(2017)
Label: Strut
2LP
Gatefold
Compilation
Mauritian / World
Last year’s Strut-curated Soul Sok Sega compilation gave an excellent overview of the 70s Mauritian music scene. This follow up effort details the movement that ran in contemporaneous parallel on neighbouring island Reunion.
A sister style to sega, maloya’s origins are in the music and dance of slaves on 17th century Reunion sugar plantations. While it gained wider acceptance in the mid-century, the 70s witnessed an explosion in the style’s popularity as the country’s youth embraced and modernised with western instrumentation. Led by the legendary Alain Peters and boasting the raw and gritty vocals of Hervé Imare, Caméléon were the renowned leaders of the scene. Their excellent La Rosée Si Feuilles Songes, which mixes psych tropes with traditional rhythms, serves as fine example of the movement’s magpie tendencies.
Elsewhere, Michou’s sweetly undulating Maloya Ton Tisane and Jean-Claude Viadére’s spare and beautiful Moin La Pas Fait Tout Sel both feature the type of jaw-droppingly beautiful percussion that marks the most essential pieces of maloya music.
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1 Caméléon - La rosée si feuilles songes
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3 Jean-Claude Viadère - Moin la pas fait tout sel
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4 Daniel Sandié - Défoule 3è age
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5 Cormoran Group - P'tit femme mon gâtéB
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6 Marie Hélen et ses Créol's - Séga le sport
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8 Vivi - Toé même Maloya
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9 Pierrot Vidot - Commandeur
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10 Hervé Imare - Mele-mele pas toué p'tit PierreC
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11 Groupe Dago - Réveil Créole
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12 Ti Fock - Sé pi bodié
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14 Vivi - Mi bord' a toé
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15 Maxime Lahope - Sous pied d'cameliasD
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16 Gilberte - Serre serre pas
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18 Hervé Imare - Mi donne a toué grand coeur
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19 Carrousel - Oté Maloya