Mizu

It's with an illustrious career behind him – on screen, stage and airwaves – that Code Sangala now offers us the musical products of his journey into traditional Malawian dance culture: Mizu. It is an endlessly happy record, with well sewn together guitar melodies and joyous open harmonies, a formula that Sangala seems content to sit with throughout most of Mizu. These themes are repeated throughout many of the tracks such as ‘Mukunama’, which is a feel-good, singalong affair, and ‘Tikamapanga Chikondi’, which has a funky energy and salacious lyrics. It doesn't venture too far from this innocuous dance band set-up; by track three the melodies become easily predictable and the texture too familiar. However, breaks from the norm can be found with some relief in a couple of the tracks. ‘Chosamva’ has a powerful bassline that calls to mind Bakithi Kumalo's famous appearances on Graceland and there's a surprise at the end by the name of ‘Chandiluma n'Chiyani?’. This is a song held together with a syncopated percussion shuffle, accented by the deep twang of the babatoni and heightened by quick-fire call-and-response, which brings a more interesting end to the record.