191: One Night at Momo’s Kemia Bar, by Various Artists

Various Artists
One Night at Momo’s Kemia Bar (2006)
21 tracks, 129 minutes (2 CDs)
(incomplete) Spotify playlist

Momo’s is a Moroccan restaurant in London, just off Regent Street. Despite the London-Morocco connection, as far as I can tell there is no relation to the MoMo that we covered a couple of weeks ago (doesn’t seem like a coincidence though, does it? Hmm). The food is good, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’ve got a load of money that you don’t want for some reason: it’s pricey. But for a long time it was also one of the hottest venues for live music in the city.

It was made more exciting by the lack of signage. You walk into this posh restaurant but turn immediately left, through an archway and down some stairs, then along a long-ish corridor and through a heavy, unmarked door…and you’re in the Kemia Bar! And it’s gorgeous: low, vaulted ceiling; dim, warm lighting in reds and golds and through patterned shades; decorated like a Bedouin’s tent. Already an amazing location, but then you add in the amazing music. The Kemia Bar played host to the best roots-based musicians from across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and elsewhere, all in this cosy, intimate environment. They even provided the UK debuts for artists such as Amadou & Mariam, Mahmoud Ahmed, Tinariwen, Mariza and Seu Jorge among others.

Unfortunately, as all things seem to, the Kemia Bar concerts stopped in 2013. But before that happened, they released a handful of compilation albums that aimed to get across the atmosphere of the Kemia Bar, so that you could enjoy it in your own space. One Night at Momo’s Kemia Bar is the best of them. Across two discs, there’s a remarkable range of styles going on, but they all contribute to a whole that is fresh and exciting, upbeat but chilled and rather sophisticated too. Just listening to this mix makes the air slightly perfumed. There is a bit of a Spanish tinge to the first disc (my favourite of the two), with lovely pieces from Radio Tarifa, Ojos de Brujo and Trüby Trio featuring Buika, but then there’s also intense spoken word from Ursula Rucker, UK hip-hop from Ty featuring Roots Manuva, and a remix of Ethiopian singer Gigi. The second disc goes in a more electronica direction, perhaps more suitable for later-night dancing than the lounge atmosphere of the first CD, but with just as much variety; the highlight here is a smart remix of Césaria Évora’s ‘Angola’ by Carl Craig.

The Kemia Bar is much missed on the London scene, and its absence turns Momo’s from a haven for top-class international music to just another overpriced bougie restaurant. If anyone knows of any similarly cool venues around the city now, please do let me know – until then, I’ll just have to make do with a tagine, some incense and One Night at Momo’s Kemia Bar.