The Gold Transmission

this episode is a little different.no song breakdown. no demo. just the why.orchestra gold is built on a simple but demanding idea: that the unique alchemy that happens when people of very different identities come together has medicine in it. not just symbolically. practically. the person least like you has what you most need.that idea goes back to sly stone, carlos santana, antibalas, the good people at stax records in memphis. it's not new. but the intention we're bringing to it might be.because one of the biggest obstacles to a world where everyone belongs is the spell of supremacy. and the way it manifests unconsciously in all of us. it's about deprogramming. about why music is a side door into that work in ways that direct conversation sometimes isn't.we hope you follow orchestra gold for the music. and stick around for the deprogramming.this is the gold transmission.want to go deeper? the vault is where we keep the good stuff. podcasts (ad-free!), demos, unreleased recordings, behind-the-scenes music and more. starts at $4 a month.orchestragold.com/vault.and if you want to take a piece of us home, our music really comes alive on wax:orchestragold.com/store

this episode is about bko, a malian ensemble from bamako, and their album djine bora, one of the most singular records to come out of mali in recent years. djine bora bridges donso hunters' music, maninka jeli music, and an edgy rock feel. three things that almost never cross in mali.the band runs on two ngoni players holding down separate registers, a warrior style djembe player, and a singer with one of the most respected voices in mali. this episode goes into who they are, what bko and djine bora mean, and a track by track walk through the album's best moments.this is bko's third album. buy it on bandcamp.this is the gold transmission.want to go deeper? the vault is where we keep the good stuff. podcasts (ad-free!), demos, unreleased recordings, behind-the-scenes music and more. starts at $4 a month.orchestragold.com/vault.and if you want to take a piece of us home, our music really comes alive on wax:orchestragold.com/store

if lobi traoré and zani diabaté got you leaning into malian music, this episode goes inside the marrow of it. this one is a conversation with yacine kouyaté, a dear friend, recorded in his courtyard in bamako back in 2022, originally shot for youtube and repurposed here for the podcast.yacine goes deep into how malians actually think about and categorize (or don't!) their own music, highlighting the importance of instrument, region, and ethnic tradition. he explains the bamana word for music and the word for speaking, and why they're the same word. he talks about the donso people, the hunters' tradition that came up in our zani diabaté episode, in much more depth here. and he walks through what he calls mali's second independence, the push to get out of the french monetary system, the roots of the tuareg crisis in gaddafi's fall in libya, and what it actually looks like to try to build something clean out of all of it.before the interview, erich shares some personal reflections on privilege, racial hierarchy, and why this is everyone's work, not just the work of people directly targeted by it.the audio is a little rough, recorded outdoors, but the information is worth it.want to go deeper? the vault is where we keep the good stuff. podcasts (ad-free!), demos, unreleased recordings, behind-the-scenes music and more. starts at $4 a month.orchestragold.com/vault.and if you want to take a piece of us home, our music really comes alive on wax:orchestragold.com/store

this episode is about super djata band and zani diabaté, one of the most important guitar players you've probably never heard of, and why the through line from muddy waters to jane's addiction to bambara music is not a coincidence. zani diabaté was one of mali's most extraordinary guitarists, and few outside mali knows his name. he founded super djata band in bamako, built one of the fiercest orchestras west africa ever produced, and somewhere along the way mastered a wah pedal. this episode goes inside his playing. the accompaniment work that shifts behind a singer to bring out a different side of a song. the way structure in this music isn't absent, it's just different, built on repetition and vibe instead of verse and chorus, and why that reminds erich so much of jane's addiction. the delay on the vocals that shows up at malian street ceremonies and in orchestra gold both. the donso hunters' tradition running underneath all of it.we also get into where super djata's living legacy is today, from les héritiers, the descendants who carried zani's sound forward after he died in 2011, to bamba wassoulou groove, still touring today and built by super djata's own former conga player.this is the gold transmission.want to go deeper? the vault is where we keep the good stuff. podcasts (ad-free!), demos, unreleased recordings, behind-the-scenes music and more. starts at $4 a month.orchestragold.com/vault.and if you want to take a piece of us home, our music really comes alive on wax:orchestragold.com/store

this is an investigative piece on the vinyl reissue market, and it might be some of the best reporting I've heard in this space. Afropop Worldwide's Morgan Greenstreet lets label owners, DJs, and artists speak for themselves, and the nuances of the story come through because of it. I've seen artists recorded in Mali who didn't get their fair shake, and this episode sits inside that complexity instead of flattening it. if you collect African vinyl, or you care about how power and colonialism show up inside the music industry, this one's worth your time.●⋄ original show notes ⋄ — from Afropop WorldwideThe golden age of vinyl records is long past in Africa, but the market for rare and reissued African vinyl outside the continent has been growing steadily since the early 2000s. DJs and collectors have turned an obsession with rare records and forgotten gems from Cape Town to Tangiers into an international reissue and compilation industry, led by record labels such as Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa. This program explores some of the complex and shifting dynamics of neocolonialism, cultural ownership and audience in the African vinyl market. We’ll hear stories from label owners, DJs and artists, touching on controversies around Nigerian disco funk reissues, new career opportunities for sometimes-obscure African artists, the unique vinyl culture in South Africa, and much more. Produced by Morgan Greenstreet and Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar, with Nenim Iwebuke.APWW #749want to go deeper? the vault is where we keep the good stuff. podcasts (ad-free!), demos, unreleased recordings, behind-the-scenes music and more. starts at $4 a month.orchestragold.com/vault.and if you want to take a piece of us home, our music really comes alive on wax:orchestragold.com/store