From the 70s, while the soundsystem culture was developing, more and more african records arrived on the colombian coast due to increasing commercial exchanges between international harbors.
Some african songs became hits, african styles being surnamed: nova for highlife tracks, rastrillo for kenyan tracks... It was such a big success for the youth of Cartagena and Baranquilla that even each popular song received his own surname. Also several tracks have been bootlegged in terapia/champeta compilations (which leads to find improbable records including a pure benga followed by an awful 80s techno), and not always credited the original artist/title, but just the local surname known by everybody.
That's the reason of this special selection, composed only of african tracks (Liberia, Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Zaire). These tunes are popular in Baranquilla's southern barrios, as long as you speak about: la botellita, el serrucho, la guitarrita, la mecedora, la munequita, el rastrillo, el beto, los palitos, la pipona, el ejen, el akien, la llorona...
What is particularly appreciated is when the song enters in a specific rhythm, where remains guitar and a streamlined drums giving a kind of gliding atmosphere (this is called "el repique", and many african records lovers in Colombia are crazy about it).
Terapia Africana Mix (70min):
To be followed here: Pico Culture #03 (mysterious records)
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