They say the best music comes from relationships. Fleetwood Mac; Paul and John; Chas and Dave. Even better than that though, is the music that comes from various corners of the Earth, grabbing the various cultural standpoints our globe has to offer and putting them into one big melting pot of music. That's the sort of thing that the genre-defying Owiny Sigoma Band are about - two members are from the Luo tribe of Western Kenya, the others are from London. Currently signed to Brownswood Recordings, the group have just arrived back from Nyanza where they were inspired to write their third record, of the same name. Above we have the premiere of one track from that record and what follows below is a short conversation with the group about Luo music, their new album, and drinking a local tripped-out beverage called changaa.
Noisey: Hey guys! On this record you went to Western Kenya to explore the birthplace of Luo music. For those who don't already know, what's Luo music? What's the best description of its sound and who are some of the most influential artists?
Jesse Hackett: The Luo are the third largest ethnic group in Kenya. The Luo have played an eight-string lyre called nyatiti for hundeds of years - its origins are said to have come from Egypt and travelled along the River Nile. Similar instruments constructed using the same building principles can be found all across east africa. The nyatiti is usually played as a accompanying instrument with voice and jingles like bells attached to the players legs - and often with traditional drums (called nyiduongue drums), Orutu (a 1 string fiddle), cow horns, and other percussion. Here is Ownang Lelo, a master of the nyatiti, playing in a classic traditional style:
This style of music is often played in the rural areas of Western Kenya and can involve long and trance inducing changaa fuelled parties - which we were lucky enough to witness in the leader of our group's home town.
What's changaa? What did it do to you?
Jesse: We were lucky enough to have been treated to the traditional brew which is essentially just a strong maze - millet brew - next time we will have to move on to the imbalming fluid mix. We drank some after steadily working our way though various other cheap liquor - kenyan cane - and lots of tusker beer. It tasted like fermented arm pit juice but when we wanted to take it just that little bit higher it certainly did the trick. I was definitely seeing some very trippy things after... including many shooting stars, a black plastic mumma maria, and plenty of african puminucker sticks waving around in the hazy trace of the night.
Cool. What was Kenya like? I feel like the picture we see of Africa, living in the West, is often very different to what it's like.
Tom Skinner: Kenya is a beautiful country! Some of the most amazing wildlife you'll ever see and the landscape is stunning from vast plains to lush green farmlands, lakes and mountain tops. There are a lot of problems there though as well. The government and police are so corrupt and there is poverty and inequality on a mass scale. Nairobi is home to Kibera, one of the worlds largest slums so it is a struggle and hard way of life for many people. Also the recent al shabaab terrorist attacks have had a huge affect on tourism there which is obviously one of the biggest sources of income for the country so the economy is in decline.Despite all of this negative stuff though there is a lot of great stuff happening in Kenya and East Africa in general. In arts and music young people are really trying to take control of things for themselves and make things happen from the ground up. We met a great bunch of people from Up magazine in Nairobi and the guys from Santuri Safari who are all doing great things, putting on great parties, wrting and publishing articles about things that matter to them, doing workshops in poor areas teaching people to build their own electronic instruments out of scrap. There is definitely a buzz there.
How would you describe the sound of your third album?
Louis Hackett: A Luo/london smelting pot. Griddled under the heat of the equator, brewed in a secret nuclear bunker and served with a side salad of Techno GritPop. Forever attempting to walk the high wire between the hill tops of Luo land and the concrete high rises of London's skyline. Owiny edges forward!
I saw you guys put on a show in Kenya. Do you have plans to take the record out on the road, or across the world?
Louis: The Owiny Sigoma Band really comes to life in its live format. Delving deep into the drone zone hypnosis and levitation is the name of the game. Unrestricted by specific time frames gives the band a chance to improvise and expand the basic grooves of the original recordings. Sometimes this ends in some pretty archaic cosmic swells. But our objective to harness and ride these waves is where the fun lies. As for gigs in Kenya - we really hope there are more opportunities in the near future. It was really mind blowing getting the chance to perform this hybrid of music to a local crowd in Nyamungu’s rural area of Nyanza.
Generally people really loved the music, but there was a healthy dose of confusion for a lot of the audience. seeing a group of 3 mazungus playing alongside 2 traditional luo master musicians is pretty unique in rural kenya and had some people slightly baffled. But that's an inspiring space to fill and an area which we hopefully continue to explore and expand upon!
Awesome! Thanks guys.
from NOISEY RSS Feed http://ift.tt/1fdLLDH
About Unknown
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire