New Music From Madalitso Band, Sleeplaboratory
Madalitso Band
Wasalala
(Bongo Joe)
A contender for the flat-out happiest album of the year, just a few months in, is the new album Wasalala from the duo Madalitso Band from the southeast African nation of Malawi.
Lead singer Yobu Maligwa, who also plays the babatoni—a giant, homemade one-stringed bass—and Yosefe Kalekeni on four-string guitar, backing vocals and homemade foot drum have recorded an entrancing and infectious album for their first international release; after busking locally for years, the duo performed for the first time outside their country in 2017 and has since toured Europe.
Madalitso Band’s homemade instruments are simply functional on one level, while having a certain charm on another level; while the constant, simple drum beat provides a basic pulse at optimal dance tempos, there’s a rawness provided by the frequent buzz of rattling strings that becomes a defining sonic characteristic rather than a flaw.
Maligwa’s bass notes zip and glide with vigor, making sliding interjections, and at times, he’ll simply linger on a single note with increasing intensity, as if trying to extract as much excitement as possible from that note with relentless repetition.
Musically, the entire album is upbeat and bright, but lyrically, there are stories that are wildly divergent in subject and tone.
The album’s title track “Wasalala” (“She Glows”) concerns a dumpster-diving orphan girl who ends up leading a successful life, and other tracks such as “Mita” are simple yet passionate love songs. However, “Naphiri” is sung from the point of view of a tormented, beaten wife whose husband finally tells her to “just pack and go.”
Kalekeni strums elementary guitar chord progressions and harmonizes with Maligwa, whose bold singing is unabashedly cheery, like on “Nambewe” where he absolutely radiates energy.
One telling moment on Wasalala comes at the end of “Mita” where some chuckles can be heard; clearly, the duo is having an absolute blast while making the recording, and it’s a joy that can’t be faked nor contained.
Various Artists
Sleeplaboratory1.0
(Whitelabrecs)
Writer Dave Barry suggested that instead of “Rock-a-Bye Baby”, which ends tragically, parents should sing his song “Go to Sleep” as a lullaby for babies, which goes: “Go to sleep / Go to sleep / Go right straight to sleep / And stay asleep until at least 6:30 a.m.”
A case could be made that ambient music—which Brian Eno described in his liner notes to Music for Airports as “intended to induce calm and a space to think” and “as ignorable as it is interesting”—is the modern equivalent of the lullaby.
The compilation Sleeplaboratory1.0, which marks the 50th release on the British label Whitelabrecs which has a focus on ambient music, features 16 tracks that are intended to induce sleep as either conscious or subconscious listening.
As the collection was being produced, the label owner Harry Towell was anticipating the arrival of his first child, and he wanted Sleeplaboratory1.0 to also work its placid magic on babies as well as adults.
It’s only fair to judge art within its own genre and with consideration of the artists’ intentions—for example, one shouldn’t criticize a comedy film for not being scary enough—but the aim to simply be sleep-inducing, of course, is not enough. With a consideration for aesthetics, the question then is, how can something be soothing but not boring or insipid?
Fortunately, Sleeplaboratory1.0 maintains a fair balance, often keeping things interesting on a micro level, rather than macro level, by avoiding sudden shifts and focusing on sounds, tones, and timbres themselves. Many of these tracks are hazy and vague with long, sustained synthetic notes, and although amorphous, many still depend subtly on Western scales for general agreeability.
Field recordings are sometimes employed, like on Janek Schaefer’s opening track “Night in Narnia”, which includes the sounds of a wilderness stroll, and nature is often evoked, like on Sven Laux’s gorgeous “Sleep in C Minor”, which uses waves of strings that are reminiscent of the gentle pulses of ocean waves.
Generally, the mood is hopeful and peaceful on the collection, although certain tracks are more complicated, like “Nocturnal Mood” by Polaroid Notes, which is mildly sinister, as if something isn’t quite right.
Two of the album’s best tracks are right at the end; “Autonomy” by Floor Overhead offers dramatic builds and blissed-out guitar strums, and the closing track “With Z” by Daliah constantly moves on a melodic level among gentle metallic plink sounds—but by that time, if the album has done its job, the listener may already be asleep.