CD: Owiny Sigoma Band - Owiny Sigoma Band | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Owiny Sigoma Band - Owiny Sigoma Band
CD: Owiny Sigoma Band - Owiny Sigoma Band
The most natural African/UK fusion album in a long time
Friday, 06 May 2011
Four London musicians join some Nairobi hip-hop artists, and don’t mess it up
When Western musicians add their bit to traditional African music it can be disastrous: a programmed beat awkwardly forcing sinuous, sensual music to conform to its rigidity, or some dreadful rock vocalist doing a Bono all over some exquisite interplay of mbira and talking drums. But here we have a London collective working with a bunch of musicians from Nairobi, and refreshingly their presence doesn’t for one moment seem unnatural or intrusive.
When Western musicians add their bit to traditional African music it can be disastrous: a programmed beat awkwardly forcing sinuous, sensual music to conform to its rigidity, or some dreadful rock vocalist doing a Bono all over some exquisite interplay of mbira and talking drums. But here we have a London collective working with a bunch of musicians from Nairobi, and refreshingly their presence doesn’t for one moment seem unnatural or intrusive.
Share this article
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more New music
Album: Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
The coolest Mancunian returns with a lesson in style
Laufey, Royal Albert Hall review - fans in heaven
The sequence of heartbreak songs sounded same-y
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into day one and the elephant-in-the-room
An opening snapshot of Brighton's multi-venue showcase
Album: Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
Desire and longing are the submersibles that propel Eilish’s riveting third album
Album: Jack Savoretti - Miss Italia
Middle of the road singer embraces family history with an album of Italian pop
Hidden Door 10th Birthday Party, St James Quarter, Edinburgh review - going underground
Car park transformed into gallery/rave venue for multi-art celebration
Conchúr White, St Pancras Old Church review - side-stepping the past to embrace the future
Northern Irish troubadour pushes forward
Album: Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Intimate songs of unavoidable sorrow
Pop Will Eat Itself, Chalk, Brighton review - hip hop rockers deliver a whopper
Eighties/Nineties indie-tronic dance mavericks take the roof off
Music Reissues Weekly: Little Girls - Valley Songs
Deserved tribute to the Los Angeles new wave popsters who failed to click
Album: Ani DiFranco - Unprecedented Sh!t
Tough, uncompromising, unflinching
Album: Abigail Lapell - Anniversary
An engaging - if doleful - set from the Canadian folk-Americana singer
Add comment