Mountains of the Moon
Big World Records (67 mins)
Ganda Boys are a trio of two Ugandans and an American based in the UK, and Mountains of the Moon marks the group’s third album.
Getting straight to the point, most of the tracks on this album are extremely cheesy (it’s full of synth strings, choirs and piano ballads) or else simply dull. The music mostly moves around the poppy soul and gospel spheres with hints of rock and hip-hop on occasion – there’s a couple of good raps here and there, although the liner notes don’t tell us who provides them.
A few of the pieces begin promisingly enough, their intros maybe setting up an intriguing groove on adungu harp or rumba-influenced guitar. But this interest is invariably lost when the tracks descend into overdone reverb and boring predictability.
There is no tasteful brevity here either, as the album comprises of 17 tracks and lasts over an hour. Overall, it does get better towards the end, in the last three tracks or so, but by then it’s too little too late.