With two albums under their belt and more to come, Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro makes us fall in love with their brand of funk. Sometimes loungy and chilled with a healthy dose of jazz, sometimes energetic with streaks of afrobeat and more shaken than stirred. Whichever way you prefer your funk, these guys will have you covered. Too cool for words, the music is instrumental, and with all the energy the six-piece band excudes, you won't even miss the vocals.
Listening to some of the tracks will have you picturing and old 70's flick. The upbeat pieces are perfect soundtracks for the bad guy running through the streets, chased by the likes of Richard Roundtree or Jim Kelly. The chilled-out ones are as written for scenes of a fly guy leisurely strolling by with his purple suit and pimp cane. As I said, for these tracks words are not needed.
And the members of Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro are equally slick as the music they're playing. Well dressed gentlemen in suits, they're all jamming away with impressive energy on their weapons of choice: trumpet, saxophone, guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. However, don't let the band name fool you. These guys come a long way from Africa. Actually, they're all the way from Tokyo, fusing their japanese cool with groovy jazz from across the earth.
The future of funk and jazz looks unusually bright today.
The Best of Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro:
(Ain't Got Nobody) Just A Rambling Man - One word. Groovy. Both the music and the video. Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro show you how it's done.
Sympathy - It might be named sympathy, but this track sure shows no mercy and takes no prisoners. A true and raw funk track that is all over the place, yet skillfully pulled together into one hell of an energizer.
Caught In The Middle - A lil' more jazz, the same amount of slick. I like to call this 'Gentleman Funk'.
Female rappers are usually placed in a different box than the male ones. Regardless of differences in style and talent, we just tend to view them as a group: The Female Rappers. Even when writing this, I feel the need to point out that the artist in question is a she. We're not completely used to girls rapping, and when they do, the main theme of their tracks is usually sex. And maybe that's why Akua Naru feels so refreshing.
Akua Naru is not one of my favorite female artists. She's one of my favorite artists. There is only one album to judge her of, her debut The Journey Aflame, released about two months ago. I feel that she's one of the most promising new artists out there right now. She raps as if that's all she ever done, with a warm and conscious flow. Her rhymes almost melt into the beat, but don't let that distract you from what she's actually saying. Naru is all about society and it's truths and flaws. Being straight forward about the trials of life, but still with a brighter day in sight, the album serves as both thought-provoking and uplifting. Just the way it should be.
The typical beat for Naru to rhyme over is warm and deep, almost hypnotizing, just as her own voice. This keeps the album together, but without being boring. Next time you're talking about new and promising artists, make sure to give Akua Naru a place on that list.
The Best of Akua Naru as of now:
Nag Champa - Incense Nag Champa inspires yet another artist to make a great track. With this beat tho, you won't even need any Nag Champa yourself.
Mo(U)rning - A beautiful song with a feeling reminiscent of the last track.
Go get these songs and the rest of her album on iTunes or Amazon. You can also get the Limited Collector's Edition on vinyl for 15€ here. She's currently on tour, and will start being support for Common in April.
Who is this Blitz you might ask? Now, before I answer that, just look at the album teaser for his next project, Native Sun.
Not you average album teaser, but then again, Blitz The Ambassador isn't your average rapper. A native of Ghana, Blitz is returning to his roots after a long musical journey. He is no newcomer to the game, as he's been active since 2000, and even opened up at shows for artists such as Rakim and Nas. He started of as a conscious rapper with a raw flow, and ended up experimenting with live acoustic music, using live drums, horns, violins, and other instruments to rap over. The result? A different but very, very good rap album called Stereotype. The real instruments gave his music an entirely new feeling, filled with emotion and energy, just as his raps. He started doing his shows with a live band, and slowly we started noticing his african roots peeking out as some african instruments was brought into the production.
Now, Blitz is returning to Ghana, and we're all curious about how this is going to affect his music. The music in the teaser had an obvious african feel to it, and word is the live band is staying with him. This could end up as one of the most interesting albums in a while.
The best of Blitz The Ambassador...so far:
Breathe - This right here is exactly what I mean with the energy of a live band. Hearing that the song is made by humans, not a computer, gives the song life. Don't let it overshine Blitz and his rhymes tho, at least half of the tracks energy is in his flow.
Remembering The Future - Complete with some african instruments and vocals, Blitz takes the track to a completely another level. Instead of the instruments and the rapping feeling like different parts of the song, it all melts together into one damn good track.
Dyin' To Live - Another live instrument track. This is just beautiful.
Black Market - Before he got his band, Blitz was still a better than average emcee, dropping knowledge.
Emmet (S)till- Dedicated to Emmet Till, a boy that got murdered in '55 for reportedly flirting with a white woman. Blitz knows the importance of history.
