Oh that's good. It's going to appear on my last.fm stats about 20 times in a row now.... ;)

holy crap! that g2p thing rules!

i wish i could remember their name, but there's this awesome dance group from somewhere in africa (i forget the country) who build their own instruments out of stuff they have lying around, homemade microphones fashioned out of bamboo and old car stereo parts. it's sort of like the afro-beat version of einsturzende neubauten. what i heard of them is pretty frickin' sweet.

mgl, I'd email ramix. She can hook you up!

Jonny Clegg is a great musician from South Africa. Try a sample here.

syntax, you're thinking of Konono No. 1. I believe they're from Nigeria. They've got two albums, and there's also a compilation of groups from their, y'know, local scene or whatnot. It comes with a snazzy accompanying DVD, too.

mgl, what kind of stuff do you usually like? I'm thinking you might enjoy Ali Farka Toure and King Sunny Ade (though they play very different styles of music), and then there are jazz cats like Mulatu Astatke and Hugh Masakela, and funky Afrobeat people, mainly Fela Kuti and his various children and associates and contemporaries and whatnot, and beautiful female singers like Miriam Makeba and Angelique Kidjo and Zap Mama and Gigi, and collaboration-minded tourists like Mickey Hart, Ginger Baker, Paul Simon, Ry Cooder, Bill Laswell and Damon Albarn. And non-Africans who play African music, notably Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and Nomo. I'm forgetting tons of great artists (Olatunji! Osibisa! Orchestra Baobab!), but I hope that's a starting point.

konono no. 1! thank you!