SWP Records

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SWP Records

SWP Records is a small independent record label. We release music other labels won't touch! SWP Records releases 1. the music of Zambian-born Michael Baird, 2.

Founded by drummer/composer/producer Michael Baird in 1987, due to perceived lack of vision in the existing record industry. music from central, eastern and southern Africa, 3. any other beautiful music that is unique and/or forgotten.

05/09/2025

It's Bandcamp Friday! Between midnight and midnight Pacific Time - which is between 09.00 Friday morning and 09.00 Saturday morning Central European Time. If you want to buy some beautiful music from the unique SWP Records catalogue, do it now - as us independents earn 10% more during a Bandcamp Friday! Support independent music and get some new music into your life today.....
For example

from the album Thumbs on the Outside

02/09/2025

'Three Girls' Party Songs' recorded by Hugh Tracey in eastern Congo near Isiro in 1952. Track B2 on the lp SWP 046 'Congo Traditional' and also to be found as track 5 on the cd SWP 016 'Forest Music'.
Another gem from the SWP catalogue! Go to the SWP Records website for physical cds and lps, also via the SWP Records page on Bandcamp where you can also download the whole album and/or individual tracks.

from the album Congo Traditional 1952 & 1957 (lp)

18/08/2025

'Rwakanembe', track 19 on the cd SWP 008 'Royal Court Music from Uganda', recorded in 1950 by Hugh Tracey at the court of the Omukama (King) of the Nyoro people, Hoima, Uganda.
Played by the Abanyabyata Royal Horn Band led by Bulaiso Araya - six amakondere horns producing seven different notes - this music was heard on the first day of each new moon and on important royal occasions. The horns are composite pieces of cow horn extended with cylindrical calabash necks, which are tightly held on by a pieces of cow skin shrunk and sewn onto both. The album cover photo shows this ensemble.
This celebratory centuries-old court composition sounds like a vision of New Orleans jazz, but then with a beautiful beat that is a precursor of any funk and reggae!

from the album Royal Court Music From Uganda

08/08/2025

'Ilakutola Nzala', track 8 on the cd SWP 039 'The Kankobela of the Batonga Vol. 2', by Aaron Siamajele, Lusitu district, Zambia, recorded by Michael Baird in 2008. The kankobela, the unique lamellophone of the Batonga in the Zambezi Valley, has almost completely died out by now - Michael found the last players on both the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of Lake Kariba in 2008, only 19 of them, and all old men.....to be heard on the cds SWP 036 & 039.

Another gem from the SWP catalogue! Go to the SWP Records website for physical cds and lps, also via the SWP Records page on Bandcamp where you can also download the whole album and/or individual tracks.

from the album The Kankobela Of The Batonga Vol. 2

02/08/2025

'Bombalaka' by Jean Bosco Mwenda, from the original very first recording session in February 1952 of Mwenda, who went on to become a big star. Track 10 on the lp SWP 045 'Congo Guitars 1952 & 1957' - you can also download the whole album and individual tracks.
The famous Katanga Guitar sound, as recorded by Hugh Tracey in the 1950s. Includes the very first recordings of a 21-year-old Jean Bosco Mwenda in his home town of then Jadotville (now Likasi). In the copper mining towns of Katanga, in southern Belgian Congo, the imported guitar became a status symbol and sign of modernisation - a new sound was born. These tracks never sounded so good as here, after expert remastering by Michael Baird (of his own remasters from the original field tapes!) specially for vinyl. The album also includes tracks from Kisangani (at the time Stanleyville) in 1952 with examples of early rumba.
Another gem from the SWP catalogue! Go to the SWP Records website for physical cds and lps, also via the SWP Records page on Bandcamp where you can also download the whole album and/or individual tracks.

from the album Congo Guitars 1952 & 1957 (lp)

31/07/2025

'Kuli Shungu', by Edwin Syasiya on kanimba & vocal and Crispin Mutanuka on silimba, recorded by Michael Baird in 1996. A very rare instance in all of Africa of lamellophone and xylophone being played together - and they melt perfectly here! Top musicianship.
It is track 1 on the cd SWP 066 'Mutanuka and Syasiya', and also to be found on track 2 (where it is the first of a suite of 2 songs) of the cd SWP 057 'Leya Ceremony and Songs'. Prices are low and fair.....both on the SWP Records website (cds & lps) and Bandcamp (downloads, cds & lps).

from the album Mutanuka and Syasiya

25/07/2025

Michael Baird led his group Sharp Wood for 10 years, from 1984 to '94. Started out as the Sharp Wood Percussion Duo, then became a trio, then a quartet with the unique instrumentation of drumset, percussion, vibraphone, keyboards. Music based on his concept of melodic drumming and concerts with a ritualistic character, which became known as 'Voodoo-Jazz'. Here is 'Sambé' with Broer van den Bogaart on toms and foot bell, Hans Hasebos on percussion, Michael Baird on drumset., recorded in 1987.
The cd 'The Sharp Wood Years' is a compilation taken from the 3 Sharp Wood albums (from 1987, 1990, 1993) released in 2017, with the selected tracks all beautifully remastered - check it out on the SWP Records Bandcamp page, and also available through our website, prices low and fair.....

from the album The Sharp Wood Years

21/07/2025

The great Crispin Mutanuka, who died 6 years ago. With his 2 mallets he plays at least 3 rhythmic layers - rocksteady! Filmed here in 2014.
The complete recordings by Michael Baird of this master of the silimba xylophone are on the cd SWP 066 'Mutanuka and Syasiya', together with the complete recordings of kanimba master Edwin Syasiya. Check it out on the SWP Records Bandcamp page.....

Crispin Mutanuka is the master silimba xylophone player of the Leya people. They live near the Victoria Falls in Zambia's Southern Province - in fact the fal...

20/07/2025

Track 1 from SWP 062 'Drums, Voices, Sticks': 'Mulumele Mulemele' by the Mboanjikana Cultural Group from Kalabo, Western Province, Zambia. Recorded by Michael Baird in 2016. This welcoming song, dance, and rhythm is in kandemba style.
Check out the SWP catalogue - full of gems you won't find anywhere else! You can listen to most of them via the SWP Records page on Bandcamp. Prices are low and fair.....both on the SWP Records website (cds & lps) and Bandcamp (downloads, cds & lps).

from the album Drums, Voices, Sticks

18/07/2025

Track 8 on the cd SWP 056 'Southern Province Mix': 'Kamusukuma', by Veronica Doropo from Chikunta village, Monze district. Recorded by Michael Baird in 2014.
Hardcore industrial sound? Sophisticated minimalism? Traditional musical profoundness!
She plays mantimbwa, which consists of an upturned metal bucket and a one-stringed bow made of a curved stick and string. The woman sits with her legs either side of the bucket and the middle of the bow is placed on the bucket and held there with the left hand, such that the string is horizontal at the top. She plucks the string with the index finger of her right hand and leans slightly forward and by pressing down on the string with her chin she gets two extra notes on top of the fundamental. A couple of her left hand fingers also tap a rhythm on the bucket. All this to accompany a song, sung softly. Mantimbwa is used during the isolation period during the intiation rites of girls to communicate with the minders.
So many gems in the SWP Catalogue, check it out on Bandcamp - low but fair prices - you won't find this music anywhere else (other than on our own SWP Records website)!

from the album Southern Province Mix

11/07/2025

BaMbuti pygmies recorded by Hugh Tracey in 1952 in the Ituri Forest, north-eastern Congo. Apparently no title was given to this dance, so it is called 'Dance' on the original Tracey field card.
All over the internet there are clips of very fast, brilliant, and complicated drumset drumming which, if you watch them too often will make you both blind and deaf! But I love what this single drummer does here, accompanied by a shaker only: the beat is wonderfully open, uncluttered and lucid - the rhythm is floating! It reminds me somehow of Elvin Jones' tumbling style. Good music is so often about the notes you don't play, the gaps you create so that the music can breathe. No this guy/gal can't play three-double-reversed flummariddles incorporating 5 foot pedals, but he/she has a deep understanding of space and time...

The SWP catalogue is full of gems - and prices for both phsyical cds/lps and downloads are cheap and fair. You can listen to most tracks for free via the SWP Records Bandcamp page, so check out our releases!

from the album On the Edge of the Ituri Forest

09/07/2025

The track 'Bontibe-Malende', from the album SWP 048 'SoonSoon' (the cd) and SWP 049 'SoonSoon' (the lp) - composition and all instruments by Michael Baird. (There are 3 guest musicians on this album - David Tronzo, Yvonne Cornelius, Andy Moor - but none of them of this track...). After many field trips in the Zambezi Valley recording the music of the BaTonga, this piece was inspired by two traditional musics: that at a Bontibe (originally funeral music called Budima), which is the first part, and the Malende songs (asking for rain) in the second part. Yes, he sees himself as a contemporary African musician - with one foot in the country of his birth and childhood, Zambia, and one foot in Europe!
Physical albums available through the SWP Records website and via the SWP Records Bandcamp page (also for downloads).

from the album SoonSoon

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