Jantra - Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground

Ostinato Records

£21.60

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: OSTLP014
Barcode: 827565062942
Release Date: 30 Jun 2023
Genre: Afro House

01: DarGoog Intro - Jantra
02: Gedima - Jantra
03: Makhafi - Jantra
04: Ozali - Jantra
05: Shabal - Jantra
06: Jaglara Interlude - Jantra
07: Homoom - Jantra
08: Khadija - Jantra
09: Feej - Jantra
10: Jaborouna Jabor - Jantra

The first ever release of electronic Jaglara, an obscure dance music being innovated in an area near the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea border called Fashaga.

Among the most raucous, hypnotic, addictive, and celestial dance styles being made anywhere in Africa, this heavy, mysterious sound is being led by one man: Jantra, which translates as "craziness," a moniker bestowed to celebrate both his personality and sound. Jantra is a rather unknown quantity even in Sudan, outside of the circles which have granted him cult status to perform at their humble gatherings or at street parties far from the gaze of the cities.

Jaglara, which roughly translates as improvisation, has no songs. Jantra simply freestyles a combination of his melodies incessantly for hours on end, acting as a live producer and DJ for emphatic crowds, where the energy of his 155 - 168 BPM music is known to inspire the odd gunslinger to raise and fire his pistol in the middle of the dance floor. His music is hopeful in a hopeless world, uplifting in spirit, ancient and new, childish and mature, familiar yet refreshingly obscure, fueled by the hypnotic Sera rhythm. His Yamaha keyboard is specially tweaked to achieve what you're hearing — the perfect, sweet key tone, literally universal in its appeal.

A hybrid reissue-contemporary album, Ostinato combined extracted individual melodic patterns, rhythms, and MIDI data from Jantra's Yamaha keyboard with his older cassette and digital recordings to recreate his lengthy sessions into individual dance tracks for a worldwide audience to reach the enviable frenzy of Sudanese crowds. This promising new dance music emerging from the deepest reaches of Sudan has never made its way outside of Jantra's parties, let alone outside of the country.

This record is confirmation that the many electronic styles being exported from Africa have a worthy sibling and rival—Jantra's signature electronic Jaglara from the Fashaga underground. It is a privilege of the highest order to be exposed to this unheralded, incredibly well kept rural Sudanese secret.

““It will be hard to beat Jantra and his unique dance music this year”
— Nowa Muzyka Poland

““Each track locks into a solid groove and rides it to trance-inducing heights””
— Bandcamp Album of the Day

““The canon of African electronic music is significantly enhanced by the release of ‘Synthesized Sudan”
— Folk Radio UK

““A deeply uplifting, cheerful and peaceful sound”
— TAZ Germany

““It gets surreptitiously under your skin””
— Arts Desk

““Jantra and his jaglara sound are revelations of intergalactic retro-futurism from the Sudanese countryside" ★★★★”
— Songlines