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.

LIVE WITHOUT FEAR

Kwani Experience “Chant down Fear”

In a climate where violence, hate and fear dominate the headlines, genre-defying band Kwani Experience, has taken a stand to live without fear and want you to join them in their campaign. Dubbed “Live without fear”, the campaign is a reaction to various ills and concerns, which plague our country and need urgent attention. Crime, underdevelopment, disabilities, diseases, unemployment, tribalism, xenophobia and a general doom and gloom dominate. Yet part of the solution to all these problems is a simple change in attitude and a refusal to be gripped by fear. This is the stand taken by the band, whose music is a marriage of funk, jazz, soul, dance, hip-hop, African traditional and urban music.

“The campaign was inspired by our new single ‘Chant down fear’. The overall theme of the song is overcoming fear, because fear is a barrier to freedom,” says the band’s lead rapper/poet Kwelaboge “P.O.” Sekele, “we suffer from a lot of societal fears: we live in fear of crime, we live behind high walls; we fear the pursuit of our dreams; we fear failure; we fear being ourselves.”

Sekele says that some manifestations of these endemic fears are scores of citizens with inferiority complexes, racial clashes and Xenophobia.” With the violence being meted out against immigrants around the country, the campaign could not have come at a better time. “The violence that is going on right now, we saw it coming. Xenophobia is essentially a fear of what you don’t know and as long as you are afraid, you will never know.” says Sekele.

Their central message is that with the eradication of fear, comes clarity and solutions are easier to formulate. Retreating into fear, the band states, compounds problems and is not conducive to solutions.

They have embarked on a media drive to raise awareness about the campaign and will also be posting content online. In the next few months the band is scheduled to perform at a number of venues around the country and will be spreading the “Live without fear” message.

“We had planned to begin the campaign at a later stage, but recent events have shown us the urgency the situation. We are working on securing the right partners to take the campaign to greater heights,” added Sekele.

“Musicians and artists in general have a big role, not only to entertain, but to unite, teach and connect people.”

Kwani Experience recently concluded a 2 month-long tour of The Netherlands, Belgium and Bosnia and will be touring Lesotho and Gauteng later this year. Their second album, Live After Birth is out in stores now.