When the great reissue label Awesome Tapes From Africa introduced the mid-80s album Shemonmuanay in the summer of 2013 the music and the Ethiopian keyboardist Hailu Mergia-still alive and residing in Washington D.C., where he had made the solo album-got a ton of deserved attention. The charming, low-budget recording harked back to the earlier glory days of Ethiopian popular music and used only cheap keyboards and drum machines.
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