This third album from the afro-rhythm, world fusion group ODD OKODDO marks a coming together that has been simmering. Joining Kenyan luthier/singer Olith Ratego and German producer/drummer Sven Kacirek’s is veteran dodo musician Ogoya Nengo but she’s no stranger. Nengo, as well as Ratego, featured on Kacirek’s eclectic debut ‘The Kenya Sessions’ way back in 2011. Kacirek then produced Nengo’s Honest Jon’s released ‘Rang’ala’ album plus the follow up ‘Om Mande’ a few years later. So ever since Kacirek and Ratego formed ODD OKODDO in 2018, the moment they welcomed in Nengo’s commanding presence seemed inevitable.
The result is ‘Palagoma’, out via new Nairobi-based label From Cool Waters. It’s a pulsating merger of Nengo’s traditional soulfulness, Ratego’s inspired approach to dodo music and Kacirek’s sensitive electronic sculpting. The title track sets out the album’s bold intentions. The marimba lines multiply and mingle, the Buchla synth lays down that characteristic bass throb and Ratego’s vocal reaches a Baba Maal-like intensity. Soaring between gentleness and earthy emotion that voice is a fine instrument, calling out ‘I am strong’ with an urgent passion. Marimba patterns also drive Ji Kiyiere, another sooth-saying song that warns about cheaters and bad characters. Here, amongst the eerie synth fragments and zinging strings, a bustling techno beat emerges while Ogoya Nengo joins the vocal conversation. Her voice, a force of nature, seizes control, weather worn but powerful, syncing tightly with the electro rhythms but never losing her lyrical thrust. It’s an immense moment which highlights the octogenarian’s charismatic presence.
With the richness of the Olith Ratego /Ogoya Nengo vocal combination and Kacirek’s tuned in synth foundations, ‘Palagoma’ looks set to push the window of Afro-electronic music that little bit wider. The pulsating, tense Adhiambo wouldn’t be out of place if released on Nyege Nyege Tapes while Umanyo’s darker trip-hop creep hovers mesmerically. Maybe the spikey Gqom-ish Bara steps out the furthest, taking the feel of traditional Dodo call, response and DIY percussion onto a romping electronica flight-path.
ODD OKODDO are clearly forging their own place in the outernational, afrofuturist soundscape with this album. ‘Palagoma’ has the same raw sparseness of Palobi and the Gwo Ka Masters lost gem from a few years ago and sustains a hypnotic intensity comparable with Chouk Bwa & The Angstromers’ deepest cuts. It’s not all about immersion though. The trio can plunge into simpler songs with hooks and stripped back riffs such as the sprightly melodic Yore Yore or the anguished street fable of Sarah.
Closing track Demba feels restrained and poignant after all the dynamism ODD OKODDO have delivered on ‘Palagoma’. There’s a reverence about 83 year-old Nengo’s soothing vocal here as she tells of her devotion to the gift of song amongst the tingling synth droplets and warm hand pats. The track also underlines the trust that each of the three musicians have put in each other to push themselves further on this latest album. Fusion recordings can so often sound like a squabble of ideas for the sake of novelty but ‘Palagoma’ brilliantly swerves that pitfall. As the album that Kacirek, Ratego and Nengo have always been meaning to make together, hopefully it will just be the start of this super trio’s sonic adventure.
Get your copy of ‘Palagoma‘ by ODD OKODDO from your local record store or direct from their label From Cool Waters
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