, workouts, and just about anything. It is among the best African pop compilations I have ever heard, with really catchy melodies and tempos that make you want listen to it over and over. If only all world music releases could be this good.

Manu Dibango,has always been the insperational singer after his sensational album "negropolitaine" i dind not expext him to create such an inspiring african jazz. I would say this id an album of a life time like his all albums, he just conquered my heart. In fact i believe that at my age i am the biggest Manu Dibango fan from Mozambique. PS My is English is not that good, not my fisrt language i tried my best

The inter-cultural and inter-genre mixing on this album is enough to make anyone cringe at first glance. Likewise, the titling of Solomon Linda's classic "Mbube" as "Wimoweh" is equally cringe-worthy in its blatant attempt at marketing.

However, once you get by that, you'll hear a decent album. Manu Dibango, no matter how you cut it, is a great musician, and the opening track "Soul Makossa," performed in collaboration with Youssou N'Dour, confirms this.

The fall-down tracks tend to be the South African/South African related ones, in which the end result just sounds somewhat confused (Pata Pata is probably the best of that batch). Not terrible, mind you, just not overly great.

However, all-in-all there are a few tracks that stand out as quite good - Soul Makossa, Wakafrika, and Jingo are all quite good tracks.

The ultimate problem that this album suffers from is that it's good, but nothing really special. Perhaps, as the Amazon.com review notes, the problem is that in bringing in all these artists and trying all these styles, Dibango has to meld everything into a very homogenous sheen. If you really like that sort of worldbeat approach to music, then this is your album. It's pretty upbeat and danceable, yet it lacks a certain individuality and personality.

This is one of my favorite world music albums, one of my favorites in general. Melody, rhythm and lyrics blend together into something unique, but, not too foreign. Well worth a listen.

This CD is killer. There isn't one song that isn't great. I have certain CDs that I own that I consider precious jewelry because every song is a jewel. This is one of them. Words cannot express how much I love this guy and this CD!