30th
Keyboards, keyboards, keyboards
Keyboards rule right now in Ethiopia. Pre-programmed breakdowns and synthesized horns dominate both popular modern music and much religious music. With one mid-range keyboard synth, a person can programme the component parts of an Ethiopian song – leaving space for some noodling during a live performance of course – providing listeners with an ‘updated’ Ethiopian sound for a new generation. While it’s liberating for budding musicians, it’s a kick in the balls for someone who likes their Ethiopian music played by brass, skins and strings. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to ruin anybody’s fun; I can totally understand why the relatively cheap keyboards would be an ideal modern choice for Ethiopian musicians and that they give locals the opportunity to perform in public without the expense and hassle of assembling a band. Keyboards have helped wrestle modern music away from the Addis elite and promote expression among people in all regions. But the result is this: rigid, programmed versions of traditional music with amateurish breakdowns reminiscent of my granddad tinkling over pre-recorded ditties on his electric piano in his front room.
Protestant Christians churn out the worst of this type of music. Using a more uplifting scale and cheap sounds, it’s the equivalent of accidentally selecting the ‘African’ demo on an illuminous yellow, plastic ‘Your First Keyboard’, repeating over and over again because the buttons are shit. Only, it’s worse than that because there is a wounded cybertron warbling throughout. I know this all might sound curiously good to some people but trust me, it isn’t. We’re not talking vocoders. Ethiopia has picked up the synthetic, digitally-wandering robo-voice from Cher and run with it. Now you’re lucky if you get through a song without the singer’s voice flitting undecidedly between notes.
However, when performed live over struggling sound systems, the beats get pushed into the red and clean synth sounds gain some edge and noise. Whether they realise it or not, their 6-8 minute long odes to Jesus get a lot more unholy and interesting when squeezed through creaking speakers.
I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe it was wishful thinking that I’d drop into a society that actively celebrated the music of the 60s and 70s, passed down to younger generations who would still perform in a similar style. It is a common thing to view the past as something special and the present to be inferior or insignificant in comparison, and it is truly a testament to the quality of that earlier music that it has attracted so much attention across the world. But to the Ethiopians – and a lot of developing societies – new is good and often the past is something to be forgotten, especially when you consider the painful upheavals of the last 40 years. My only beef is that the ‘new’ is not to my liking, but then Ethiopians are not making music for me, so what do they care? If the keyboards bring the music to the masses, then that’s ok with me. I’ll just stick to the Ethiopiques.
