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OK, how about some free music now that you?Äôve dipped into the music budget to pay for a Valentine?Äôs Day gift and card? And by ?Äúfree?Äù I mean ?Äúfree and legal downloads of music from a computer website that agrees to remove any music per artist request or demand.?Äù

One of my favorite websites with free music is an mp3 blog known as Awesome Tapes from Africa, found online at http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com. Be ready to spend a lot of time there, as Brooklyn blogger Thursdayborn aka Brian Shimkovitz has been digitizing and posting music from hundreds of cassettes he has brought back from trips to Africa, along with information and his opinions regarding the music.

This site is a wealth of information and great sounds. The artists range from internationally well-known names like Ali Farka Toure, King Sunny Ade, and Hugh Masekela to obscure local musicians who apparently felt like it was a good day to roll tape and play some music. Many musical styles are well-represented here: highlife, jazz, gospel (with Ghanaian lyrics), the Ghanaian style of hip-hop known as hiplife, traditional folk, and music that sounds like the African equivalent of the garage band aesthetic.

The blog?Äôs current posting (February 3, 2008) is must-have stuff. The cassette cover is on display; the only words on it that are not in Ethiopia?Äôs Amharic script are ?ÄúDISTRIBUTOR MISRATCH MUSIC SHOP?Äù and its Addis Ababa address and telephone number. The person who posted the music, a special guest blogger, had no information about the music other than ?ÄúFans of the ?ÄòEthiopiques?Äô series will surely enjoy.?Äù

The music sounds like a midnight desert funk jam with Pink Floyd and Mulatu Astatke, made eerier by the occasional in-and-out-and-back-in-tune effect likely caused by the heads in the cassette player. Long jams, passionate singing by someone who is either deeply in love or ready for revenge, some kickass horn section arrangements, and everything else about the music a total mystery. Except for the only thing that really matters. The music.

Dig around the site?Äôs archives and find some real treasures. Names like Mariam Bagayogo, Moolobali Traore, Ata Kak, Kante Manfila, and Alhaji K. Frimpong, all incredible musicians whose music is all but lost in today?Äôs iMarketplace.

Thursdayborn, according to a Tokion Magazine article displayed on the website, was once offered a Fulbright Scholarship as an ethnomusicologist. His mp3 blog exists in a similar vein, with its offerings of contemporary African music that would be forgotten sooner than later, here given new life to a wider audience, similar to discoveries of new music of Ancient Greece but in the immediacy of this very moment. A ?Äúfuture ancient now?Äù approach to ethnomusicology.

To put it another way: consider Beethoven. A well-known name. One that will be remembered forever. Pink Floyd? Probably not. Alhaji K. Frimpong? Are you kidding? Have YOU ever heard of Alhaji K. Frimpong? Well, now you can and you?Äôll be able to hear, as I have, that his music is awesome. More on the King Floyd side of things than the Pink Floyd one. May cause spontaneous dancing. And sadly unheard by too many ears.

Now, about that Valentine?Äôs Day card?Ķ

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