Kwacha Malawi (2009)
11 tracks, 43 minutes
Bandcamp ∙ Spotify ∙ iTunes
Body, Mind and Soul are not a group that have ever really ‘broken’ onto the international scene. I’ve worked in various roles within the world music industry for the past seven years and have been a punter on the scene for much longer, and I still find it hard to predict which artists are really going to capture the imagination and become superstars in the field and which, for whatever reason, never quite reach that level. Sometimes a group will come along obviously destined for greatness from the word go, and skyrocket to success in a very short amount of time as if it were fate (most recently, Songhoy Blues would fit this description); other times it feels like the other way around, where an artist’s huge and enduring success feels wildly out-of-proportion with their actual musical output (I’m not naming any names on that one!). Body, Mind and Soul are in a third – and probably the most frustrating – category. In this category, artists seem to have the right combination of factors, excelling equally in their music, style, story and charisma, but never seem to attract anything more than passing attention. It’s infuriating, and I think more than a couple of artists featured on this blog probably fit into that category too.
The first (and only) time I saw Body, Mind and Soul live was at the Africa Oyé festival in 2008. They actually played on both days of the weekend, and during their first set on the Saturday, I wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention. I think I went to get food, looked around some of the stalls, that sort of thing, but all within ear-shot of their set. After they had finished, and then all through the day, and through the night until the next day too, their songs stayed with me, repeating over and over in my head. For a group’s music to worm their way so thoroughly into your brain after only hearing each song once, from a distance and without paying particular attention is really impressive. You can bet I paid more attention the next day, and bought their record too.
It’s great, of course. Full to the brim with funk, with powerful reggae and gospel vibes when appropriate, and all based around the rhythms of the band’s native Mzuzu region in northern Malawi. Over all that is frontman Davie ‘Street Rat’ Luhanga’s singing, which is alternately soulful and staccato in his half-sung half-rapped style and brings in bits of scatting that work as a great balance to the funk. The sound is slightly rough around the edges as may be expected from their first real recording, but in a way that can be charming and can throw up interesting new ways of doing things – even to the tiny and endearing detail of starting the album’s title-track opener with a polite ‘hello.’ I love that.
I’m really interested in your thoughts about this. How do you tell whether a band is going to make it big? Are there any artists that you think tick all the boxes to become stars but mysteriously haven’t? And what do you think of today’s album by Body, Mind and Soul? Do they have the ‘it’ to hit the international world music scene with any force, or am I off the mark on this one? Let me know, but either way, enjoy the album!
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