Teranga Beat returns to its roots in West Africa and more precisely to Gambia, to present Galgi, the second album of Bai Janha’s groovy steamroller Karantamba on the label. The first album of Karantamba – Ndigal was a crucial one for the label as it was its third release, marking its identity: exploring cultural hybrids where traditional music is still present, in that specific region of West Africa in the beginning and later on to other parts of the continent and the Mediterranean.

“The Afro-Manding music is definitely one of my favourite and I was sure I was going to return to Gambia one day! When I visited Bai Janha in August 2010 in his house in Kololi to prepare the release of Ndigal, he told me that he had another unreleased album on two master reel tapes. The next days we were trying to find in Gambia a reel to reel machine to listen to them. We finally found one, but it was not in a good shape, so the sound was coming out poorly, it struck me though the ‘80s sound of the synthesizers and guitars and I hoped I would have another chance to listen to them properly.

During the Covid pandemic, I was communicating with Bai regularly, and I reminded him of this album and I asked him to send me over the tapes to have a proper listening. One, week later, I received the reel tapes which I had to treat them carefully to proceed to the digitization, all these ‘80s reel tapes are very fragile. There is a risk of playing them once and destroyed them totally. From the first listening I understood I had to release this album. The mix they had done in the studio was a bit chaotic, so it needed a very special treatment on the mastering to achieve a good result to make it worthy to release it on vinyl. The difference between Galgi and the previous recordings of Karantamba is not only the ’80s sound but also the female vocals of Ndey Nyang!

Galgi was recorded 4 years after Ndigal in 1988 in Studio Wings in Dakar. As an original ‘80s recording, guitars and synthesizers are thriving together with a killer groove throughout the entire album. Galgi means “Slave ship” in Wolof, a track dedicated to the people who suffered during the Atlantic slave trade, and this is why the photo of the cover was shot in the emblematic House of Slaves in the Gorée island in Dakar. The song remains contemporary, as many people today take the risk of sailing through the maelstrom of the Atlantic Ocean towards unknown shores—a journey reminiscent of the historical immigration from the West Coast of Africa, where slave ships once set sail. This time though, it reflects an effort to escape the realities imposed on Africa by former colonisers since the continent gained independence.”