Atoht inspires Patience Namadingo & Faith Mussa

Like I said before right here Ellias Missi known in showbiz cycles as Atoht Manje is a self-made artiste who started his career by toying around with dancehall before discovering what more agree is closer to a Malawian beat.

He craftily used his crackly voice for dancehall in tracks like Majelasi and Lululu until he did Tizipepese, mistakenly called by his fans as Mabvuto.

My description of this beat then will not change now as I still think it’s a fast paced beat or merely hurried up beat sounding like a fast paced traditional Manganje beat. What is strikingly noticeable is that he is self-taught in the aspect of producing tunes that have come to be liked by music lovers.

It is ChePatuma built in the Sikiri tempo that captivated many including fellow artist Patience Namadingo.

Immediately after seeing how this track performed on the music scene Namadingo came up with his and called it Goliyati which took after Atoht's ChePatuma style.

Recently Faith Mussa has also released Selofoni which others still believe it is pointing at Atoht Manje's influence.

While for Namandingo it is unmistakable that it’s a copied style, honestly for Faith I cannot say with certainty that it indeed is. There are several differing elements that has made me doubt if indeed there was an inspiration from Atoht.

What I like about this whole scenario though is the fact that at least for once the inspiration is coming from within. We have complained before that there is just too much copying from international musicians.

I have always wondered if we have a Malawian genre.

I was once tempted to believe that the 2012 hit by Fikisa called ‘Ademwiche’ which is commonly but wrongly (or rightly?) known to the public as ‘Akamwile’ was going towards charting the way for Malawi.

It has however proven that our quest for a fixed and well established Malawian genre, has been tedious at times and it will not end any time soon.

The other day Lucius Banda told us that we were there with his ‘Zulu Woman’ beat while Edgar and Davis thought a beat like ‘Kale-Kale’ was it; so were the sounds that emerged from the Lhomwe belt of the likes of Alan Namoko and Chimvu River Jazz Band and Michael Mukhito Phiri.

But it is the people that thought this was it, because as you can see, even Namoko had no idea what he was churning out, and this is the reason he thought his backing band was a Jazz set piece.

Robert Fumulani, likewise, had no distinct genre for Malawi and in one of his tracks he did what he thought was a fusion of reggae and Khunju traditional dance and called it Khunju Reggae.

Peter Mawanga and a certain sector of the industry believe he has cracked the elusive code to establish the much sort after Malawian genre with his type of music; but the response has only fascinated the ear of those that can read music.

Ever heard of Honjo? It is a sound that emerged from the folds of Ndirande and this was Sunny B proclaiming the discovery of Malawian beat with what he was panning out.

Up in the north, Body Mind and Soul has what it calls ‘Voodjaz’.
Body, Mind & Soul started like a reggae band, but band leader ‘Street Rat’ claim that after reflecting on the importance of sharing Malawi ancient culture in modern time and after much thought and experimentation they created a new music concept they call ‘Voodjaz’, a subtle mix of traditional rhythms with a jazzy feel.

Now when all is weighed and measured may be the attraction of Atoht beat by the other artists will mean something, of course not the Malawi genre yet but something considering the elements that Faith has put is his Selofoni track.

The Patience Namadingo Way

Many people reacted differently when musician Patience Namadingo announced that within the next 40 days he will be one artist with one guitar followed by one cameraman to perform one song on every visit out of 400 visits he was prepared to take.
What he was doing was to raise K1.2million in 40 days for a Paediatric Cancer Ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. He used what he described as three simple steps to raise this much. The first step was for those interested to call him to visit the caller’s space, be at their homes, in their office etcetera to play just one song for K3000 per available person.
The arrangement was that he would be responding to 10 calls every day; but the news is that just 4 days into the initiative he already has K1.2 million in the bag.
The debate raging fierce after this announcement had several conclusions. While others thought Patience is a genius, others said he is just being a witty and cunning businessman because the K1.2million he is talking about might as well just be 10 percent of what he might end up making.

The claim is that he is the biggest beneficiary of the initiative. What if he is invited to a factory of 50 workers each parting ways with K3000 which is already K150, 000?
Others were saying who is going to audit Namadingo because some might pay more than K3, 000.Others were doubtful that he could not reachtargeted amount as they felt Patience was overrating both his importance and popularity because he has a high opinion of himself. Others said they did not see anything wrong if he gets more because he will also need to arrange for logistics.

Now this is how we discourage a good initiative sometimes. How many so called famous artists in this country have ever taken an initiative to show a social responsibility regardless of how much they would benefit themselves? Granted, Namadingo is barred from going ahead with the fundraiser because he will personally benefit, so who should be allowed to do it? As a musical artist Patience Namadingo seem to be getting inventive in marketing his brand. Recently he has been recording short songs without having to produce a whole album including one where he sang about local supporters of European football teams. Then look at the quality of his music videos not to mention his own branded and personalised website. Others have argued that Patience has one tune which he only changes by bringing in different lyrical contents. This is an argument for another day. Apart from Q Malewezi, BICC is a venue that most local artists fear to tread. But one ambitious Patience has strutted his stuff right there.
 And at least by the reviews that this column got, the young man gave out a spirited performance. So far we haven’t heard of people who went there complaining of poor sound or anything negative. All we have heard is that the evening was one to remember.
 Now looking at the path that the young man has taken it is clear that Patience Namadingo is one determined artist. And this is the more reason that the determination that he has in his professional life is being extended to his charity work which is somewhat chained to his artistry. The news that in less than a week Namadingo managed to raise the initial 1.2 million kwacha is a powerful message that art has potential to turn things around in Malawi. It has power to turn the fortunes of the less privileged in society.  All that we need to do as Malawians is to develop an open mind and be more optimistic and trusting about issues that are being done for the good of the nation. This type of art that Namadingo is promoting is one sure way of not only promoting his brand as an artist but surely lessening the burden of the less privileged in society.  While ‘doubting Thomases’ have the right to ask one or two questions, The Lyrical pen can only say this ‘Good luck Patience Namadingo!  

Computer Manipulated Reggae Music

You remember those days when artists would go into the studio and separately record all the guitars, drum beat, vocals and all the attendant instrumentation without having to programme it using a computer and lose out on human artistic display.

There are a group of music lovers that are now making choices to stick to the old kind of music production and are therefore shunning the heavily computer manipulated music.

Reggae music is considered organic music and this is the reason it has a sub-genre called roots rock which purely created using human innovation and somehow sticking to the one drop concept where the foot drum is evenly spaced for effect.

While you would expect the old guys to be interested in the same, there is a youthful and unsung talented reggae star in the making Chipiriro Kuntenjera, a banker by profession who has started a project to record an album that will be recorded using the old ways.

His challenge is that because there is too much dependence on the computers when it comes to music and sound production we are losing out on having talented studio session artists not to mention studios that can have that kind of patience and skill to put up with such a challenge.

What is disheartening is that these days many so called musicians plunge into the world of music without any appreciation that music is an art and that they ought not only be at their artistic best when producing it but they also must realise that they have those musical juices flowing into their veins.

Ever wondered why Bob Marley or Peter Tosh music is still competing shoulder to shoulder with the latest reggae productions on world scale?

These days because most of the bassline, the drumbeat, the lead and rhythm guitars are just robotically programmed in the computers and then its several variations picked and recorded as a form of an instrumental background that is fused with the vocals it becomes laughable when an artist is called to perform their music with a live band.

If the production won’t be perpetually off key the whole live performance time then just realise that they are in fact not performing at all but just lip-synching pre-recorded music that is playing in the background.

It’s like a magician performing his trickery by setting a large screen before the audience and let some video recordings of his supposed frolics play. People are robbed in such instances.

Now if we have artists like Chipiriro who is currently practising hard at one local studio in Chirimba in preparation for the live recording, they need to be encouraged because this is the preservation of skills and art, not only of playing musical instruments but recording music using the less deceitful means.

You rarely find the later day Eric Paliani, Collen Ali, Peter Likhomo and even the youthful Faith Mussa or Patience Namadingos who will courageously grab a guitar and perform live without disappointing.

What is even reassuring is that even when foreign musical artists come to perform in the country they love to associate or use the skills and talents of those that will give us their raw displays and delivery when it comes to playing the musical instruments.

I await the day when even the urban artists in the country who are now bulging the music industry seams take up the challenge and start giving the consumers the raw talent and skill which matters more in the world of art.        

 

   

Laughing at Msati Mseke

Patience Namadingo has once again proven that he is the master of creativity with his latest ‘Msati Mseke’. 

The video and audio of the track is top notch especially in the way he fused the Gulewamkulu, Beni and Malipenga dances.

Most of the musicians and poets that we have in this country will try to rhyme just to fulfill the assonance requirement but when you hear Namadingo give you words that end the same like matope, nkhope, atope, alape, afupe, pampope in the verse he is depicting the Nyau dancers, you realise he took his time.

And to prove that the first same sounding verse is not a fluke he does the same in the other two subsequent verses like one where Beni dancers exhibit the dance’s trademark steps by stitching words like asilikali, phuli-phuli, cham’mbali, liri-liri, mliri, ambiri.

When Namadingo first appeared on the music scene, the gospel music scene to be specific, he was just like any other gospel artist save for his unique voice. 

But in his latest offering, it appears that Namadingo has dug deep into his creative bank to dish out something different. The gospel in his music is nicely woven in stark creativeness and entertainment.

Of course the track says we should not laugh at the performers but the shooting of the video is exactly eliciting this aspect of making one laugh at the production.

Why should one pretend to dance with the Nyau dancers while strumming the guitar. If indeed he wanted to be part of the act he should have done better.

The quality picture, production in general and even the dancing by the performers of the three traditional dancers that are captured in the video clearly shows that this is something that was planned well ahead of the production.

But when you start seeing something like this then you start thinking about the way we plan for our video productions. It goes down to concept development and how involved the producers of the same, are attuned to the production work in hand.

Sometimes a whole beautiful work that has been done 95 percent with perfection can lose its standing because of a small mistake that has been created because of poor production planning.

Otherwise, much as everyone else is talking about the Msati Mseke video because of its uniqueness in innovation and class that aspect has robbed its credit.

Not that what I am demanding is to have it redone but just to point what I think should be done.