DJ Kainga - OO MP3

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 176, April 2022.

DJ Kainga
OO MP3
1000HZ Records (40 mins)

Polish label 1000HZ have spent the last few years quietly putting out records of incredibly interesting music from Malawi, and this second album in their Digital Indigenous series continues that trend.

DJ Kainga makes what he calls ‘Lomwe beat,’ electro music as it has evolved from the streets of Zomba, with the sonic imprint of the city and its Lomwe people. This is all synth, all the time: apart from the occasional song, it’s all made on what sounds like your standard, slightly tinny Casio in a manner that makes it feel like a cousin to Tanzanian mchiriku or South African Shangaan electro. Simple, cheerful melodies and layered over Lomwe rhythms (adapted into keyboard presets) and reggaeish chord stabs. It’s all so relentlessly optimistic, I dare you not to have a big smile on your face within a minute of the first track.

It makes a change to hear music clearly made for the local market and all the aesthetic choices that come with that – even when it does mean autotune-saturated chipmunkesque vocals on the two songs. This is a set of cheery club music with a unique sound and very little pretention. How refreshing!

A Personal Jazz Mystery Solved

First published on the British Library Sound and Vision blog.



I’m a jazz nut. My mental soundtrack is often filled with anonymous changes and walking bass solos. But there is one particular song that has been buzzing around my head for years and years – about a decade, in fact. That song is the version of ‘Popity Pop’, recorded by vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, on their album High Flying from 1961. Specifically, Jon Hendricks’ break-down at about 2 min. 16 sec.:



That break-down is so unexpected, so sweet and so touching; it’s an inspired moment and a great contrast to the frenetic energy of the rest of the song. I couldn’t help but become intrigued by it. It was obviously a quotation from another piece of music… but which one? I had no idea. I asked around, and no-one else seemed to have an idea either. Google was no help. I was certain that the answer must be out there. Where was it?

To read the full blog post and to find out the unexpected place I found my answer, head over to the British Library Sound and Vision blog.

Shay Hazan - Reclusive Rituals

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 175, March 2022.

Shay Hazan
Reclusive Rituals
Batov Records (24 mins)

In his first album for Batov Records, Tel Aviv-based jazz bassist Shay Hazan takes his sound in a different direction. Turning his fingerwork to the Moroccan Gnawa guimbri (bass lute) and pointing his headspace towards an ultra-cool instrumental funk, Hazan set out to create an album ‘in order to satisfy the inner urge for simple grooves.’ And groovy it is.

An obvious referent here comes in the shape of jazz’s hip Gen Z sibling, lo-fi hip-hop: wavy, nostalgic synths, wonky J Dilla-inspired beats and even a vinyl crackle are washed over the whole album. Together with sparse, layered rhythms and delay-drenched trumpet, it exudes that laid-back, go-with-the-flow vibe. Different ingredients are added here and there, with Afrobeat, Saharan rock and more straight-ahead jazz all stirring in comfortably into the mix (albeit with curiously little Gnawa thrown in, considering the distinctive presence of the guimbri).

It’s a bit of a shame that this album is so short. The eight tracks come to just under 25 minutes in total, and when it comes to an end, it just feels a bit unresolved. What is here, though, is a lovely little exploration into a juicy, chilled-out groove.

Gonora Sounds - Hard Times Never Kill

First published on The Quietus.

Gonora Sounds
Hard Times Never Kill
The Vital Record / Dust to Digital (54 mins)

There’s a good chance you’ve already seen Daniel Gonora and his son Isaac play before. A video of them busking in Harare has been bouncing around social media since about 2016, usually without credit. Surrounded by an attentive crowd, Daniel, sitting low and with eyes closed from blindness, plays an intricate piece on an electric guitar through a strained amplifier while Isaac, then only twelve years old, shows his energetic mastery of the groove on a beat-up drum set, all rounded off by the infectious refrain of “Go bhora!”. That video blew up, racking up over ten million views. Now, six years later and with a full band and a real drum kit, Gonora Sounds – as they are known – have their first album of spicy and sunny sungura music.

Read the full review over at The Quietus.

Making Tracks 2021 - The Sanctuary, Walthamstow, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 174, January/February 2022.



Making Tracks 2021
The Sanctuary, Walthamstow, London
11th November 2021

After the success of 2019 and a virtual version in 2020, this was the second in-person edition of Making Tracks' fellowship programme. Eight up-and-coming young European-based musicians got together for a two-week incubation residency on the west coast of Scotland, before setting off on a two-week UK tour. It all culminated in this concert in a cosy church in Walthamstow.

This year’s Making Tracks fellows were Ahmet Ozan Baysal (Turkey; bağlama, voice), Robert Bisha (Albania; piano, çifteli, voice), Iona Fyfe (Scotland; voice), Liz Hanks (England; cello); Simon Leleux (Belgium; doholla, daf), Pheobe riley Law (England; sound art), Thamires Tannous (Brazil; guitar, voice), Azin Zahedi (Iran; santur, flute). Their set alternated between solo spots highlighting each musician’s own work, and collaborations in duo, trio and quartet arrangements devised during their month-long adventure.

Mashing together intercultural ideas and distinct musical vocabularies can often end badly, but the sensitivity and relationships of these musicians – as well as their obvious musical mastery – meant that each collaboration was full of intrigue and beauty. Particularly inspired combinations included Fyfe and Bisha’s jazzy take on Hamish Henderson’s 'The Flyting of Life and Death' (with flavours of Tigran Hamasyan), and Tannous, Zahedi and Hanks performing an as-yet-untitled new composition.

Making Tracks has really special spark, making disparate artists comfortable enough to explore in ways they wouldn’t have thought possible. Keep these artists on your radar - and if you weren’t lucky enough catch it this time around, look out for the live album coming in 2022.


Photo: A bunch of Making Tracks fellows tuck in overlooking Loch Long in west Scotland, by Merlyn Driver.

Tonga Boys feat. Doctor Kanuska Group - Umoyo wa Muthempire (Live in the Temple)

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 174, January/February 2022.

Tonga Boys feat. Doctor Kanuska Group
Umoyo wa Muthempire (Live in the Temple)
1000HZ Records (50 mins)

For those in the Malawian countryside, the Tonga Boys from Mzuzu are a band from the big city and the group’s arrival to perform at Doctor Kanuska’s traditional temple caused a stir. There, the urban DIY sounds of the Tonga Boys met the singers and dancers of the temple’s congregation for a night of deep vimbuza (spirit possession healing music) mixed in with malipenga (military music from the Tonga Boy’s homeland of Nkhata Bay) and even a couple of stripped-back dancehall numbers.

There are real field recording vibes from this album. The way the sound bounces around the room, the gentle bubble of chatter and the excited electricity of this one-of-a-kind performance all strongly evoke a sense of place. It feels like you’re there and the intensity of the event is palpable.

In the temple, the music was all voice and percussion, but Polish producer Piotr Dang Cichocki adds an extra layer. The production elements – synthed bass and drums, samples – are surprisingly subtle for the size of their sound, often blending seamlessly into the percussion density and adding a complementary boom to the ngoma drums to ensure those transcendental chest cavity reverberations.

This is a unique mix of urban-rural, folk-dance-religious-party music with an acid twang. To be there live must have been unforgettable; this album is the next best thing.

Ebo Krdum - Diversity

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 174, January/February 2022.

Ebo Krdum
Diversity
Supertraditional (55 mins)

Diversity is a theme in Ebo Krdum’s life. Growing up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan, his family and friends spoke many languages between them, and the radio played music from all over West, North and East Africa. He now lives in Sweden, having fled war and political upheaval 11 years ago.

In his debut album, the self-styled ‘African blues’ guitarist and singer explores his own personal meaning of diversity – ‘peace and harmony among people despite their differences’ – using eight languages across the 12 tracks to sing about unity, justice, organisation, activism and the fight for peace. Diversity also means that Krdum isn’t fixed to one particular style. There are different influences dotted throughout: some Arabic, some reggae, and a pleasant thread of Scandinvanian folk, courtesy of performance and production from Swedish folk legends including Ale and Anna Möller. There’s also more than a hint of Krdum’s first and largest influence, Ali Farka Touré – in fact, the track ‘Aysé Konga’, appears to be a take on Touré’s classic ‘Ai Du’. Elsewhere, balafon, djembe, calabash and Tuareg-like guitar add more tones and textures that give the album a decidedly West African bent.

With Diversity, Krdum has made a solid debut album, and one that lives up to its title in terms of music, lyrics and philosophy.