Blind Musical Flames Musical artist

Blind Musical Flames

Positive greetings from essential Sierra Leonean sight-impaired super-group Blind Musical Flames. Welcome to 2013. We’re starting light for now here at Awesome Tapes From Africa, deeper heavies to come. Hope you like simple pleasures, some dancing and a little bit of reggae.

Blind Musical Flames Flames Morale

Side A

High Morale

Tifi Sidom

Diamond

Mantaraty

Side B

Big Berin

Poda Poda

Seda Seda

8 Comments

Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.

mordyreply
January 2, 2013 at 4:15 pm

So bright and warm for a cold January!

Anonymousreply
January 2, 2013 at 9:01 pm

Thank you for posting music from frequently overlooked Sierra Leone. Any readers visiting Freetown should head straight to the Cassette Sellers Association upstairs at 9 Sackville Street for a large room piled high with cassettes and CDs and a helpful vendor. You’ll walk away very happy!

-Jimmyreply
January 10, 2013 at 6:55 am

Great tunes. I lived in Sierra Leone for a couple years. A lot of radio music is mostly Krio hip-hop these days, (which is still very nice, just a different vibe).

Are they singing about Strasser and the junta on High Morale? Does it have a year on the package?

Anonymousreply
January 18, 2013 at 4:42 pm

sounds like bavarian style in the beginning, as played at german carnival sometimes.

Mohamed Kamarareply
September 6, 2014 at 5:27 am

Jimmy asked about the year the music came out. Unfortunately, the tape has no year on it or on the package. However, I believe the album was released in 1992, the same year the Valentine Strasser led military junta, NPRC came to power in Sierra Leone (Jimmy has already noted the song is about the NPRC). The musical group itself disbanded the following year.

Also, do note that the title of the second song is “Titi Sidom” (notice the ‘t’). ‘Titi’ means girl in Sierra Leonean krio (a creole language).

Brian, thanks for the great service you are doing for us all African music lovers. God bless you immensely. I discovered you and your work about a couple of hours ago upon listening to the BBC documentary on Ata Kak, the lost and found musician from Ghana. Keep up the excellent work!

Brian Shimkovitzreply
September 10, 2014 at 7:18 am
– In reply to: Mohamed Kamara

thanks so much for the info, mohamed… and appreciate the kind feedback.

Davidreply
May 2, 2015 at 3:35 am

Beeeeeeeeutifal !

Rayreply
January 11, 2016 at 1:49 pm

I just want to knw he name of a paticular song by a member of this group in the Fula language apart from the “seda seda” listed above I really lov it! It’s a song about earth being vanity

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