183: Makhirikhiri, by Shumba Ratshega

Shumba Ratshega (Botswana)
Makhirikhiri
10 tracks, 61 minutes
Awesome Tapes from Africa

You know by now that I have a weak spot for African music based on cheap and cheerful keyboard sounds, and Makhirikiri definitely falls into that category. But unlike Jagwa Music or Shangaan Electro, Shumba Ratshega's music isn't breakneck, hard-n-fast dance music. It is just as joyous as those other examples, but it's also super chilled out.

Ratshega and his music are from Botswana, a huge country in southern Africa whose music is rather underrepresented on the world scene, overshadowed as it is by musical powerhouse nations of which it shares borders. And that's a lovely thing about this album, its music is one of those that betrays its cultural geography – for example, the melodies are based around the I-IV-V-V chord pattern so favoured by South African musicians, but the triple metre of the beat (that is, you can count it in threes instead of twos) is more common in more northerly cultures such as those of Zimbabwe.

While the music on Makhirikiri is chilled and relaxing, that doesn't mean it isn't eminently danceable, it's just more likely that you'll be swaying rather than bouncing to this one. An obviously heavy influence on Ratshega's sound is the choral music with its roots in the church, which is joined by his sweet lead vocals, the ever-present Casio replicating xylophones and flutes, preset drum patterns and the occasional sounds of farmyard animals. So stylistically, there's a definite gospel lean to this album, although don't tell the church that: these songs are salacious, their lyrics (sung in the Sebirwa language) enough to cause scandal in Botswana – and to earn Shumba's music an 'explicit' tag on iTunes. Perhaps luckily, my Sebirwa is on the rusty side, so I don't have to worry about the songs harming my delicate ears.

I guess you can't judge the character of songs just by their musicality – these don't sound as if they would be infamously crude, but there you are. Regardless, this is still an album of cheerful, perhaps cheeky, music for a lazy summer's day, relaxed enough to keep you buoyant and with enough energy to keep you moving.