I don't know what to say - I love it and I want to share it with you all... But where to start?!
I'll start from the top of what I know about Netsayi. Netsayi is a singer songwriter who was born in London but grew up in Zimbabwe. Sho creates (now along with her band Black Pressure) a kind of music I can't find a 'box' for, apart from to steal someone elses - Afrofolk. But frankly, if someone told me to listen to Afrofolk music I probably wouldn't bother.
I would say that her sound is more Africa than strictly London, but that could be contested. Regardless of songs occasionally being sung in a language that I don't understand (this doesn't really matter to me), it's the strong and sometimes complicated rhythms that I just can't seem to replicate that for me hold the key to it's African influences. The subject matter, though it may be approached in a different way than a strictly UK artist, still covers life, love and friendship among other things. Netsayi's vocal melodies are strong, assertive, playful, unpredictable... there are a whole raft of things that make Netsayi unique.
I first came across Netsayi in 2009 when I was asked to review her second album Monkey's Wedding. At the time I was reviewing a lot of music I wasn't particularly interested in, but when I started playing Monkey's Wedding it was, for lack of a better phrase, a breath of fresh air - immediately something worth listening to rather than just churning out words. For me Monkey's Wedding was an album that bridged two cultures and made each accessible to the other. Let's face it - unless I go looking for it, I'm unlikely to just come across African music but I love listening to Ishe Komberera, which I've since found out was the Zimbabwean anthem after gaining independence. The a cappella harmonies hold what I consider to be the sound of African music, where it's not uncommon for there to be three or four melodies intermingling; harmonising and coming together at different points throughout a song.
Aside from this there are favourites aplenty throughout the album. Both in terms of lyrical and musical content Money Drum will probably be relatable to most people. "Working all the hours that God sends me, Working nine to five just to make ends meet, Everybody must pay their liberty, But what a price to pay" and "I gave up struggling for the crazy rent, Sold my sorry soul to the devil instead, I was showing my teeth and dancing around, To the beat of the money drum". We've all been there...
Top Cop is an fantastic example of story telling through music and I defy you not to dance in your seat to the music. The upbeat sound that makes this album to easy to move around to is one of it's biggest draws. Weaves And Magazines, with it's laid back bass line and hand claps should be a song about lazy afternoons on a beach somewhere but it soon makes way for it's true subject matter "The bitchy apple, It don't fall far from the tree, So I don't know why I was surprised, To hear you talking s*** about me". We later find out that the subjects mother was, in fact, a f****** b****, so I suppose that all makes sense then!
More recently, in June 2014, Netsayi & Black Pressure released the track Sara Regina. If anything, I like this even more than anything of Monkey's Wedding. I'd love to know what it's really about, but in the meantime you can download it from iTunes for a mere 79p or head over to netsayi.com where you can watch a recording of the track.
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