‘Kondaine, featuring Seye Adelekan, is a mildly embarrassing if enviably carefree anthem that, with its hoots of “zoom zoom” or phonetically alike, sounds as though the soundtrack to a new mid-range automobile or indeed any old FIFA comp. Thus it’s when Mwamwaya returns to his rightful place that MTMTMK extends out beyond monotony: I Wanna Go Away recalls Battles were the NYC outfit to relocate to horizontal savannah and fill the thing with oozy ice cream textures; Rudeboy proves a badass romp to effortlessly better Oliver Twist; Yoshua Alikuti a Milton Keynes Bowl-filling undulation of pop effervescence. Although as with most scents it seems as though that which sits just beneath their collective snout is that which The Very Best have here failed to sniff out and in allowing their co-operative proclivities to diffuse quite so far and wide, the overall effect is too diluted.’
Dots & Dashes review the unconvincing, if collaboratively embracive MTMTMK…
The Very Best’s M.I.A.-featuring Warm Heart Of Africa was a largely unheralded crossover pop triumph of 2009; a co-operative endeavour between laudably proactive Malawian vocalist Esau Mwamwaya and the persistently collaborative, Swedish-born but London-based Johan Hugo (aka Radioclit). Their second studio full-length goes by the vowel-shunning name of MTMTMK and, as is their wont, features further crossing of respective creativities with the likes of Mali’s Amadou & Mariam, Senegal’s Baaba Maal, Russia’s Xuman, and our very own Seye. K’Naan also crops up on We Ok which, quite bizarrely, was co-written by none other than the odious Bruno Mars. Sounding a little like a belatedly outed FIFA-officiated tournament theme, Seye’s Kondaine similarly comes across as an east African redux of Waka Waka and features the loveable lyric of being hit “like a stadium band.” The Auto-Tuned Rumbae meanwhile rather recalls Snoop’s Guetta-bumped salacious aspirations to “make you sweat” on an LP that’s as variegated as its contributors are varied both artistically and ethnically.
MTMTMK is to be released next week (July 16th) via Moshi Moshi.
