Oba Train

Terrakota – Oba Train
Reviewed by Sadie O., 10/17/07
Amazing African Diaspora multicultural mashup from Lisbon. Lots of African percussion, several Reggae tracks, some North African and Flamenco input, a bit of Makossa Soul. Many voices, mostly lovely female vocals and harmonies, bits of hip hop, etc. Several languages. All excellent. Don’t miss out on this!
Everything runs together, usually with bits of talking or random sounds – so there are lots of these things at starts and ends of tracks.
No FCCs detected. Very strong socio-political emphasis in lyrics.
Tracks 2, 4, 7 and 11 are amazing, everything else is merely excellent…
1. 6:16 ***spoken and drum intro, then uptempo percussion with speaking in a variety of languages. Actual song starts about a minute in, sweet African-based swing, lyrics mostly in French, harmonies.
2. 5:25 ****starts with a bit of a lecture in Portuguese, then gorgeous uptempo skank with sitar, lyrics mostly in Portuguese. Insanely cool.
3. 6:58 ***starts with random sounds, song starts coming in gradually after 30 seconds. Uptempo complex groove with lots of hand drums, a bit of skank, lovely female vocals in Portuguese.
4. 5:44 ****starts with urgent talking in French, then somewhat uptempo North African groove with a bit of Flamenco and a bit of skank, wonderful harmonies in French and Arabic and Spanish.
5. 5:40 **starts with bullroarer and bits of malinke. Song builds gradually, very pretty and ethereal. Flute and solo female vocals in Portuguese.
6. 6:20 ***starts with soft handdrums, then djembe. Uptempo African groove, seems to have hints of both Soukous and Zulu jive.
7. 4:51 ****starts with U-Roy toasting! Slightly uptempo skank with bits of African instrumentation, vocals in English. Great song, and anything with U-Roy is just that much better! Yep, this is definitely the poop!
8. 5:21 ***starts with speaking in English, after about 30 seconds very uptempo African percussion, then a bit of Makossa-style keyboard, vocals in English. Ends with bit of speaking in English.
9. 4:24 ***starts with short bit of speaking, then sweet, slow African-flavored Reggae bubble with lots of dub, bits of lyrics in English.
10. 4:57 ***starts with drips and kids playing, then uptempo and complex African percussion. Female solo vocals in English and French.
11. 8:07 ****starts with lots and lots of midtempo African percussion, bits of speech, then nice funky Makossa groove, lyrics in Portuguese and ?? and English. Long fade.