For 'Alefa Madagascar: Salegy, Soukous & Soul From The Red Island 1974-1984', Mauritian Percy Yip Tong and Réunionese deejay collective La Basse Tropicale delved into the archives of Malagasy labels like Jean-François de Comarmond's Discomad and Charles Maurin Poty's Kaiamba. The result is an 18 track compilation full of songs from the period between 1974 and 1984. In that period Madagascar of course had salegy, a genre characterized by its typical fast 6/8 and 12/8 rhythms (on 'Alefa Madagascar', for example, illustrated by Roger Georges' 'Mama', Jean Kely et Basth's 'Andosy Mora' or 'Tokatoka' by Kaiamba Orchestra, although the songs of the latter two sound like a Malagasy version of The Doors due to the use of the Hammond organ), but thanks to the radio, influences from Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Kenya also seeped into the musical landscape, and genres like soul ('Ngôma Hoe' by Papa James) and soukous ('Mahonena' by Ny Anjarasoa) have since become a permanent fixture. A bit of an odd one out in the track list is Izahay Mpamita, a band that reverted to the folklore of the "red island", a sound that formed the soundtrack to the Rotaka uprisings in the early seventies of the last century (a series of peasant and student revolts that took place in Madagascar between April 1971 and May 1972 and led to the fall of the Malagasy Republic under the leadership of President Philibert Tsiranane). Fascinating time travel to a musical period in the history of Madagascar that paved the way for Malagasy superstars like Jaojoby, D'Gary and Lego!