Massukos
Mozambiquan band Massukos release their amazing, new album 'Bumping', a combination of infectious music and a serious message.
For feel-good music with a message you don't need to look any further than Massukos from Mozambique. The band have just released their stunning second album 'Bumping' in the UK on 9 July 2007. Africa On Your Street host Rita Ray says that their music is "not only phenomenally beautiful but also a powerful force for change."
After touring the UK in 2005 - which including playing in front of more than 100,000 people at the Make Poverty History Rally in Edinburgh and also BBC Africa Live at the British Museum - Massukos now return to the UK for a few gigs as well as a performance at WOMAD which is to be recorded live by Andy Kershaw for BBC Radio 3 . The band will also be guests on DJ Ritu's World music show on BBC London 94.9 FM on Saturday, 28 July 2007, 8pm - 10pm.
Massukos are superstars in their home country of Mozambique. Their debut album 'Kuimba kwa Massuko' sold huge quantities, was voted best album in 2002 and won a gold disc in 2003. Several more awards followed and Massukos are now considered Mozambique's most successful band - they have even been hailed as the next Buena Vista Social Club!
But they also use their high profile to initiate social change. Throughout their career they have been undertaking humanitarian work and have been promoting awareness about the lack of life's basic necessities in their own country. In 2004 for instance, they appeared at the Third World Water Forum in Japan and toured Mozambique with the UK band Empty Boat as part of an awareness-raising event organized by Poo Productions in association with WaterAid UK. Massukos' leader, Feliciano dos Santos, who is known by his many fans as "the Elton John of Mozambique", is also the director and founder of the NGO Estamos (a WaterAid partner) who are involved with the installation of latrines and clean water points, as well as hygiene and HIV/AIDS education. Massukos regularly travel for miles to remote villages to deliver life-saving messages about hygiene, sanitation and HIV/AIDS.
The serious message is coupled with Massukos' truly beautiful and seductive music; as a fan put it "a musical sunshine – life-giving, happy music that makes you want to dance." 'Bumping', which was released in Mozambique in April 2007 at a launch attended by the country's president Armando Guebuza, offers a unique and uplifting blend of traditional sounds from Mozambique. Massukos' music preserves the traditional rhythms of Niassa province in northern Mozambique, one of the poorest parts of Africa, that were all but extinct after 17 years of civil war. In fact Massukos' first live public performance in 1994 coincided with the start of the peace process.
You can catch Massukos at WOMAD and the gigs listed below and looking further ahead Michael Eavis has already invited them to play at Glastonbury 2008.
Friday, 27 July 2007, 8.30pm: Club Integral, The Canterbury Arms, 8 Canterbury Crescent, London SW9 7QD (Nearest station: Brixton), Tickets: £7, Information: 020 7274 1711
Saturday, 28 July 2007, 12noon–1.00pm (Woodland Stage) and 3.30–4.30pm (Open Air Stage): WOMAD, Charlton Park, nr Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN13 8PN, Tickets: http://www.womad.org/
Monday, 30 July 2007, 8.30pm: The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, Balham, London SW12 9HD (Nearest station: Balham), Admission free, Information: 020 8682 8940