Global Rhythm Radio: Occitan Folk Traditions, Mapanta Dancefloor Rituals, Byzantinian Techno and beyond!

Hosted by Parisa Eshrati

Tune in to Global Rhythm Radio for an eclectic mix of contemporary and traditional international music, featuring your host Parisa. We'll be exploring two hours of music that bridges eras and continents, with this episode featuring all new releases and new reissues. Featuring informative talk breaks and track feature highlights on the blog!

This month's lineup includes:
- Resistance-fueled occitan folk traditions from Southern France 
- "Psychotropicolumbian" futuristic electronica
- Byzantinian scaled droney techno
- Anti-colonial Algerian conscious hip hop 
- Buchla synth-infused dodo music of western Kenya
- Industrial street performance art from Kinshasha
- Mapanta dancefloor music from the Bapedi people of Limpopo
and much more!

​Global Rhythm Radio originally airs the fourth Thursday of every month on 91.3 FM KXCI Tucson is archived here on T&E.

Tracklist is available here. 

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You can hear a ton of information about each song played on the episode, but to make these posts more interactive, I also now delve into two tracks from the mix, one contemporary and one reissued track, right here on the blog.
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Tracklist features

"Umanyo" - ODD OKODDO
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For my new release feature, I had to spotlight one of my favorite albums of the year so far, Palagoma from the collaborative group ODD OKODDO. This is the third full-length release from the band, and the inaugural release from a new Nairobi-based label called From Cool Waters. 

While ODD OKODDO collaborated in various guises and lineup formations across their releases, this particular album sees a unique fusion from three artists - experimental drummer and producer Sven Kacirek, esteemed 83 year old Kenyan folk artist Ogoya Nengo who sings in the Dholuo language, and singer and luthier Olith Ratego who incorporates dodo, which is a singing and dance tradition of the Luo community in western Kenya.

The experimental backdrop of this record is built around the modular Buchla synthesizer, but the glue that binds these varied sounds and textures together is the bond between the three artists. Per the press release:

Ogoya Nengo (which means "the most precious and expensive singer in the region” in the Dholuo language) has performed as a singer since her early childhood. However her appearances were very limited to the region where she is from. (Siaya, Rangala, Kisumu). She usually performed at wedding, funerals and special parties and events. Fast forward decades and she met Kacirek in 2009 as part of this field recording project, The Kenya Sessions, and credits Kacirek for helping to launch her career, having worked together on the aforementioned Rang'ala. “That is why I like Sven, because Sven lift me up. I took him like my son, and Sven took me like his mother,” she says. What’s more, as neighbours in Kenya, Ratego and Nengo live just three minutes apart by motorbike, and have known each other for “a very long time”.

​It's a beautiful, heady, contemplative release and accomplishes an incredibly dynamic and unique form of global fusion. Definitely recommend this full album!
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"Bombom" - Cheb Nacer
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For my reissue track feature, I have to go with the final track of this mix because it was one of my favorite reissued albums from late last year. From Bongo Joe Records comes a short compilation of Moroccan artist Cheb Nacer called Maroc Électronique Vol. 1.

Some notes on the release per the label:

Born in Oujda, he grew up surrounded by raï, staïfi and chaâbi before moving to Casablanca, where he blended these roots with the electronic sounds filling cabarets and clubs. Inspired by the international clips broadcast on 2M and RTM, he reimagined European hits in darija, creating a hybrid, dance-driven sound. Between 1993 and 2006, he released a string of tapes, shows and hits, defining his unique style: spontaneous, raw and festive techno-raï born in studios, living rooms and wedding halls. 

For context, raï is an Algerian popular music genre that originated back in the 1920s, and by the 1940s became a form of resistance for marginalized peoples in Algerian society. In a 2025 article for Shado Magazine, an author describes the movement as such: “Raï was giving a voice to a whole segment of Algerian society entirely absent from mainstream discourse and culture, especially one tightly controlled under French colonial administration. Raï was cementing its place as ‘a musical statement rebelling against political, social, and religious constraints,’ as defined by ethnographer Nasser Al-Taee.”

By the '60s, the genre saw incorporation of Western instruments and electronic sounds. And as you can hear from this '90s Cheb Nacer release, some releases became heavily inspired by eurorave club music. Well...perhaps a little more than "inspired", this track is basically an exact rip of "Boom, Boom, Boom Boom!!!" by Vengaboys. It's real good corny fun, and very endearing to hear the way '90s club music was universally admired and reinterpreted in its own unique way around the globe.

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Thank you so much for listening! Please feel free to leave a comment with any questions, comments, or share any songs that you enjoyed!
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