Initially, the duo busked the streets of Mtandire, a slum in the country’s capital Lilongwe, between holding down regular jobs as gardener and watchman and were discovered, by chance, by a local producer. Ten years of hard graft followed, during which time recognition of their talents grew exponentially, resulting in appearances outside their native country. Fungo La Nyemba, an album available for purchase only at their live concerts, was produced, and in 2019 Wasala was released on Les Disques Bongo Joe label. It is to this increasingly influential Geneva-based label that the band return for their latest release, Musakayike.

The eight tracks on the album, the title of which translates as “do not doubt us”, are high-energy and infectious in the extreme, although, somewhat paradoxically, the subject matter is often commenting upon the harshness of daily life in what is one of the world’s poorest countries, alongside thoughts on love, romance and success. The duo comprises Yosefe Kalekeni, on four-string guitar (acting as a Malawi banjo), and a cowskin foot-drum which is thumped with the heel, and Yobu Malingwa, who plays babatone, a home-made one-string slide bass. Both artists provide vocals.

With the guitar holding tight to the rhythm, lead singer Yobu’s long-necked babatone serves as both bottom end and lead. This “Malawi banjo music” is derived from South-African rhythms and exemplified by other artists such as the imperious Kachamba Brothers in the late 1960/1970s, and more recently Mouse Boys, Tonga Boys and Gasper Mali, certainly owes a nod of debt to South African Kwela and jive music.

Having toured extensively in Europe, the Roskilde Festival, Womex and Womad, for example, and having featured on BBC’s Global Beats, this release sees their extended live renditions fine-tuned and trimmed back but still retaining the zestful zip and spontaneity which is their hallmark.

The blisteringly hot pace is set from the opening track Ali Nadi Vuto, as the Madalitsos burst from their blocks with a somewhat autobiographical track in which Yobu laments the fact that whether you are rich, perhaps implying the international tours, or poor, the street busking, people will find fault with both. With a guitar sound of which Buddy Holly would have been proud and uplifting call-and-response figures replete with delicious harmonies, this song will immediately bring the summer into your listening world.
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