Amped for CAN ’10 and the World Cup?  Woefully ignorant of the political and social intricacies associated with each tournament (yer not alone)? Live, breathe, and love futebol?  The newly launched Bolas & Bandeiras might be your new homepage:

BOLAS & BANDEIRAS “kicks off” 2010 with the goal of disseminating commentaries upon the variegated strata of cultural surplus which arise from global soccer society—while also chiming in w/ more traditional sporting praise highlighting youthful vigor, graceful tackling, or incisive passing…Hopefully instead of traditional sports journalism, we can tease out various interrelated cultural undercurrents, touching on topics of economics, politics, music, religion, and food.

Today’s post about the attack on Togo’s team bus by Cabindan separatists is a deeply arresting history lesson that is convincing me (once again) to jump on the global soccer bandwagon.

Last Tuesday, Akwaaba Music released Akwaaba Sem Transporte (stream the album on Fairtilizer here) – a kuduro compilation “straight from the source,” Luanda, Angola.  Akwaaba Music founder Benjamin Lebrave spent six weeks in Angola, earlier this year, gathering and licensing tracks from rappers and DJs, and the result is a raw,  authentic, high-energy dance comp. I’m aware that notions of authenticity, especially in the global ghetto-tech and nu whirled music (™ wayne&wax) discourse is quite problematic – is the kuduro coming out of Lisbon/Europe any less authentic that what’s coming out of Luanda/Africa? European kuduro has definitely received and continue to receive more shine off late in Europe and America.

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Dred Man-Gi feat. Nell – Não Ta Se Entender

This one is weird, and probably the least danceable track on the compilation, but it’s the one I like best. Upbeat, yes –but with a fractured, heavy beat and a disruptive flow. The MP3 above is standard bit rate/128 – Head over to iTunes for better quality/320 kbps, so you can hear and enjoy all the bass and efx, and check out the rest of the comp, which is all very danceable– and Dutty Artz supports that kind of music!

Also, check out Ghetto Palms last week – Benjamin writes + Eddie blends.