Mvula Mandondo - Ambush

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 94, August/September 2013.

Mvula Mandondo
Ambush
Self-released (61 mins)

Having first cut his teeth as percussionist in Remmy Ongala’s legendary Orchestre Super Matimila, Ambush represents Saidi Kanda’s first release as a bandleader. He doesn’t limit himself to percussion either, adding thumb pianos, hedungu (harp-lute) and homemade guitar into the mix, as well as vocals.

Mvula Mandondo are the fruit of a collaboration between Kanda and British multi-instrumentalist Edward Shearer, and this album presents a mix of soukous, Caribbean, Latin and even West African music, all interwoven with styles from Kanda’s native Tanzania.

Indeed, the band are at their best when the Tanzanian roots shine through most clearly. This is illustrated in probably the most effective track on the album, ‘Hinongo’. The piece is based around Kanda’s ilimba (thumb piano) and features traditional-style vocals in the ancient language of kiZalam, both of which work perfectly alongside a fast and funky reggae backing, realised through Shearer’s bass and drums.

While some of the more soukous-laden tracks end up feeling somewhat unoriginal, the salsa-inspired pieces are amongst the album’s best listening. The track ‘Tsunami’ (based on Kanda’s musings on the Bosnian civil war) starts with a groove that brings to mind Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab before picking up the pace and introducing Spanish guest singer Rafael Berrio.

At times it can seem as if the duo has tried to include too many different styles on one album, which can feel slightly lacking in cohesion. Ambush isn’t perfect, but it includes some gems and does work as a promising debut.

Africa Oyé 2013 - Sefton Park, Liverpool

First published on Musika.uk.com in June 2013.



Africa Oyé
Sefton Park, Liverpool
22nd & 23rd June 2013

Africa Oyé is the UK’s largest free African music festival. Having previously featured world-famous African musicians such as Baaba Maal, Remmy Ongala and Bassekou Kouyaté, Oyé have also presented artists from the African diaspora in the Caribbean such as Culture and Luciano, and been the stage for the UK debuts of Tinariwen, Ba Cissoko and more.

This year, the organisers had all the incentives they needed to stage a bumper edition of the festival – not only was 2013 Oyé’s 21st birthday, last year’s event got rained off and had to be hastily rescheduled and moved (in a much-reduced format) to an indoor venue. The weather was kind to the festival this year, and, while it was showery and blustery enough to make the audience a bit uncomfortable, the party went ahead as planned, in Liverpool’s Sefton Park.

Unfortunately, the first of the two days got off to a disappointing start. Marred by overly-bassy sound, the first three sets became somewhat of a chore to listen to. It was the penultimate band of the Saturday, Son Yambu, who finally managed to get the festival flowing, their old-style, trés-led Cuban son warming up the soggy crowd in time for that day’s headliner, Osibisa. The Ghanaian veterans brought their trademark mix of disco, rock and West African and Caribbean sounds, including their hit ‘Sunshine Day’ and a cover of Miriam Makeba’s ‘Pata Pata’, to finish the day on a high note.

Cape Verdean hip-hop and reggae outfit Jay opened the Sunday (without the sound problems that plagued their set the day before) to a smaller, but no less appreciative crowd. Two funky Ghanaian acts followed, Yaaba Funk and Atongo Zimba, the former presenting hip-shaking highlife, and the latter giving the crowd an updated version of North Ghanaian traditional music, with the help of former Stone Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim and blues collaborator Ramon Goose. Typically groovy Afrobeat from Dele Sosimi set the stage perfectly for the highlight of the festival, Mokoomba. As opposed to the Shona bands that dominate Zimbabwean music, Mokoomba sing in the Tonga language, and seem to be capable of playing any style of music, from jit, jive, isicathamiya and soukous, to reggae, blues, and even hints of heavy metal. They’ve been hailed as the ‘next big thing in world music’ and that’s hard to argue with after the show they put on, rounding off a much more enjoyable second day to the festival.

A successful weekend of great music then, somewhat marred by technical difficulties early on, but with a line-up to keep you dancing all day long - and there’s certainly something to be said for only having one stage so you don’t miss anything, too. Perhaps the festival didn’t present the stellar line-up that may have been expected, but as a charity mostly reliant on government and council funding, Africa Oyé certainly showed that they can continue to put on a great party despite low funding – a feat they will doubtless continue to recreate for another 21 years or more to come.

Photo: Yaaba Funk at Africa Oyé 2013, by Graham Morgan. Used with permission.

Orchestra Super Mazembe - Mazembe @ 45rpm, Vol. 1

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 93, July 2013.

Orchestra Super Mazembe
Mazembe @ 45rpm, Vol. 1
Sterns Music (77 mins)

Orchestra Super Mazembe may be one of the most influential bands in African music. They were one of the first exponents of the Latin-influenced Congolese rumba lingala (or soukous) to up sticks and move to Kenya, where their music evolved into what is now known as benga. This in turn crossed over to Zimbabwe, transforming into sungura and jit jive. You’d be hard pressed to find them in a record shop outside of the African continent, though.

Mazembe @ 45rpm, Vol. 1 remedies this by presenting pieces taken from 45rpm releases from the late ’70s – the most common way of disseminating music at the time. None of the tracks are shorter than six minutes long, each containing both A and B sides of the single, the two parts of the same song blended seamlessly.

The pieces reveal a wide range of moods, from the danciest grooves of ‘Okova’ to the more relaxing ‘Izabela’, but they all have the common soukous spices – interweaving high-pitched guitar melodies, effortlessly tight harmonies and an overall aural sunniness. Oddly enough, the compilation neglects what was perhaps the band’s biggest hit in Kenya, 1977’s ‘Kasongo’, but the tracks that are included are solid gold.

Another inclusion is a detailed 15-page booklet, with band biography and song explanations created with help from another soukous legend Samba Mapangala, who features on the album himself, taking vocal duties on the track ‘Mwana Mazembe’.

Although the sound reproduction can be a bit scratchy at times, this can be forgiven in lieu of the great music contained within. Bring on Volume 2!

Los Chinches - Fongo

First published on Musika.uk.com in April 2013.

Los Chinches
Fongo
Movimentos Records (32 mins)

Where San Francisco-style psychedelic rock, funk and cumbia meet, that’s where Los Chinches reside. It’s not your typical cumbia though, this is chicha – a style that evolved in 1960s Lima, Peru. It combines the Latin rhythms and brass of the Colombian genre with melodies inspired by Andean music and instrumentation taken from surf rock (it was the 60s, after all).

Los Chinches are based in London, and their members hail from England, Peru, Columbia and France. This album, Fongo, is their debut, but they’ve already been around quite a bit, playing all the big festivals such as Glastonbury, WOMAD and the Big Chill.

So what’s it like then? Well, oddly, the sound is at its most attractive the more they bring in the American influences – the Farafisa-sounding organ and surf guitars really complement the Latin percussion. The album’s instrumental tracks, such as ‘Chicha Love’ and the title track ‘Fongo’, are its highlights, encapsulating the band’s own description of themselves: ‘tropical, Peruvian, cumbia, psychedelic, ska and most definitely London!’

The album can feel a bit let down by the vocals, though, which don’t feel very ‘authentic’ to this listener’s ears, although it can be seen as fulfilling Los Chinches’ ethos of bringing the chicha sound into the London soundscape. The same can be said for some of the lyrics – they’re mostly in Spanish, but when they do sing in English, it jars somewhat. Like watching the Simpsons in German.

The album as a whole sounds promising, but maybe a bit less electrifying than the recordings of occasional cohorts Ska Cubano, for example. Their sounds feel as if they would translate much better into a stonking live show, and thus these recordings, while enjoyable, may not do them the credit they deserve. One to catch live, then.

Sleepy Time Ghost - Youthman Riddim EP

First published on Musika.uk.com in March 2013.

Sleepy Time Ghost
Youthman Riddim EP
Unit 137 (18 mins)

Sleepy Time Ghost a.k.a. Harry Metcalfe is a London-based producer, and his debut EP, Youthman Riddim, seems to mark him out as one of the rising stars of dub music.

Taking its form from the Jamaican sound system tradition of playing a dubplate riddim (backing track) several times while different deejays lyricise over the top, this EP consists of four tracks all based upon the same riddim.

The first two tracks use the riddim – a real funked-out affair – as is, with deejay Ras Demo and Bristolian sound system Lionpulse contributing a track each. Both of these guests lend their own take on the track, with Ras Demo providing a lighter feel compared to Lionpulse’s rootsier offering; the latter also contains a couple of great trombone and saxophone solos.

For the second two tracks, the riddim is remixed by producers Joe Ariwa and Hylu & Jago. Joe Ariwa, who studied at the feet of the mighty Mad Professor, offers a straight up dub remix of the Youthman Riddim whereas Hylu & Jago take Lionpulse’s version to a place bordering on the realm of drum and bass.

This is a brillant EP with a really authentic feel to it. Each track has its own personality and occupies its own space in the quartet and so it’s difficult to pick one stand out piece….although this reviewer’s personal tastes marginally prefer Joe Ariwa’s remix. That doesn’t matter though – the EP’s concept works completely, and it’ll leave you itching to hear a whole album of the producer’s work.

Keep your ears open for more from Sleepy Time Ghost, but in the meantime, play this LOUD!

Salif Keita - Talé

First published on Musika.uk.com in March 2013.

Salif Keita
Talé
Universal/Proper (53 mins)

In recent years, the ‘producer-as-artist’ style of album has become increasingly popular, with the album’s credited artist seemingly delegating the creative control to the producer; arguably the most musically successful examples of this are Amadou and Mariam’s Dimanche à Bamako (produced by Manu Chao in 2005) and last year’s Dan Auerbach-produced Dr. John album Locked Down. Salif Keita’s latest album appears to very much continue this trend.

Produced by Philippe Cohen Solal of the Gotan Project, Talé seems a logical progression for Keita’s music. Having gone through the ranks of both the Super Rail Band and Les Ambassadeurs singing pop music of the day – a Malian take on Congolese rumba Lingala – Keita went on to forge his solo career mixing popular Western styles with Malian music. Although he has released some ‘back to the roots’ albums, such as 2005’s Mbemba, he’s pretty much kept with the times in term of the latest musicians and styles to collaborate with and within. Thus, in Talé, Keita and Solal have created an album that, while maintaining the Malian sound, layers electronica and dubstep with jazz and hip-hop. Influence is also taken from other African cultures, most noticeably on the track ‘Samfi’, which opens with a guimbri line (later replicated on synth) and takes its limping rhythm from that of the qaraqab – both features of Moroccan Gnawa music.

The guest spots provide some of the most interesting listening on the album: Esperanza Spalding’s soaring high-pitched vocals on ‘Chèrie S’en Va’ adds a beautiful inflection over the dark and brooding backing of double bass, calabash and bass synth figures; Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango’s lengthy solo on ‘Après-demain’ is entrancing and is rendered moreso by added delay; and on ‘C’est Bon C’est Bon’, Roots Manuva’s appearance sees him take on the role of reggae deejay as well as providing his usual rap style.

The best voice to be heard on the album, however, is of course Keita’s, but it is unfortunately understated on many of the tracks, either through its place in the mix or its absence for the majority of the piece. Thus, while it is musically successful and an enjoyable listen, Talé seems very much like a “Philippe Cohen Solal feat. Salif Keita” album, and some fans may be aggrieved at the lack of Keita’s personality within the work. Perhaps the producer being given an artist’s credit would have been fairer all round.

Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite - Get Up!

First published on Musika.uk.com in March 2013.

Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite
Get Up!
Stax/Decca Records (40 mins)

Guitarist Ben Harper and blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite are no strangers to each other’s music. They first met when they recorded the track ‘Burnin’ Hell’ with the great John Lee Hooker, and they’ve since worked together on two albums: Harper’s Both Sides of the Gun and Musselwhite’s Sanctuary. This is the first time they’re recorded a whole album together, though, and the result is somewhat of an album of two halves.

It starts promisingly with the track ‘Don’t Look Twice’, essentially an acoustic blues duet between the two with occasional crashes from the drums and bass. This piece contains some great blues couplets, such as “You know it’s bad when your ceiling says to the floor, I’ll trade you places I can’t take it up here no more”. Harper takes vocal duties throughout the album and in this track he shows off a fragile, high-pitched tone which suits it to the ground. Unfortunately, for the first half of the album, the opener is the only one that really stands out. Of the next four tracks, there’s a pretty average ‘Mannish Boy’-esque talking blues; a waltzy, gospel-inspired piece; a passable bit of blues rock; and a laid back soul offering. None of these are offensive, as such – they’re all good songs individually – but the frequent genre-shifting leaves this set of tracks feeling a bit stilted.

Persistence is well-rewarded though, because from the brooding sixth track, ‘I Ride at Dawn’ (the only track on the album on which Musselwhite doesn’t feature), the album takes a turn for the much better. Although there’s some alternation of genre here (there’s another blues rock and a New Orleans-style boogie) this set of tracks seems to gel much better than the first lot, leading to a really enjoyable listen. It’s here that some of the best individual tracks lay too.

‘I Ride at Dawn’ is a spooky anti-war song, sung as by a soldier marching to his death. Some great slide guitar from Harper emphasises the dark texture of the bass and drums and really makes this track great. Probably the best track on the album, however, is its last. ‘All That Matters Now’ is a slow blues which really takes its time – all of the parts on this track (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano and bass) are all to some extent understated and it’s a great way to end the album on a mellow note.

It’s a shame that the peak reached during the second half of the album couldn’t have come a little earlier on, and even as little as a rearrangement of the tracks could have made this good album into a great one. As it is, be prepared and persevere through the first few tracks to get to the best bits and enjoy it for what it is – a good, if slightly stilted, blues album from two generations of the genre’s masters.