In 1987, Somalia’s Dur-Dur Band recorded their Volume 5 cassette amidst the vibrant Mogadishu music scene. Volume 5 will be released by Awesome Tapes From Africa on February 5, offering a vivid snapshot of the country’s contemporary music scene before the country destabilized in 1991.
Dur-Dur Band emerged in the early 1980s, during a time when influences spanning several genres of Somali traditional music, often meshed with Western pop, jazz and Middle-Eastern elements, a swirling diversity of sounds were being created.