Burundi Black – Burundi Black (12") / Mike Steiphenson
‘Burundi Black’ began life as a 1967 sociological recording of drums and chants of twenty five drummers of the Tambours Ingoma Tribe of Central Burundi. The tape came into the possession of classically trained French arranger and musician Michel Bernholc, who recorded under the somewhat slicker name of Mike Steiphenson. Steiphenson recorded a rock soundtrack over it, using piano, guitar and clavinet.
This track was released as the A-side, as Part 1. Part 2, on the reverse, is just the original drum track, and is credited to the Tambours Ingoma Tribe. The chanters and drummers are given free reign for intros and codas, and it is a full 32 seconds before Steiphenson enters with piano and clavinet. There’s a break for the drums to continue unaffected, a second, shorter sequence built on a screaming guitar, another break and then a furious final section as the three instruments pull together to their own climax, leaving the rhythmic drumming to fade things down.
The brilliance is that at no moment is there a loose spot. Steiphenson has integrated his music into the drumming as if the two components had been planned to be integral to each other, had been written in concert. And Steiphenson’s accomplishment is so perfect that if you listen to Part 2, it is complete in itself.
The two tracks have the same basis, but they are completely separate. I think that’s a measure of Steiphenson’s achievement.
Though Burundi Black never achieved any commercial success (and the Burundi Drummers certainly never saw a penny), the sound was surprisingly influential. Several records sampled the drums including, of all unexpected people, Joni Mitchell. Adam and the Ants ripped the whole Burundi drumming off for their sound, and even the rhythm for ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’.
A Burundi Black (First Part)
B Burundi Black (Second Part)
Label: Cachalot Records
Country: US
Media Condition: Very Good Plus (VG+)
Sleeve Condition: Very Good Plus (VG+)
Plays great but has many superficial hairlines