One Joe fuses the “Shambo” music of Namibia’s Ovambo people with contemporary Afro-Pop. In this release he teams up with Australian producer Okey Szoke for three colourful and momentous pop songs about love, honour, and traditional agricultural practices.
One Joe’s debut release on Brother Sister Records charts the state of contemporary African music, taking listeners through a raft of dizzying genres, melodies and general verve for his life in Windhoek. ‘Kaana kameme,’ featuring Namibian label-mate and friend DJ Kleva Kaslam combines electronic square synth leads with a taste of village life using an orderly cavalcade of looping vocal lines. ‘Onhana‘ again employs Nashilundu’s indefatigable, hypnotic vocal melodies, this time combined with a loose digital evocation of Central African lingala music. The release closes with the explosive ‘Efiku‘, channeling video games and quicker paced genres such as South African Shangaan Electro music and Tanzanian Singeli.
The EP is a left-of-centre attempt at traditional “Shambo” music, which evokes rural village life and contains the wisdom and lessons of generations of Ovambo experience. The release comes months after the Shambo genre was removed from Namibia’s Annual Music Awards. In ’Kaana kameme,’ Nashilundu sings about advances through the battlefield of life, taking stock of the many roads he has passed down and noting he is yet to find heaven. In ’Onhana‘ (literally, ‘Ladies’) One Joe praises the women of Katatura, one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Windhoek. When asked who he is singing about, Nashilundu says, “Nangula, Maria, Kandeshi those are just names I used to spice up my music.” Finally, ‘Efiku‘ is a call to focus on our dreams, despite the challenges we face; it recounts the story of a poor orphan in Nashilundu’s village, who was underestimated by all except a solitary school teacher who harnessed the education and development of the orphan, who now works as a lawyer and walks with a smile.
The release is the result of unorthodox sequencing and collaboration. Szoke-Burke met Nashilundu in late 2014 while recording the debut EP of DJ Kleva Kaslam, on which One Joe features. The two enjoyed some initial recording attempts and agreed to work on a release together, yet time was running out before Szoke-Burke was to leave Namibia. Over several sessions, they laid down Nashilundu’s vocal tracks for the release, with the understanding that the vocals would later be paired with colorful Okey Szoke instrumental lines. Yet delays and life events left the recordings lying dormant for several years before they were honed and finalized. Nashilundu was both surprised and pleased to find a final release where his slowest song is now his fastest, and in which different instrumentation and musical approaches create a varied yet cogent whole.
Joseph Nashilundu currently lives in Namibia’s capital and hails from a traditional village near the country’s northern border with Angola.
Sam Szoke-Burke is an Australian producer and human rights researcher currently living in New York.
credits
released August 1, 2018
Written and performed by J. Nashilundu and S. Szoke-Burke
Produced by S. Szoke-Burke, with R. McNaught
Mixing and mastering by R. McNaught
Artwork by S. Szoke-Burke and R. McNaught
This Bandcamp exclusive comes complete with a head-spinning background story (check the album notes) and eerie electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 29, 2023
