Senegal

Now it's time to return to the birthplace of rhythm music, West Africa. Senegal is one of the most active music countries in Africa. There are interesting afrobeat bands, wild funk bands, melodic kora artists, experimental jazz groups, psychedelic tunes and latin style beats. I even included some hip hop and reggae artists on this list. I was surprised how many of the Senegalese bands had their music on Spotify. It was fairly easy to find at least some songs from all the artists I came across. I may have missed something essential as well, but that always happens. I'm still quite pleased with this almost four hour playlist containing almost 50 Senegalese artists or bands. Most of these come from Dakar, where there is a vibrant music scene. Enjoy, here's the playlist: Senegal.

Orchestra Baobab
This band uses latin-style beats in the background, but what you can hear on top of the beat is what amazes me. Wild grooves and psychedelic melodies. The horn section is top notch and there are some wild solos with a guitar as well.

Idrissa Diop
Idrissa Diop plays psychedelic groove with slightly out of date lo-fi sounds. The grooves are hectic but really rewarding. The saxophones play wild jazz melodies while the percussion section keeps on the wild rhythms that hypnotise the listener to a trance.

Dieuf-Dieul De Thies
These wild grooves manage to stay monotonous enough to hypnotise the listener, but at the same time wow you with the pure skill. The vocals have a strong role in the music and the electric guitars perfect the sound with amazing sound changes and psychedelic melodies.

Funkanala
Funkanala plays rhythmic funk music where the drums are the absolute number one instrument in the band. The rock organs play wild melodies, but still the focus shifts towards multiple percussions in the background.

Xalam
Salam plays funky rhythms with interesting bass lines and 80's style horn section and synth sounds. The sounds are a bit corny, but it doesn't really matter, since the overall feel is so cool. The melodies are well constructed.

Guelewar
Guelewar plays psychedelic rock with some hypnotic African-style beats. The vocal melodies take a departure from Western music style, but when you get into those melodies, they can be quite rewarding.

Le Sourouba de Louga
This band is quite a typical example of African funk, but I'm saying this as a positive thing. The rhythms make you nod and dance along. The bass lines are repetitive, yet innovative. The drummer and the guitar player are the most skilled musicians in the band.

Carlou D
Carlou D's music has many elements from classic funk scene, but the rhythms are more complex using the front beat instead of the back beat. The saxophone solos in the songs are beautiful and skilfully played.

Fatou Guewel
Fatou Guewel's music mixes many traditional West African elements with more modern sounds. The vocals are quite high pitched and the percussion sounds hand-played. Some of the synth sounds are a bit corny.

Orchestre G.M.I
This funky psychedelia band plays beautiful riffs with a 70's sound. The bass lines and saxophones are absolutely phenomenal, while the drummer keeps the complex beat on exact rhythm. The electric guitars just strum quickly as a rhythm instrument rather than as a melodic instrument.

Aby Ngana Diop
The sounds in this music are very 80's-like. Whistles, synths and even the drum sounds remind me of some of the commercial 80's African-style pop songs. The melodies and rhythms are, however, quite far away from Western style commercial music.

Super Diamono
Super Diamond plays wild and melodic songs with funky beats. What makes this band different from the others is the use of what sounds like a melodica. The melodies are quite conventional minor scales.

Orchestre Bawobab
This band plays relaxed and ominous jazzy tunes with funky guitars that rely on way-pedals. The vocal melodies are interesting and hypnotic. The horn section is the only thing in this music that's really tight compared to laid-back band on the background.

Lemzo Diamono
Lemzo Diamond plays movie-style crime funk with quite 80's-style sounds. Everything revolves around the rhythms. Even if the melodies are quite interesting and the saxophone is very skilfully played, the rhythms really are the main thing.

Amara Touré
Amara Touré plays Middle Eastern sounding melodies over Latin American style rhythms. The saxophone solos are amazingly hypnotic. The guitars, bass and drums keep up the basic work with beats leaving the melodic room for vocals and saxophones.

Fangool
Fungal plays funky 70's style psychdelia with some reggae influences. The rhythms resemble reggae, while the sounds are more typical of funk or psychedelia. The organ sounds are fantastic and I think the hypnotic and rhythmic pulse alone makes this one of the best bands on this list.

Mor Thiam
This funky afrobeat band really knows how to impress. All the individual instruments are played skilfully. There's a variety of different horns that "battle" over the funky rhythms and simple vocal melodies.

Aïda Samb
This artist is fairly typical African pop music where the rhythms are steady yet complex and the vocals soar above it all with melodies that are quite different from Western tradition of pop music. You can pretty much hear that this is quite commercial, but in a very different way as to that we have been accustomed to in the West.

Orchestre Laye Thiam
This band plays absolutely fantastic funky and mystic music that is ready to hypnotise the listener with the groove and solos. The overall sound is very 70's, but it still doesn't sound a day too old for this day.

Nuru Kane
Nuru Kane plays quite cool reggae music that uses some hip hop elements with the vocals. The vocals are a bit more melodic than the average vocals in hip hop, but the same kind of confidence is there.

Touré Kunda
Touré Kunda plays modern reggae music, where the melodies play a more important part than in most of the other types of music from Senegal. The beat just stays steady on the background, while the vocals paint relaxed and hypnotic melodies.

Positive Black Soul
This band plays a lot of hip hop music, but I have chosen more of a reggae song to this list. The sounds are well produced and quite commercial in that sense. They also sing in English, which is not that common in Senegalese music.

Diabel Cissokho
One of the greatest genres of music in Africa is kora music. this string instrument has a very distinctive sound and Cissokho uses it well to create hypnotic melodies backed up by unique sounding rhythm section.

Seckou Keita
Seckou Keita plays kora music with latin-style rhythms. What interests me is that the bass is used as much as a melodic instrument as the kora that is the main melodic instrument. The percussion is handling the rhythm, so that leaves room for bass to play around.

Ablaye Cissoko
this artist is one of the most skilful kora players I have ever heard. The band on the background plays wild funky afrobeat rhythms, but the kora takes the main stage with it's wild and fast solos. Absolutely amazing virtuoso stuff.

Kaouding Cissoko
This artist plays mystical melodies with kora. The bass is sometimes playing in unison with the kora while the percussions just keep on the steady hypnotic beat. This is great music for meditating, even if the rhythms are actually quite catchy.

Coumba Gawlo
This artist makes quite typical African pop ballads, but the skilful kora solos give her music some originality along with masterfully played solo guitars. The melodies play a more important role in this music as it does in many other songs on this list.

Les Frères Guissé
This pop band plays beautiful, yet quite simple melodies with clear vocals and excellent vocal harmonies. The Spanish style guitar in the background is skilfully played and you can hear the authenticity of nylon strings.

Cheikh Lô
The rhythms in this music are close to typical afrobeat, but the melodies have a more Middle Eastern approach. I guess this combines the two different African traditions in that sense. The sounds are quite calm and relaxed.

Souleymane Faye
I don't know if it's fair, but I get an immediate comparison from this artist to some of Moby's stuff. Of course the sounds here are more African-style, but the same kind of airiness and calmness of melodies is present in this music.

Ismaël Lô
This artist makes beautiful folk ballads with an acoustic guitar. The melodies and rhythms follow some traditional features of African music, but at the same time there are some similarities to Americana folk as well with the picked metal string acoustic guitar.

Diogal
This artist actually reminds me quite a lot of some Scandinavian traditional folk artists. There are similar melodies in Icelandic folk. The songs are a bit more rhythmic though. There are also some similarities to modern Western folk music in the guitar strumming style.

Wasis Diop
Wasis Diop plays relaxed and hypnotic rhythms that resemble latin beats, while the vocals are sung with seductive bass voice. The whole seductive impression is enhanced with the use of French language.

Daby Balde
Daby Balde plays beautiful blues music with skilfully played guitars and a hypnotic saxophone in the background. There are some relaxed funk elements there. The overall sound is very pleasant and enticing.

Le Tropical Jazz
This band plays latin style jazz music. The salsa beats change to horns that play in unison. Even the vocals are sung in Spanish that makes this sound like Latin America rather than Africa. It's all very danceable and rhythmic.

Baaba Maal
Baaba Maal is one of the biggest names in the Senegalese music scene. I can see why even if this is not my favourite artist on this list. The beats are quite typical of African music, while the melodies follow accustomed pop structures.

Etoile de Dakar
This band made a couple of Senegalese musicians famous. The most famous of them, Youssou N'Dour. There are quite typical afrobeat rhythms in the background, while the melodies soar a bit out of rhythm above all.

Omar Pene
Omar Pene plays relaxed and calm music with latin-style rhythms. His voice is clear and beautiful. There are two acoustic guitars playing a sort of "battle" to make up both the rhythm and the melody for the songs.

Amadou Diagne
This band actually remind me of some American Country Western songs. It may be due to beautiful whistling in the intro, because the rhythm is more latino, than Western. All the same, the calm and clean sounds are very pleasant to listen to.

King N'gom
This rhythmic band sounds a lot like the bands from Cuba, even if it does have some typical African influences. The guitar solos are innovative and beautiful. The vocals also have some quite annoying features, but I don't care, since the overall sound is quite pleasant.

Sister Fa
Sister Fa is one of the most modern artists on this list. The music is quite typical African pop music with kora and everything, but the production is skilfully carried out and the French rap bits on top of it all are quite fantastic.

Daara J
This hip hop artist sounds very modern. I've said it before, and I say it again: French is one of the best languages for rap music. The background music is well played mix of African beats and melodies and the choruses have a great catchy melody.

Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour is probably the best known Senegalese artist. His music relies on wild rhythm section which leaves his vocals room to play around with a variety of melodies. It's all quite melodic even if the rhythm section is the most important part.

El Hadji Faye
This artist was in the same band with Youssou N'Dour and like him, Faye as well has since become one of the biggest names in Senegalese music. The beats and melodies are quite simple, even if they differ quite a lot from Western music traditions.

Pape et Cheikh
Pape et Cheikh play very typical West African music with dark melodies and steady rhythms. The guitars are the main instrument in both melodies and rhythms even if the percussion plays its own part.

Kine Lam
Kine Lam uses kind of unconventional reggae beats in her music. It's not really reggae, but it reminds me of reggae. The melodies are quite original and strange. The electric guitars are skilfully played even if the scales are a bit strange.