Two men, three instruments, all played at the same time, without calling in a studio to make the work easier. The Madalitso Band from Lilongwe in Malawi is a power trio in the form of a duo. Except they don’t do rock, they do folk. Yobu Maligwa, also the lead singer, rules the low end on the self-made babatone, the one-sided bass with a wash-drum body, while Yosefe Kalekeni takes over the four-stringed guitar and the foot drum strung with a cowhide. He also sings. It could hardly be more reduced for a band. Yet they fill the air around them with concentrated energy and supposedly simple-monotonous rhythms that are always so inconspicuously wired together with their syncopations that the thing holds each song effortlessly. And probably quite a bit beyond that: live, their tracks like to be twice as long. The bass regularly increases the pressure on the already tight tempo with plucked eighth notes just before the harmonic resolution. That’s always enough for the dynamics. And the trick doesn’t get old with them. Their third album »Musakayike« is 35 minutes of euphoria, where you run the risk of wanting to dance uncontrollably. They must be incredible live.
Gnonnas Pedro
The Man Who Sings All African Languages
Nanga Boko