Label: AMHA - AE 270
Artist: Seifu Yohannes
A/B Side: Mela Mela / Tezeta
Grade: Vg- to Vg
Killer 6/8 banger on the A side
B side Tezeta (a nostalgic memory) is purest Ethiopian, nowhere else on the continent can pull this kind of sound!
Check the Mahmoud Ahmed version of ‘Mela Mela’, also listed.
A Side: Mela Mela
Label: AMHA - AE 570
Artist: Hirut Bekele
Side A/B: Almokerkum Nebere / Esu Naw Meselegne
Grade: Vg- to Vg (Green & red marbled vinyl) slight surface hiss due to coloured vinyl.
Funking a side from one of the best female singers, from ‘the golden era’ of Ethiopian music.
Check the mid song jam, funky highland guitar meets slamming drums.
Side A: Almokerkum Nebere
Label: Philips - Ph 108
Artist: Menelik Wossenatchew / Telela Kebede
A/B Side: Aderetch Arada / Kelemewa
Grade: EX (shop stock)
2 sides cut by Haile Selassie's Imperial Bodyguard Band.
Menelik Wossenatchew's operatic vocal prowess is clear on Adarech Arada. It's about a hip little area in Addis where active young ladies would gather and what they got up to when their mothers weren't watching..gulp!
The b side is a great theatrical piece with backing chorus.
A Side: Aderetch Arada
Label: Philips - Ph 214
Artist:Belaynesh Wubante & Assegedetch Kassa (with Mulatu Astatke)
Side A/B: Alemiye / Gubiliye
Grade: G+ to Vg
Track titles: Alemiye / Gubiliye
Deep double sider from a couple of young ladies who used to sing together in an Addis Ababa bar. Mulatu heard them and said 'why don't we try something...'
One of 2 x 45s that they cut on consecutive Philips releases.
Some psyche sounds in there plus extended solos in the mid section of each track. Deeep!
Side A: Alemiye
Label: Philips - PH 101
Artist: Tilahun Gessesse / Mulatu Astatke
Side A/B: Tiz Alegn Yetintu / Emnete
Grade: G+ to Vg
Needs little intro...
The great Tilahun Gessesse, Ethiopia’s most celebrated singer of all time, laying it down over a 6/4 groove.
B side is Mulatu doings his thing! Emnete means ‘My thoughts.’
Label is rough but the record better.
A play out copy, clicks near the beginnings but still drops!
Side A: Tiz Alegn Yetintu
Side B: Emnete
