Album Review: ALIEN HIP TRIANGLE-BEYOND THE LOUNGE

Album: Alien Hip Triangle: Beyond the Lounge
Artist: Various Artists (South Africa, London, Brazil)
Label: MELT200.Phase Two
Review by: Kwelagobe Sekele

No this album is not about Aliens, aliens’ hips nor is it about crop circles or illuminati or geometric shapes. MELT2000 brings you a compilation of hip tracks from their huge catalogue. This compilation features known, unknown and underrated artists from South Africa, London, Brazil and L.A. based Brazilians. That geography is what makes up the ‘Triangle’. The idea of this compilation is to introduce MELT and its Worldly music catalogue to a younger audience. It features the likes of piano genius Moses Molelekwa, London female keyboardist extraordinaire Jessica Lauren, Brazilian Master percussionist Airto Moreira and his family, wife Flora Purim, daughter Decibel and son-in-law Krishna Booker. The first song, by Square Window, a project by London drummer-producer Andrew Missingham is a nice lounge song titled “Talk becomes Mantra” and features South African exile born Nomvula?. It’s a good icebreaker. There are big songs you should look out for such as “Open your eyes, you can fly” by Flora Purim which has been redone by the likes of Vanessa Williams. There’s our Jozi own Kwani Experience with “Seed of Life” from their debut album, who though not from the MELT stable, fit into this compilation like a Greek fits into any Mediterranean crowd.

One would expect Moses Molelekwa’s to add a jazz flavour into this compilation but nah…his song “Asim’dumise” is nostalgic of a black South African gospel T.V. show from the 90s. He brings his production, studio-head brains with some 50:50 Kruger-national keyboard flutes and synthesizers on this one. This particular track is not a very well known Molelekwa number, so something fresh right there. There’s an early 90s rap song by D.R.E.A.M, a group by The Dream and Krishna Booker for you old school Hip-Hoppers. Talking about Krishna Booker, he appears again on here with wife Decibel (D.B) as Eyedentity, their Western Trip-Hop duo with “No denying”. D.B. is a natural vocalist, exchanging personas between singer and rapper. The compilation closes with “See you later”, a remix of a song from Killer Bees an unrehearsed album by Gods of Jazz (Airto Moreira, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke) from the 90s. Even though your ordinary popular culturists might not know most artists on this compilation, they are worth checking out, if you want something new in your life, something out of the world you are bombarded with, get Beyond the Lounge. Look for a pink C.D. front cover in stores. If they don’t have it order it, they’ll have it in a couple of days.