Transglobal Underground - Hami’s house, West London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.



Transglobal Underground
Hami’s house, West London
28th September 2019

House concerts are usually the domain of quiet, acoustic musicians rather than percussion-heavy electronica bands. But then, Transglobal Underground have never really taken the usual route. The group came to prominence in the early 90s as pioneers of world dubtronica and have stayed at the forefront of the scene ever since.

On a rainy September night, 20 fans – who had pledged in the band’s crowdfunding campaign in April – crammed themselves into TGU founder Hamid Mantu’s living room for a night of beats, bass and barminess. No quiet acoustics here.

Tonight, TGU were a five-piece, with keys, samples, electric sitar, spoken word and no fewer than three drummers (kit, tabla and darbuka), all put through a small PA. It was thoroughly antisocial in the best way, yet rarely has a club been so cosy. Lit by candlelight and fairylight, air perfumed with nag champa, and walls covered in records and TGU artefacts – the whole thing was a touch surreal.

The set was as special as the setting. Older repertoire that hadn’t been played live for years was featured alongside pieces so new they’d not even been named yet, together with extended spur-of-the-moment jams. They even took requests. To share such an intense evening with a small group in a tiny space is an incredible experience, and created a beautiful camaraderie between everyone involved, band and audience alike. On top of all that, there’s not many gigs where you can periodically switch from chilling on the settee to totally entranced four-limb dancing. What better way to see a genre-defining ensemble?


Photo: Transglobal Underground play in Hami's front room, by Simon Partington

GoGo Penguin - EartH Hall, London

First published on jazzwise.com



GoGo Penguin – Koyaanisqatsi
EartH Hall, London
21st October 2019

Godfrey Reggio’s 1986 film Koyaanisqatsi was a revolutionary piece of experimental cinema, and it remains both hugely influential among filmmakers and a potent reference point throughout popular culture. With no dialogue or plot, the film is driven by variously juxtaposed footage of the natural and the artificial, brought together in a way as to render the familiar abstract. Equally as well-known its own right is the film’s score, written by Philip Glass. It is a masterpiece of minimalism and rightly regarded as one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. When GoGo Penguin rescored Koyaanisqatsi, they had big shoes to fill. First commissioned in 2015, it was so successful that the group have continued to tour their rescore, with a live screening of the film itself, ever since. As part of their October tour, they brought the show to a sold-out EartH Hall.

Chris Illingworth (piano), Nick Blacka (basses) and Rob Turner (drums) have created a work of their own recognisable idiom, a cool combination of icy jazz, sparse electronica and that same minimalism as pioneered by Glass and his contemporaries, by way of driving cinematic funk and classic-style jazz rock. For the work of just a trio, the score fits the epic nature of the film to an impressive degree, and they’re not afraid to employ their own juxtapositions as well, most effective when countering frenetic visuals with forebodingly calm Satie-esque soundscapes. This way they reflect the film’s title, a Hopi word meaning ‘life out of balance,’ and the wordless laments of human destruction presented within.

Comparisons to the original music are unavoidable. In fact, the music was such an integral part of the experience of the film that it’s difficult not to hear Glass’s pieces in the mind’s ear during the most iconic sequences, the images acting as a mnemonic for the sound in a reversal of the usual order of things. GoGo Penguin’s score is gripping throughout, and especially so during the final third where driving grooves are alternated with hypnotic passages and culminate in a slow, poignant finale. Nevertheless, the original score was horrifying in its immensity and inevitability, emotions that the reworked version delivers with a little less power. Taken as a standalone show, GoGo Penguin have done a great job of scoring such an impactful film; it’s just a shame that Koyaanisqatsi’s original soundtrack casts such an indelible shadow that is hard to escape.

Food for the Ears, Music for the Tastebuds

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.

Cerys Matthews is a person of many talents – singer-songwriter, BBC radio DJ, festival curator, author…and if her latest book is anything to go by, she’s also a mean cook.

In Where The Wild Cooks Go, Matthews discusses food and drink from all around the world, offering simple and sustainable recipes collected during her travels and honed at home. Each chapter is filled with thoughts, history and poetry from the region at hand. Music obviously plays an important role, too: “I’ve always cooked, and I always cook to music, as so many of us do – I get messages from people from their kitchens every Sunday when my radio show goes out,” says Matthews. “This exchange made me want to publish this kooky kind of cookbook: full of the recipes, curiosities and nuggets of wisdom I’d been scribbling in my song book for ever.”

The musical connection is harder to put across in the writing, so Matthews has also curated Spotify playlists of music associated with every culture covered in the book – 15 in total – to listen to as you cook, eat… or any other time. Where The Wild Cooks Go is less a recipe book and more a multisensory travel guide, as well as offering a glimpse into how Matthews herself views the world: “It’s a kind of ‘folk' cookbook, inspired by those who've stirred over fires and conversations shared over the ages. It’s turned out to be almost like a world history book through the prism of food – and makes the idea of hard borders and absolute identity laughable when you read these.”

Obituary: Chartwell Dutiro (1957-2019)

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.



Chartwell Dutiro was a key figure in the repopularisation of the mbira in Zimbabwean society after decades of its proscription by Rhodesian authorities. As a member of Thomas Mapfumo’s iconic chimurenga band Blacks Unlimited, Dutiro originally played saxophone and percussion but pushed for the inclusion of the mbira, an instrument he had played since childhood. It was a revolutionary act. The sound of the mbira would become crucial to the power of chimurenga music.

After leaving the Blacks Unlimited in 1993, he moved to the UK. He gained a degree at SOAS, University of London, where his work was published as a book, Zimbabwean Mbira Music on an International Stage. He went on to teach at SOAS for some years before setting up his own dedicated school, the Mhararano Mbira Academy, and running international mbira gatherings across Europe and North America. All the while, Dutiro continued to perform and record solo and with a number of his own bands, and was featured many times in the pages of Songlines, including a profile right at the beginning in issue #2.

Dutiro died from cancer at his home in Devon on September 22. He had just learnt that he was to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Bath Spa University.


Photo: Chartwell Dutiro (right) performs with Thomas Mapfumo (left) and Blacks Unlimited in New York in 1989, by Banning Eyre.

Haymanot Tesfa - Loosening the Strings

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.

Haymanot Tesfa
Loosening the Strings
Vacilando ’68 Recordings (53 mins)

When I saw Ethiopian singer and krar player Haymanot Tesfa perform at SOAS last year, it was very disappointing. She did one or two solo pieces that were lovely, but the rest of the concert was in collaboration with improvisatory jazz musicians. It was disjointed and chaotic, and didn’t work at all.

I was very relieved, then, to discover that this album – her debut – is almost completely solo and, as expected, it is beautiful. Her voice flutters around the Ethiopian scales like a small bird or butterfly while the resonant plucked strings of her krar create a steady platform on which her voice can alight from time to time.

It’s not entirely solo, though. Haymanot is joined on half the tracks by Arian Sadr on the tombak (Persian goblet drum). It’s a strange but well-chosen accompaniment; the drum’s warm tones unobtrusive while blending Persian and Ethiopian rhythms with aplomb.

Listening to the gentle yet powerful combination of voice and krar, it’s hard to avoid thoughts of the legendary Asnaketch Worku, but Haymanot’s skill and subtlety of string and song allows her to live up to such weighty comparisons. Luckily the jazz was left in its box this time around.

The Kutimangoes - Afrotropism

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.

The Kutimangoes
Afrotropism
The Kutimangoes (40 mins)

Although Danish seven-piece the Kutimangoes originally aimed for a crossroads between Afrobeat and jazz, further adventures have edged their sound further west towards Mali and Burkina Faso. Now on their third album, their music is built up from Mande dance band riffs with added Fela-inspired horn lines and topped off with wild jazz solos. Add in a few more influences from here and there and bring it all together with some complex percussion patterns and the Kutimangoes are ready to rock.

The second track, ‘A Snake is Just a String’, shows this off well: the guitar groove is very Songhoy Blues (who seem an important influence this time around), but we’re also taken to New Orleans with the horns and Morocco with Gnawa-inspired rhythms in the percussion. There’s also an amazing, distorted synth solo sounding like a space-age Hendrix.

However, a few too many of the tracks descend into more atmospheric vibes and vague melodies drenched in shimmering reverb. That’s good for the occasional breather, but it occurs a little too frequently here; it often feels like you're waiting around until you can get back into dance-mode, where the band really shine. Afrotropism is cool enough, but at their best, the Kutimangoes can be red hot.

Various Artists - The Rough Guide to World Jazz

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 153, December 2019.

Various Artists
The Rough Guide to World Jazz
World Music Network (72 mins)

For a long time, the Rough Guide series was indispensable for world music fans. Within one CD, they would take you through everything you needed to know about the music of a certain genre, artist, culture or country. They showcased the best and most typical tracks of each subject, as well as throwing in some interesting outliers to highlight the breadth of music on offer. The tracks came from a wide range of sources, even including ones that were difficult to come across.

Those days have passed. For the last few years, the Rough Guides have been including more and more tracks from their sister label, Riverboat Records. Now, we get The Rough Guide to World Jazz, of which all 13 tracks are taken from albums on Riverboat Records. It’s very frustrating. The music included is good enough, with a wide range of artists from India, Poland, Tunisia, the US, Bulgaria and more (and including Debashish Bhattacharya’s 16-minute epic with John McLaughlin, ‘A Mystical Morning’), but when it boils down to it, this is little more than a label sampler masquerading as an essential, genre-spanning guide.

As a former devotee of the series and someone who has learnt a great deal from them, this is a disappointing low in the impressive legacy of the Rough Guides series.