The DIEUF-DIEUL de Thiès never had the chance to release any
of their material, not even a single cassette. They at least had the chance to
be heard and appreciated by Moussa Diallo however, who believed in their talent
and musical skills; this is why he insisted on recording them free of charge
and without any reward.
First they recorded
3 tracks in 1980, then one year later they recorded 12 further tracks to
release as a cassette. The producers of that period didn't want to invest in a
group from Thiès; it was during the time when the monopoly of one group from Dakar
had already begun, leaving little space for other bands to breath. This is the
reason in fact that the lifespan of DIEUF-DIEUL ended abruptly in 1982, when
they were already in Dakar for a contract with the Jandeer night club. When the
gigs began at Jandeer the group of Dakar was seriously threatened and as a
result their promising LP, which had already been recorded never came out and
thus their contract was no longer valid, just like that.
Teranga Beat will be releasing these 15 tracks in 2 volumes; this first
volume includes 8 of the 12 tracks from their second recording with Moussa
Diallo. The reel tape was in a very bad condition but we didn't want to use
loops or any other trickery to make it sound more agreeable, we simply wanted it
to come out the way it should be listened too. This was also the first
recording of Moussa Diallo with his then new Sony 4 tracks Multi-track reel to
reel machine thus it seems that he had some issues in managing the 4 microphones.