A couple of weeks ago,I attended a family ceremony and there was a comedian-cum-MC invited to entertain guests. the guy was quite funny and every now and then he would break into a song-completely solo with no accompaniment. Great & powerful voice...especially when he put the mic down and sung 'free-to-air'
Later,he owned up and said that he is also a musician...and that he had some of his CDs with him for sale. I bought one and took it home.
What a disappointment! First,it was duplicated using one of those formats that cannot be read by a regular CD player,so I had to play it via my DVD machine. The sound quality was so bad; in fact unbearably so! You can hardly here the lyrics in the songs because of the hard (not boomy) bass and harsh trebble. Adjusting the tone controls did not help at all,so I stopped listening to it and decided that it sh200 down the drain!!
This is the biggest problem with Kenyan music....the musicians are very good but the recording studios are killing the industry with their terrible products. I used to think that the problem was only in the cassettesrecoded on lowest grade commercial tapes without any master tapesbut now I know it is everywhere.
After this experience,I am now even more reluctant to purchase any of the current 'top' musicians [the Jua Calis etc] products....but,hey,I might just give them a try....
Having said that; I have a recording of Muungano National Choir's 'Missa Luba' on cassette. It is amazing....you can even hear the musician's gowns flapping as they sing and dance [of course some of the credit for clarity goes to my Yamaha KX 393 cassette deck!!!]. What helps more is that it was recorded semi-live; i.e.,in a theartre auditorium but without an audience....instead of doing it in a studio.
I also have the 'On Stage with Remmy Ongala' [the self-proclaimed ugliest man in the world!!] recording on vinyl. It's a wonderful recording though the bass can get a little boomy on some tracks....but the tone controls get rid of it quite easily.
Behind the gardens...Behind the wall...Under the tree (Including: Red...Dark Blue...Yellow)
Nothing is real unless it can be named; nothing has value unless it can be sold; money is worthless unless you spend it.