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Womad review – from gnawa to Turkish protest songs, world music celebrates

Charlton Park, Wiltshire
Township vocals, percussion, hip-hop and rousing bass riffs rang out as musicians such as Maâlem Hamid El Kasri, Gaye Su Akyol and Mari Kalkun took to the stage

African music has always played at major role at Womad, and the most impressive newcomers this year were a young seven-piece from Soweto, South Africa. BCUC have shaken up the country’s tradition for harmony singing with a style that combines township vocals, hymns and spirituals with furious, insistent percussion, hip-hop, punk energy, and a real sense of danger. They started gently, then switched to a frantic percussion workout from bass drums, congas, whistles and shakers. The music built furiously, then ebbed away, allowing for fine, soulful vocals from their female singer Kgomotso Mokone or intense lectures about the spirit world of the ancestors from singer Jovi Nkosi. Then the barrage of percussion returned, driven by insistent, sturdy bass lines, as the crowd followed the band’s instructions to go “a bit crazy” and Nkosi declared that the frantic scenes were “beyond our wildest dreams”.

This was an entertaining Womad, dampened slightly by the rain, but with a typically eclectic lineup. Headliners included Leftfield, with an engagingly fresh revival of Leftism, and the ever-reliable Malian duo Amadou & Mariam. But it was the lesser-known artists who made this festival special.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2LLqllq
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