Gonjasufi & Bella Kali

Some songs are just 'funky', your head starts bobbing before you even notice what's happening. This is not the head-banging of driving techno, nor the head-nodding of a rocking folk-song. Words come thickly this morning, so instead of describing it, you can experience it by listening to these two song.

The first is 'Bella Kali' from Las Grecas's 1974 album 'Gypsy Rock'. Las Grecas were a flamenco duo of two sisters from Spain, so I'm sure there is an interesting story there. The song is a sort of Gypsy-Surf rock with driving female vocals that transcends into realms of pure funk that may only exist in the mid-1970s.



Next is a song by Gonjasufi, a Mexican/Ethiopian/American working out of San Diego, whose vocals are "a scraggly, scary, smoked-out croak that creeps like the spiritual offspring of George Clinton and Lead Belly" while his music is "largely experimental, fusing urban beats with psychedelic flourishes." His song 'Kowboyz & Indians' samples 'Bella Kali' to create a global fusion of lo-fi funk.



Gonjasufi's first album A Sufi and a Killer (2010) still haunts me...