"A reward, transferring to another world" -
Polifonia.pl
The first album of Tonga Boys "Tiri Bwino" from 2017 was a testimony of the new African urban life in crowded, deprived of electricity and sewage settlements. The band presented music combining the traditions of the Tonga people (hence the name of the band) and modern chaotic lives in the slums.
The premiere album "Vindodo" is a step further - a mature, more dynamic and more refined effect of the sparkling creativity of Peter Kaunda, Albert Manda, Solomon Nikho, Mylius Minthall, and Guta Manda. The singing of two main singers, Peter and Albert, supported by the choir of the whole band, are arranged in a reference to pop and ritual music. The drummer Solomon leads the rhythmic dense arrangements led with the accompanied by rest of the group, using improvised instruments: plastic buckets, shovels, cans filled with gravel, a guitar constructed of wires on an unheated board. The album was recorded in their homes during the fourth and fifth joint sessions ("Tiri Bwino" consisted of recordings from the first three meetings).
"Peter, add more sounds to it later" - the band members suggested to the producer. For this purpose, Piotr Dang asked the Czarny Latawiec (Daniel Brożek) and Wojciech Kucharczyk to cooperate. They mix each one track and Piotr took care of the rest. The effect is a bolder incorporation of electronics into the sound of the band. The aim, however, was not to adapt the Tonga Boys to European ideas about African electronics or tradition but to emphasize the energy, rawness, dislocation, and joy of their music.
Thematically, questions of displacement, encounter with strangeness, searching for an identity dominate the album. The title track (illustrated with a video clip, directed by the band and the record producer) tells about a forest path haunted by demonic spirits. The opener of the album "Buranda" - about the party in honor of an arriving stranger. In "Zaninga Ku Malawi", Peter provokingly addresses foreign tourists and economic expatriates, asking them to come - or return - to the country. "Nakhala Nekha" (the spelling of "Ndakhala Nekha" is also correct) is the lament of a migrant who, trying to reach his girlfriend from his homeland, listens only to the telephone signal. In "Ndipatali" Albert Manda sings about the hope that only the hardest work can change a tough fate.
The cover was designed by an artist from a small studio at the bus station in Rumphi - Desire Khumbo Masanika, and remixed by the Polish visual artist Adrian Szwarc. Interestingly, commercial streaming services found the project to be non-compliant, therefore they received a cover-like product, and the original graphics can only be found in the Bandcamp service or by purchasing a CD.
Similarly to other releases from 1000HZ catalog, the profit from the sale goes to the artists.
released October 15, 2018
Music: Tonga Boys - Albert, Guta, Myrias, Peter, Solomon and others
Recordings, production and mixes: Piotr Cichocki,
except for Ndakhala Neka - mix Wojciech Kucharczyk
Kaperemewa - mix Czarny Latawiec
Cover design: Khumbo Desire Masanika / Adrian Szwarc