Bibi Tanga & The Selenites - Dunya (2010)

The future of funk is being written right now by a pair of Parisian groove theorists named Bibi Tanga and Professeur Inlassable. Singer, bassist and bandleader Bibi Tanga bridges the divide between the arty South Bank of the Seine and the gritty suburbs, where he grew up as an immigrant from the Central African Republic. Bibi's music is marked by slinky, sinuous basslines and a wicked falsetto that conjures up Prince and Curtis Mayfield, while producer Professeur Inlassable ("The Tireless Professor") digs deep beneath the cobblestones of Paris to unearth the sound and spirit of another era. Together with Bibi's band The Selenites, the duo forges a stunningly original new sound and creates a space where Afro-futurism meets steampunk, Fela Kuti jams with Sidney Bechet and Marcel Duchamp gets down to Chic.
Though they've already made a stir in France, the group now teams up with Nat Geo Music (after a fortuitous spin on the Nat Geo Music TV Channel alerted the label to their sublime talent) to bring their fashion-forward funk vision to audiences worldwide. Bibi Tanga & The Selenites' It's The Earth That Moves EP was released in April, 2009, and the group's full-length international debut Dunya is scheduled for release later this fall.
Dunya takes its name from the word for "existence" in Sango, the language of the Central African Republic, and the album is both a vivid snapshot of the present moment in global music and a roadmap to the future. Deftly juggling English, French and Sango lyrics, Bibi embeds hyper-literate, socially conscious messages about immigration, malnutrition, AIDS, slavery and more in some of the most danceable grooves this side of Gnarls Barkley. "Dunya" takes listeners on a wild, eclectic tour through the history and pre-history of funk, layering afrobeat rhythms over electro-tinged soul and cosmopolitan trans-Atlantic grooves.

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Track list:
1. The Moon (3:29)
2. Red Wine (4:53)
3. Swing Swing (3:10)
4. Dunya (4:02)
5. Pasi (4:16)
6. Let Them Run (5:57)
7. Gospel Singers (2:52)
8. Be Africa (4:21)
9. Shine (5:33)
10. Bonjour Mon Ami Jean (4:46)
11. Goodbye (4:02)
12. It's The Earth That Moves (Bonus Track) (5:28)