By Staff Reporter
Windhoek
Here come the lights and smoke machines, dancers and firespinners and the big sound. With music this good, let us share it:
Thursday March 6 at the Warehouse for only N$45 at the door and N$35 pre-sale, you can come and get restless with Namibia’s premier world music group Ongoma, when they launch their latest release ‘The Natives are Restless’.
According to a press stat’ment the critically acclaimed group has quickly found its way onto the airwaves with the hit track “Onele Yo Mapenda’ reaching into the top three on the Pepsi Top 20 and ‘Shebeen 107’ taking its rightful place on Omulunga’s Friday evening Tafel Lager Finest Vibes show.
Recorded in almost 18-hour shifts in just one week during September last year at Take Note Music, the group was privileged to have Barry van Zyl, drummer of world-renowned Johnny Clegg and Savuka, to produce their album, assisted by Brian de Goede, of Noah’s Ark, Konshus Pilot Media, Cape Town.
Although the album can broadly be classified as world music, it is hard to put into a box; it incorporates elements of soul and R&B, house beats and ragga/hip-hop and can hardly be termed traditional. On the contrary, Ongoma has successfully managed to interpret modern, urban Namibia on traditional instruments.
With the rhythm section of the group’s sound characterised by the throaty bass and tenor marimbas, supported by skilful percussion elements, it has married well with such diverse instruments as violin, the Australian didgeridoo, and jazzy ‘Goema’-style guitar licks.
Add to this the groups’ vocals, ranging from tenor, baritone to bass and falsetto, throw in some Gregorian-type chants in Oshiwambo and some clever hip-hop rhymes and you end up with an album as full of eclectic diversity as Namibia’s cultures.
Doors open 19h00 and the show starts 21h00.