The Exorcism of a Spinster

This is the confident debut solo album by this Zimbabwean mbira (thumb piano) player and singer, who may be familiar as the lead singer of Monoswezi. Throughout the album, there's a tangible musical narrative based on the changing roles of women in her country.

The material mixes Masike's arrangements of traditional and original compositions, and her sleeve notes outline how she grappled with unmet expectations of motherhood and marriage from the Christian cultural side of her life. She found herself single and childless at the age of 26, having expected as a child that she'd have nine children by then, and while her family never forced her to go, she was aware of ‘cleansing ceremonies’ (the exorcism of the title) other women like her were pressured to do.

Likewise, listeners with their own expectations of a disc that bathes them in cascades of the shimmering woody-metallic luminosity of southern Africa's most iconic sound – like the best recordings of Stella Chiweshe or her daughter Virginia Mukwesha – might be disappointed. Instead, Masike's mbira is more rhythmic than resonant, although her keyboard player Erik Nylander makes a significant contribution to the sound. Masike seems more focused on her lyrics, which challenge Shona speakers to think about traditional attitudes towards women in Zimbabwe. Her band mix Zimbabwean traditional and kit drums, and their electric guitar lines mimic mbira plucking styles, much like Thomas Mapfumo did so brilliantly during the 1980s.