Believe it or not Afropop existed before Vampire Weekend and before Paul Simon. In fact, the term Afropop is just a generic blanket for all things that are popular African music so Afropop existed long before Graceland or Vampire Weekend’s self-titled record were conceived, it was just those two albums (and perhaps a few others) that helped push Afropop into the mainstream. And chances are if you enjoy those two albums you’re going to like The Sway Machinery and Khaira Arby.
The Sway Machinery are a New York band that mix Jewish cantorial singing (in Hebrew) with funk, rock and pop undertones to create an undeniably unique and catchy brand of world music. The band recently teamed up with famed Malian singer Khaira Arby from Timbuktu and released the record The House of the Friendly Ghosts Vol. 1 last week with Arby. Tonight the tour behind that album stops in Seattle at the Crocodile (8 p.m., $15) and like the band and Arby the show should be a fun mixing of world music, rock, pop and soulful traditional tunes. Or, more succinctly put, it will be a night if Afropop.
