Moa Anbessa is an album by Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria with Dutch post-punk band The Ex and guests, released in 2006 on The Ex's subsidiary label Terp.
The project came together on the heels of The Ex's previous studio album Turn, which incorporated elements of Eritrean and Congolese music alongside a tribute to the Ethio-Jazz anthems of Getatchew Mekuria. The Ex had toured Ethiopia twice and then invited Getatchew to perform at their 25th anniversary show in Amsterdam where he proposed that The Ex be the backup band for his next album. In addition to Moa Anbessa, the collaboration yielded tours of Europe and North America as well as an official live DVD released by Buda Musique, producers of the influential Ethiopiques series of ethiojazz compilations.
The name "Moa Anbessa", Amharic for "The Conquering Lion", refers to a political party made up of Ethiopians who support a constitutional monarchy. The party was created by exiled titular emperor Amha Selassie I to operate as the political wing of the crown. As an album title, it makes note both of Getatchew's support of the royal family, as well as his own "return to the throne" of Ethiopian jazz.
See this is the kinda stuff that should be on the OG list. I don't think I'd seek out Ethiopian jazz otherwise. This album goes hard but the only downside is the mediocre vocals.
My personal rating: 4/5
My rating relative to the list: 4.5/5
Should this have been included on the original list? Yes.
An explosive combination of genres makes this LP feel wholly unique compared to the ~1500 before it on the 1001. Loved how the combo of jazz and punk kept morphing across each track, making it feel like the album was twisting and turning through different genres while maintaining a strong sense of identity. Add in the prominent sax and this LP just seized my attention and wouldn’t let go. Awesome add and exactly what the user list is for.
This is an album full of steamy urgent jazz-punk-afro-funk and an absolute delight in every way. The Ex is the Dutch punkrock band that from early eighties has evolved from punk to postpunk to noise & avantgarde to all sorts of world music. First European folk and later African music. Getatchew Mekuria was an Ethiopian jazz sax player full of Jazz and African Funk and open to a new perspective on his musical views. This collaboration resulted in a combination of distorted postpunk guitars and punky aggressive vocals combined with seventies sounding African brass funk. A combination that works in every way. It sounds strange, but the rhythms and sheer pleasure fit like a glove and produce something that is more than the individual parts.
Oh wow, The Ex! Looks like they removed their catalogue, including all the collab albums like this one, off of Spotify very recently because I was just listening to "Scrabbling at the Lock" like a week ago. Hopefully that doesn't scare off some people from listening to this, because it's really good.
Ethiopian Jazz x Dutch Post-Punk. An absolutely fuckular combination that ends up working wonderfully. Really nothing else like this. Definitely a must listen and a worthy addition. Just when I was getting unfathomably bored of the user album list and thinking about quitting, an album like this just breathed like 2 more weeks into me.
Let this be a lesson for everyone who drops the absolute latest Sabrina Carpenter album or the people insisting every Bon Iver album ends up on here. Ethiopian Saxophonist backed by a Dutch Post-Punk band. This is the shit we’re here for
This was pretty fire, though occasionally getting into that free form jazz territory I'm not sophisticated enough to appreciate. Interesting to experience on headphones while walking in the dark through a moderate Minnesota snowstorm.
this was super cool! definitely something i’d never heard and never would have heard. shined brightest when there were no vocals but it shined pretty damn bright in those moments. unfortunately the vocals seemed to always be around the corner which makes it so that i can’t give this anything higher than a 3. but this album instrumentally is an easy 4
Fascinating Ethiopian melding of Jazz and Punk. While Ska adjacent, it's not Ska, two-tone, or dubstep - it's something more, and I don't know that there is the proper lexicon to describe it.
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