10 things we didn’t know at the start of 2010

1. Broadway stage musicals can be cool
This year, New York and London went crazy for Fela![felaonbroadway.com], the stage musical based on the life of Afrobeat pioneer and Nigerian political dissident Fela Kuti. Superstars like Jay-Z and Will Smith are now citing Fela as an influence, and his back catalogue has been re-released in the US. 36 years after his first visit there, and 13 years after his death, Fela Kuti is finally famous in America.

!!! UPDATE !!! Kino Aero in Prague is doing a live broadcast of Fela! from London's National Theatre, on January 13th. Don't miss it!

2. Kenya has hipsters
Ironic 70s retro clothing and viral videos are not just northern-hemisphere phenomena. Kenyan electrofunk crew Just A Band became the biggest phenomenon in East Africa this year, with their viral video for the single Ha-He. The video resurrects modern Kenyan folk hero Makmende – a fictional 70s hard man who is an East African version of Dirty Harry crossed with John Shaft.

3. Punk’s not dead in Trinidad
If you're a regular listener, you're probably already familiar with many of the contemporary punk subcultures around the world. But Trinidad? Yeah, this one was a surprise to us too Anti-Everything, who bring a unique brand of militant anarchist punk rock with steel drums and Trini patois. Their 2010 single I'z D Man is one of the hottest - and most unexpected - releases of the year.

4. Post-rock bands can perform in remarkably small spaces
This year Radio Wave moved from our former studios in Zizkov, to a series of small cupboards on the 4th floor of Cesky Rozhlas’s Vinohradska headquarters. To christen the new studio, the Friday Ripple tried an experiment: what happens when you put an extremely loud post-rock band in this small space? Our assistants in the experiment: South African-Czech post-rock/jazz experimentalists The Jonathan Crossley Band! They went into full post-rock mode, playing a set of tracks from Crossley's noisier South African outfit Aike Project. After a rocking gig in the smallest venue these guys have ever played, we learned the following: the new Radio Wave soundproofing works; it's possible to set up a full drumkit in a smaller space than you might expect; not everyone appreciates avant-garde saxophone solos in the corridors of Cesky rozhlas headquarters (sorry, neighbours! :))) )

5. The Shangaan are raving
This year, UK record label Honest Jon's introduced the world to a rave culture phenomenon which wasn't even particularly well-known in its native lands. The minority tribe in southern Africa known as the Shangaan or Tsonga have a rave culture based on 180 BPM techno reworkings of marimba and thumb piano samples. And it's some of the the craziest rave music you've ever heard: look out for the Shangaan Electro compilation album.

6. In one very specific context, racism can be funny
Meet Das Racist, the Friday Ripple’s token American hip hop act. First-generation Americans Himanshu Suri and Victor Vazquez are on a mission to represent “brown people” in hip hop, and to make cruel fun of absolutely everyone else. This year they released two terrific mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and the Diplo-compiled follow-up Sit Down, Man. It’s clever, funny outsider music, carefully crafted to make you feel slightly uncomfortable.
Download Das Racist's mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man.

7. Prague’s West African music scene is growing fast
There has long been a small number of bars in Prague catering to African music. This year, however, it really blew up: huge Nigerian stars like African China playing in Prague? Olu Maintain on Radio Wave? The Czech Republic is now properly on the West African music map! In 2011, watch out for some new West African releases coming out of right here in Prague; you will, of course, hear them on Radio Wave's Friday Ripple.

8. You are more likely to hear original music from a vuvuzela than from Shakira
To celebrate Africa’s first football World Cup, Shakira released a cover version of a popular Cameroonian song. She also credited herself as the songwriter, and took the money. However, we’re now in the era of global internet, and people notice this kind of thing nowadays. The real winner of the 2010 World Cup was Somali rapper K’naan, who used the money from a soft drink sponsor to record multiple versions of his hit Waving Flag with artists all over the world – after Shakira's song was to a great extent buried under negative publicity, Waving Flag became the undisputed anthem of the championship.

9. Arabic Reggae is rising
This year saw several terrific reggae releases across the Middle East, most notably from Saudi Arabia's Dr Jeez and Jordan's Autostad. It's becoming increasingly obvious that, while most of the world's reggae subcultures are more or less a direct copy of the Jamaican template, reggae in the Arab world has developed its own style, drawing as much on Arabic influences as Jamaican. With a Dr Jeez album planned for release in 2011, we can expect to hear more of this very soon.

10. Czech people “often” steal statues???
I simply must finish on this surreal piece of local news...
In June, Prague City Hall published the most utterly bizarre press release of the year. They announced that: (1) there will be a statue of Michael Jackson as a Roman emperor on Prague’s Letna hill; (2) this statue can only be made of cheap materials, because Czech people “often” steal bronze statues. Unfortunately I’m not joking: you can read the full press release on the Prague City Hall website; the paragraph titled “No to bronze, as it could be stolen” is particularly interesting.
Fortunately, the project was quietly buried following an outcry by the public and by several internationally-known Czech artists. On a personal note, I was rather surprised that more people weren't offended by the (absolutely groundless) claims of rampant statue theft, published by an institution which is supposed to be responsible for officially representing the city's public image...

Anyway, load up the Radio Wave Jukebox for the broadcast version, with highlights of all the musical phenomena listed above. You'll find it under Friday Ripple > 24.12.2010.

Ana Tijoux - 1977 (Oveja Negra/Nacionale)
Tiffany - Fake London Boy (FW Entertainment)
King Kapisi feat The Mint Chicks - Superhuman (Self-released)
Fela! Broadway Cast - Water No Get Enemy (Knitting Factory)
Fela! Broadway Cast - ITT (Prompt remix) (Knitting Factory)
Just a Band - Ha-He (Homework)
BLNRB (feat. Just A Band, Jahcoozi, Teichmann, Michel Ongaru) - Away (Out Here Records)
Anti-Everything - I'z D Man (Self-released)
Jonathan Crossley Band - The Terrible Egg (Live at Radio Wave)
Tsetsha Boys - Nwampfundla (Honest Jon's)
BBC - Ngozi (Honest Jon's)
Das Racist - All Tan Everything (Self-released)
Das Racist - Hahahaha jk (Self-released)
Olu Maintain - Yahooze (Kennis)
African China feat Faze - If you love somebody (Globedisk)
Golden Sounds - Zangalewa (Zangalewa)
K'naan - Wavin' Flag (A&M / Octone)
Dr Jeez - Jarhee (Self-released)
Autostad - E7na En7abasna (Jeeran)
Shinehead - Billy Jean (Virgin)
Onechot - Rotten Town (Venezilla Kru)
Porno Par Ricardo - El Cake (Self-released)
Lapiro di Mbanga - Constitution Constipee (Mondomix)