Various Artists - Tsapiky! Modern Music From Southwest Madagascar

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: SF126
Barcode: 0843563186589
Release Date: 03 Oct 2025
Genre: Folk 

Tsapiky music from Southwest Madagascar features wild ecstatic vocals, distorted electric guitars, rocket bass, and the amphetamine beat! Unlike anything else, this is THE high life music you've always wanted - ceremonial music played with abandon and extreme intent, honoring the living and dead alike. In Toliara and its surrounding region, funerals, weddings, circumcisions and other rites of passage have been celebrated for decades in ceremonies called mandriampototse. During these celebrations – which last between three and seven days – cigarettes, beer and toaky gasy (artisanal rum) are passed around while electric orchestras play on the same dirt floor as the dancing crowds and zebus. The music, tsapiky, defies any classification. This compilation showcases the diversity of contemporary tsapiky music. Locally and even nationally renowned bands played their own songs on makeshift instruments, blaring through patched-up amps and horn speakers hung in tamarind trees, projecting the music kilometers away. Lead guitarists and female lead singers are the central figures of tsapiky. Driven as much by their creative impulses as by the need to stand out in a competitive market, the artists distinguish themselves stylistically through their lyrics, rhythms or guitar riffs. They must also master a wide repertoire of current tsapiky hits, which the families that attend inevitably request before parading in front of the orchestra with their offerings. This work, a constant push and pull between distinction and imitation, is nourished by fertile exchanges between various groups: acoustic and electric, rural and urban, coastal or inland. What results during these ceremonies is a music of astonishing intensity and creativity, played by artists carving out their own path, indifferent to the standards of any other music industry: Malagasy, African or global. Recorded live on location by Maxime Bobo, this vinyl LP includes a 4-page full-color insert with detailed liner notes plus photos of the musicians and surroundings.

 
"Highlights the dynamic tension at the heart of tsapiky: the interplay between tradition and innovation, rural and urban influences, acoustic roots and electric reinvention." WMC
"You don’t really need to know anything about this music to enjoy it, but an appreciation for in-the-red sonics and an air of abandon sure helps" Magnet essential new releases.
"Spotlighting tsapiky, genius, highly addictive hi-NRG DIY boogie music that's been evolving in Madagascar since the '70s, this latest Sublime Frequencies anthology pulls apart its various seams, juxtaposing blown-out synth-heavy dancefloor variants with unhinged acoustic jams." Boomkat
"not only a document, but also a vital dispatch from a completely unique genre." 4Columns

TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
A1 - MAMEHY - Je mitsiko ro mokotse (“Those who talk dirty behind your back tire themselves out for nothing”)
A2 - DRICK - Sinjake Panambola (“Dance of the rich”)
A3 - BEFILA - Eka ndao (“Let's go”)
A4 - BEHAJA - Marolinta (Name of a village on the south-western tip of Madagascar)
SIDE B
B1 - MAHAFALY MIHISA - Fanoigna (“Heated debate“
B2 - MENY & ANDO - Ka tseriky iha (“Don't be surprised”)
B3 - REBONA - Zana-Konko
B4 - MIRASOA & MAHAPOTEKE - Bleu bleu (“Blue blue“)