Call and response is a key form in music, from west African drum circles to jazz and hip-hop. It’s a means of musical dialogue, the connection of two differing ideas into a tentative unity. For South African and British collective Keleketla! – meaning “response” in Sepedi – it is the foundation for their self-titled debut album.
The group is led by Coldcut, founders of the record label Ninja Tune, after they were contacted by the Keleketla arts initiative in Johannesburg to collaborate on a record for the charity In Place of War. Johannesburg has developed a reputation for genre-bending releases in recent years, largely thanks to the efforts of pirate-radio-station-turned-label Mushroom Hour Half Hour. As such, Coldcut wisely tapped the label to select instrumentalists for this release, channelling this experimental spirit.
The result is a beguiling nine tracks, recorded in Soweto and then overdubbed and mixed in London, featuring South African upstarts such as gqom producer DJ Mabheko and anti-capitalist hip-hop collective Soundz of the South, as well as sought-after names such as percussionist Thabang Tabane and the late Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. Opener Future Toyi Toyi features Allen’s unmistakably skittering beat over a forceful chant from Soundz of the South, while Freedom Groove continues the socio-political theme with the band Antibalas channelling Fela Kuti on percussive horn arrangements.
It is on the tracks where Coldcut pit their compressed electronics against the undulating acoustics of the featured musicians that the record really pushes its narrative forward, though. On Crystallise, rapper Yugen Blakrok flows through London saxophonists Tamar Osborn and Shabaka Hutchings’ liquid lines while turntablist DeeJay Random scratches over Coldcut’s rumbling sub bass. And on Papua Merdeka, Allen’s drums return with a top-line guitar from Miles James deftly scoring the Lani Singers’ tale of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua. Here, the component parts of hip-hop, jazz, dub and protest music are pieced together, like the many languages of a diasporic conversation. If the call is for music, Keleketla!’s mutlilingual, effusive response is one worth hearing.
Also out this month
Brazilian singer-songwriter Céu returns with her fifth album, Apká!, a dancefloor-primed experimental pop collection featuring contributions from samba revivalist Seu Jorge and Tropicália pioneer Caetano Veloso. Fellow countryman and guitarist Chico Pinheiro’s City of Dreams taps into the rich lineage of Latin jazz with intricate, bossa-tinged numbers such as Estrada Real and the sun-dappled Encantado. Further afield, crate diggers Habibi Funk reissue a joyous compilation of Sudanese jazz from composer and oud player Sharhabil Ahmed, The King of Sudanese Jazz, blending breezy surf guitars with funk horns and double-time 50s blues melodies.
