Dulce Neves is an official ambassador for the music of her native Guinea-Bissau – and, for all that, remains fairly unknown in our latitudes. With the 7-inch T’chuba T’chiba, the Paris label Hot Casa has now reissued two songs from her album Mundo Rabida as a vinyl single.
It is especially the dance-compelling title track that casts its spell, with its melodic shifts, carefully layered choruses and Neves’ earthy vibrato. »Nubdade da Terra« moves in a much more laid-back way around its call-and-response figures between voice and guitar. Alongside the typical elements of gumbe and Afro-zouk, there is also a timeless cosmopolitanism here. There are reasons for that: as early as the 1970s, shortly after the end of Portuguese colonial rule in Guinea-Bissau, Neves was already questioning social norms as the female singer of the legendary band Super Mama Djombo. Later, in her lyrics, she denounced the wealth of the political elite and was interrogated and censored several times for it. Even her job as a bank employee did nothing to diminish the restless spirit of her music. That all of this resonates in just two songs, while the breezy rhythms lose none of their warmth, is the strength of Dulce Neves – and of this record.
T'chuba T'chiba
