LYRICS: EGO TRIPS

EGO TRIPS. (Take Away)

All I see/is People/ sitting on their asses/Ego tripping/Day tripping/Opportunity passes/os'ka robala hodima passa/sitting on your assets/lahl'iEgo amigo/Iyanilahlisa majimbo/Don't be a rebel kiddo/Keep it ta nice ma primo/shed the ego by kilo/Welcome to the party by people like DJ -zhero/Hope I'm appealing to true you/Not appeasing false you/The you/that's in you/forever limiting you...

- to be contiuned: by George Bounday (Take Away)

Album Review: Tidal Waves- 'Afrika' (Reggae)

Album Review: Tidal Waves - Afrika

Tidal Waves is Afrika! This band should raise the South African reggae flag worldwide. They will surely follow in the late South African Reggae father Lucky Dube’s footsteps with their uniquely African Reggae sound and they’ve already started giving Europe a taste of their export dish. They are back with their fourth album with some previously recorded and released tracks notably ‘Kia-Ora’, a previously released song and a favourite at Tidal Waves performances.

The album is ‘roots-rock-reggae’, as reggae head would label it. Their music has this Southern African reggae feel to it, reminding one of Lucky Dube himself, the many unknown and underground Reggae bands of Venda and Peter Tosh. They are earthed, rooted, traditional folk – Live – with that mouth organ, keyboards and sung in Xhosa, Tswana, English and even Maori. I expected at least an Afrikaans song but I guess I’ll just have to catch their next show. There has been a change in the band with the passing of their keyboardist but their sound still lives on. May his soul rest in peace; he will be greatly missed by Tidal Waves fans.

This album is also very lyrical and obviously topical, touching on political and social issues such as government corruption, promotion of hard work, abuse, love and the decriminalization of the ‘herb’.

The first song on the album ‘Bing-Bong’ is a war-cry that will surely hook you; a political protest against the plague called war. Tidal Waves are anti-war, true Rastafari style. ‘Money’, their famous track at concerts is also on the album as well as ‘Kia-Ora, with a chorus in the native New Zealand Maori.

Although the album is very lyrical, the vocals could have been more complex but if you prefer them raw, rooted, natural and simple then you got it. The instrumentals are on point, the synthesizers/pads soft and smoky and sunny (and No I’m not a stoner). The chorus on the track ‘Rapolotiki’, which means Mr. Politics, is a rock classic filled with a head banging feel and scratchy vocals with simple guitar riffs. This song is a satire and a word-play in Setswana; get a Tswana friend to translate…Tswana not Sotho.

The album is a rich African reggae classic and I expect to hear it on the airwaves hopefully. It is South African Reggae and it is Tidal Waves. GOD BLESS AFRIKA!

Book Review: STILL GRAZING.HUGH MASEKELA

Book: Still Grazing
Written by: Hugh Masekela
Publisher: Johnson Publishing Co.
www.amazon.com
Reviewed by: Kwelagobe Sekele

This book has been out for a couple of years now and I’m surprised that such little noise has been made about it. ‘Still Grazing’ is the life of the legendary veteran trumpeter, composer, songwriter and activist, Hugh Masekela in his own words, co-written by Michael Cheers. I’m an autobiography type of person, only because they are the first hand experience and the word of the writer-subject as opposed to biographies, words about a subject. He’s been working on this life story for years now and I have to admit honestly, it’s a brilliant read. A week before I read this book I had just finished reading Richard Branson’s autobiography and Still Grazing just made me realize how we don’t value our talent, elders, pioneers and ourselves as a country in transition, with a trillion colorful stories to tell. The book is an account of Bra Hugh’s life from his childhood days in the mining town of Witbank where he grew up with his Shebeen Queen grandmother and was exposed to Jazz and all types of music, which he says was always overflowing from all houses. It’s a very personal book and Bra Hugh’s command of language, images and storytelling is outstanding.

The book takes you to Alexandra where his family moved after his father got a job, a place he says wasn’t as good as Witbank. He paints a picture of the streets of Alexandra back then with images of street fighting, the dusty streets and the neighbors. The images just put you there and reading this book will make one feel like the legendary Hugh Masekela is talking to you in person. There’s also accounts of his moving to a boarding school where he was exposed to Jazz, Bebop, sex, shoplifting, cigarette smoking, Father Trevor Huddleston and getting his first trumpet, shipped from the U.S., a gift from Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) himself – who he meets years later. The picture on the cover of this book is of Bra Hugh leaping and jumping high in joy on the day he got the trumpet. His sense f humour is bountiful with the account of how he met the legendary Miriam Makeba who was already a house-hold name then, how he charmed her, their on and off affair and their not so successful and very dramatic marriage years later while in exile in New York. There’s also humorous accounts of how he met legends such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, Harry Belafonte, Bill Cosby, Fela Kuti and the great times he spent with all these legends. When talking about these legends, people like poet and Professor Willie Kgositsile, trombonist Jonas Gwangwa, composer & songwriter Caiphus Semenya and Mama Letta Mbulu, and other legends such as Todd Matshikiza make up the long list of legends.

Some interesting parts of the book are the hectic life of drugs, booze, parties, self-indulgent and self-destructive life he lived, he has been through the roughest of times and has survived it all and lived to tell. The drug busts, the failed marriages and the endless women in his life. Talking about women, he has dated the beautiful, famous and movers & shakers in his life, but I wont reveal much. Politically, Bra Hugh has played big a role like most political activists and South African exiles of then, with his music previously banned by the apartheid regime and his image nearly destroyed by its media propaganda. Musically, he has paid his dues, played with the most respected, shared the stage with greats, toured, played at the most prestigious festivals and released many albums and hits. One outstanding hit was ‘Grazing in the Grass’, which made it big in the charts in the U.S.A. making Hugh Masekela a bit timer and a big-shot in 60s L.A. particularly. His accounts of his musical journey, in U.S.A and the African tour which crossed his path with the likes of Fela Kuti – who had wanted to play with Bra Hugh so much, Franco of Zaire (the now Congo) and how he got to perform with the young Tshepo Tshola are classical stories.

In this book he takes you through his experiences with the likes of Don King and James Brown during his involvement with the Zaire-Congo ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and how he met Malcolm X and the young Bob Marley and doing a session on the reggae icon’s first album. Bra Hugh is one of the pioneers of World Music and all-embracing credit should be given to him and people like him. He went to the United States with a strong urge of playing jazz and bebop and once there was advised by particular people like Miles Davis not to be one of the jazz statistics. He then fused jazz with indigenous African sounds, especially South African elements, the music of BaPedi, MaNdebele and Zulu, including folk songs and traditional healers songs, filled with political text and came with the sound that we today know as World Music. Read the book and see how the musical turned movie Sarafina, one of the best South African musicals since King Kong came about, how its songs came about, how Hugh Masekela touched the life of Madiba and vice-versa. It’s a book about music, the history of South Africa and apartheid. The bottom line is that Still Grazing is an excellent read and should grace non-fiction and autobiography shelves of every library, be included in school’s South African and music history curriculum and your book collection if you are proud African-South African reader and music lover. The book has a compilation c.d. of Hugh Masekela’s earliest songs, something you can play in the background while reading the history of this legend. It’s a great read – period! And should kill all the negative publicity you’ve heard about Bra Hugh. Someone should turn this book into a movie, and I’ll do it if no one sees the potential I’m talking about.

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.

Album Review: JUNO REACTOR

C.D. REVIEW
Artist: Juno Reactor
Album: Gods & Monsters
Label: Electric Melt
Year: 2008.
Review by: Kwelagobe Sekele

Juno Reactor is back! Ben Watkins and his Cinematic entourage and travel accomplices are back. This album is a festival of trance and cinematic fusions, what Juno Reactor is known for and all the electronic and orchestration elements are still there, forever. The album front cover is of a blue under-water character with scuba headgear sitting in a lotus position making you wonder what’s inside. Once en-trance – into the C.D. that is, the music moves from minimal electro-dub to electronic orgasms. From the first song, up-tempo ‘Inca Steppa’, a jungle number that will get even the non-jungle fanatic loving it. I can’t wait to hear this one on the thunderous and smoky dance-floors. Ghetto Priest is on vocals on this track and they are great, gelling perfectly with the music, the vocals don’t leave the music hanging on it’s own like they were two different entities. Oh my Word! Track 2, ‘Tokyo Dub’ is such an anthem and a stoner’s soundtrack. Look out for it. The vocals are a haunting reverb memory and it’s not a female vocalist, which was the impression I got, it’s Ghetto Priest once again doing what a good vocalist would do…surprises.

I like the live elements on this album, the flutes, Piano, guitars, and bass to mention a few, compliment the electronics and the drums and the outstanding engineering brings all these elements together like glue. It’s got some of the finest instrumentalists from out of London and South Africa, such as Byron Wallen and Mabi Thobejane to name a few. The album has the ability to move from dance floor to a cinematic surround sound to rock to electro acoustic with great vocals and poetry embellishments but all this you must hear for yourself. The album has some political and social commentary as well as physics and mystic vibes. Track 7 ‘Tanta Pena’

Albeton and Native Instruments lent their hand in this project but I should give credit to both them and the musicianship on this project for a great album that’s about to close another decade of Juno Reactor. It’s electrifying, cinematic and out of body. Not for the spineless but they can try it. If you are a Juno Reactor or Trance fan then get this album definitely.

Album Review: DEFUNKT

CD Review (Rare)
Artist: Defunkt
Album: Journey (Live)
Label: Independent
Reviewed by: Kwelagobe Sekele

I just had to share this rare one with you. This album is Funky, funk all the way from the first to the last track – not counting the outro, it’s a funk odyssey, and the title ‘Journey’ is not a coincidence. I met the band leader, arranger and Trombonist Joseph Bowie at a Kwani Experience gig in Netherlands, he came to watch the young band as he had met and jammed with its instrumentalists a couple of days earlier. Old enough to be my father, this striking figure came backstage to congratulate the band on a great show. Defunkt have been around since the 70s and you can tell by how they funk it up. This is a live album with recordings from performances in Vienna, Austria and Netherlands with only one studio track, a Buddhist chant outro. There is no sleeping here, the whole band are on their toes from the rhythm section to the vocals and brass section, there’s just no room for sloppiness and listening to the album you can tell they were sweating it up. With close to 3 decades of existence it just shows you how big the world is, how vast the world of music and how much music is out there and Defunkt are just one of those hidden musical treasures in that vast world.

If you are a funk type person this album won’t disappoint you, filled with political, social and party lyrics dipped in a sauce of sustained organ sounds and crazy keyboards. By the fourth track ‘Why can’t you see’ they take it easy but don’t get fooled like I got fooled; it’s just the intro to the song. The song changes into a funky political rally. When the C.D. hits number seven ‘Ft. Greene’ it turns into an out-of-body experience with the keyboard taking you to were any keyboard has ever taken you before, not to that world of lovers and melody but to a freaky spiritual realm. I know some people who will skip it when it gets to that track, but if you are into experiments then stay on. ‘Poise’, number eight is a breather. I just dig the backing vocalists on this album, which is the rest of the band’s task actually; they just seem to be having fun. That also goes for the lead vocalist, he’s so old school. This album will grow you an Afro and take you back to the ‘Blackalicious’ Era. It’s not available in this country but you can check www.defunktmusic.com if you are interested.