Urban Village – Udondolo (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:12 minutes | 541 MB | Genre: World, Africa
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © No Format!
It takes a village to raise a child’ so the proverb goes, and although 41% of Africans now live in urban areas (World Bank 2019) the responsibilities of the village usually travel internally with those who seek their fortune in the city. In the case of Johannesburg known as “Egoli” or “city of Gold” in Zulu, migration brought mixed fortunes. But struggle, as we know, waters creativity, and from the 1930s onwards music was transplanted in Sophiatown and Soweto that distilled the folk music of many villages into a potent multitude of styles from kwela to marabi, maskandi to mbaqanga.
Urban Village, set to release their debut album Udondolo on January 22, 2021, embody this story, and are evidence that there is still gold to be mined in Egoli.
A family as much as a band (as anyone lucky enough to have seen their electrifying live performance at Paris’s Café de la Danse last October will know) Urban Village formed organically in 2013 when bandleader Lerato Lichaba teamed up with vocalist and flautist Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, drummer Xolani Mtshali, and bassist Simangaliso Dlamini. All were born in Soweto in the dying days of apartheid, and the Urban Village story is one of chance encounters and shared (village) values.
Tracklist
1. Urban Village – Izivunguvungu
2. Urban Village – Dindi
3. Urban Village – Ubaba
4. Urban Village – Ubusuku
5. Urban Village – Madume
6. Urban Village – Sakhisizwe
7. Urban Village – Marabi
8. Urban Village – Umuthi
9. Urban Village – Inkani
10. Urban Village – Makolo Yanga
11. Urban Village – Empty K-Set
12. Urban Village – Umhlaba Wonke
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