Word: mwamwaya
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Founded in 1999 with Malawaian vocalist Esau Mwamwaya fronting the daring production of London-based DJ duo Radioclit, The Very Best released the critically acclaimed mixtape “Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are the Very Best” in 2008. The mixtape was equally indebted to traditional African musical traditions and their corresponding Western interpretations. The most bizarre example of this, perhaps, was seeing Mwamwaya sing in Chichewa over Vampire Weekend’s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” in a bold, globally-minded move to transcend the African sound and enter the arena...
...continues in a similarly epic fashion, leaving no room for interpretation when it comes to questions about the album’s themes: love, truth, music, and other universals. The topics are sweepingly large, but The Very Best has the musical muscle to match. On the track, Mwamwaya spreads his bracing, multi-tracked vocals across the crisp, rollicking synths of Radioclit that would be equally at home in an ’80s pop hit. The song moves between the peaks of Mwamwaya’s choral cries and the hushed intimacy of the calming and repetitive beat, creating moving...
...these songs, however, pale in comparison to “Mfumu,” or “King,” the best track on the album. The glitchy bells and high-hat dance across the sturdy beat of the kick drum while Mwamwaya performs aural acrobatics high above. Listening to this song is like staring out of the open moon roof in a moving car on a clear night: grand, yet intimate, life-affirming and filled with wonder...
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