There's a choir on stage and the choir we've come to hear hasn't even appeared yet.
This “choir” is Munto Valdo, who is living up to his new album’s title, The One and the Many, by creating – in real time with an array of pedals – sounds that would pass for a sizeable band, all deftly layered vocals and multiple guitar parts, in a way that transcends tricksiness.
Valdo wears his mastery lightly and his music is honest, warm and soulful, much like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who have come to promote their new album, too. The commercial world has become their oyster since their involvement in Paul Simon’s Graceland and Songs from a Zulu Farm’s cover forms a prominent backdrop. Their music remains true to their origins, however, and if there’s any sense of a formula, it’s the arranging style that their founder, Joseph Shabalala, perfected half a century ago.
The nine voices blend like a vocal locomotive, an impression that’s enhanced by their piston-like movements, and they seem to have an endless supply of rhythmical possibilities to carry songs that in this case were – still are – all in a day’s work. It’s one good-naturedly introduced hazard after another. If the chicken doesn’t bite you, the donkey will (in the bum, apparently), although they’d have to be quick and agile to catch these athletic singers.
How they continue making such a rich, beautiful ensemble sound while running, crouching and high-kicking is a minor miracle and if Homeless took us back to Graceland, something even more familiar lay in wait: the hippest version of Old McDonald Had a Farm you’ll ever hear was the encore.
HHHH
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