Keleketla!

Keleketla! is the self-titled studio album by British/South African musical project brought together by Johannesburg's Keleketla! Library founders Rangoato Hlasane and Malose Malahlela and English electronic music duo Coldcut. The album's title means "response" in the Sepedi language.[1] It was released on July 3, 2020, via Ahead Of Our Time. Recording sessions took place at Trackside Creative Studios in Soweto, at Denmark Street Studios and at Assault and Battery Studios in London.

Keleketla!
Studio album by
Keleketla!
ReleasedJuly 3, 2020 (2020-07-03)
Studio
  • Trackside Creative Studios, Soweto, South Africa
  • Denmark Street Studios, London, UK
  • Assault and Battery Studios, London, UK
Genre
Length1:07:59
LabelAhead of Our Time
ProducerColdcut
Coldcut chronology
Outside the Echo Chamber
(2017)		 Keleketla!
(2020)
Singles from Keleketla!
  1. "Future Toyi Toyi"
    Released: May 21, 2020
  2. "International Love Affair"
    Released: June 11, 2020

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.7/10[2]
Metacritic81/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Exclaim!8/10[5]
Loud and Quiet8/10[6]
musicOMH[7]
The Guardian[8]

Keleketla! was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on nine reviews.[3] The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 7.7 out of 10.[2]

Adriane Pontecorvo of PopMatters praised the album saying, "Consistently exciting, always surprising, and full of soul, it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable releases of the year to date".[9] AllMusic's Paul Simpson stated, "Keleketla! is a powerful combination of activism and musical exploration, bonding the sounds of several locations and eras in order to express messages of joy, optimism, and revolution".[4] Safiya Hopfe of Exclaim! said, "With contributions from over 20 artists, including such musical giants as Tony Allen and Thabang Tabana, Keleketla! is a collaboration of rare magnitude. It is at once a celebration and a call to action".[5] Jemima Skala of Loud & Quiet said, "Keleketla! breeds an impossibly enticing sense of hope that one day things might be better".[6] Writing for musicOMH, Steven Johnson said, "In short, it’s an album that demonstrates the continuing merit of musical collaboration while also offering a hopeful counterpoint to a world all too often consumed by negativity and strife".[7] The Guardian reviewer Ammar Kalia said, "Here, the component parts of hip-hop, jazz, dub and protest music are pieced together, like the many languages of a diasporic conversation. If the call is for music Keleketla!'s multilingual, effusive response is one worth hearing".[8]

Track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Future Toyi Toyi"
4:49
2."International Love Affair"
  • More
  • Black
  • Allen
  • Gally Ngoveni
  • Nono Nkoane
  • Tubatsi Moloi
  • Thabang Tabane
  • Sibusile Xaba
7:17
3."Shepherd Song"
  • More
  • Black
  • Allen
  • Ngoveni
  • Nkoane
  • Moloi
  • Tabane
  • Xaba
8:11
4."Freedom Groove"
  • More
  • Black
  • Allen
  • Anthony Hamilton
7:08
5."Crystallise"
  • More
  • Black
  • Yugen Blakrok
5:17
6."Broken Light"
  • More
  • Black
  • Ngoveni
  • Nkoane
  • Moloi
  • Tabane
  • Xaba
6:37
7."5&1"
  • More
  • Black
  • Ngoveni
  • Nkoane
  • Moloi
  • Tabane
  • Xaba
4:34
8."Papua Merdeka"
6:41
9."Swift Gathering"
  • More
  • Black
  • Joe Armon-Jones
6:24
10."Future Toyi Toyi" (Edit)
  • More
  • Black
  • Allen
  • DJ Mabheko
  • Soundz Of The South
3:28
11."International Love Affair" (Edit)
  • More
  • Black
  • Allen
  • Ngoveni
  • Nkoane
  • Moloi
  • Tabane
  • Xaba
3:40
12."Crystallise" (Edit)
  • More
  • Black
  • Blakrok
3:46
Total length:1:07:59

Personnel

Coldcut

Vocalists

  • Nono Nkoane – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11), backing vocals (track 4)
  • Tubatsi Moloi – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
  • Thabang Tabane – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 11)
  • Soundz Of The South Collective – vocals (tracks: 1, 10)
  • Afla Sackey – backing vocals (tracks: 2, 11)
  • Yugen Blakrok – vocals (tracks: 5, 12)
  • The Watts Prophets – vocals (track 4)
  • Benny Wenda – vocals (track 8)
  • The Lani Singers – vocals (track 8)

Instrumentalists

  • Tamar Osborn – baritone saxophone (tracks: 2, 4-6, 8, 9, 11, 12), clarinet & bass clarinet (track 9)
  • Tony Allen – drums (tracks: 1-4, 8, 10, 11)
  • Afla Sackey – percussion (tracks: 1-3, 8, 10, 11), additional percussion (track 6), djembe (track 8)
  • Al Riley – percussion (tracks: 1, 2, 10, 11), keyboards (track 4), additional percussion (track 6)
  • Ed 'Tenderlonious' Cawthorne – flute (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 10, 11), tin whistle & recorder (tracks: 1, 10)
  • Miles James – guitar (tracks: 1, 2, 8, 10, 11)
  • Gally Ngoveni – bass (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
  • Thabang Tabane – percussion (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
  • Shabaka Hutchings – tenor saxophone (tracks: 2, 5, 8, 11, 12)
  • Joe Armon-Jones – keyboards (tracks: 3, 4, 7, 9), piano (track 9)
  • Martin Perna – horns arrangement (tracks: 2-4, 11)
  • Antibalas – horns (tracks: 2-4, 11)
  • Sibusile Xaba – guitar (tracks: 2, 3, 7, 11)
  • Dele Sosimi – keyboards (tracks: 2, 6, 8, 11)
  • Patrick Carpenter – loops & editing (tracks: 2, 11)
  • DeeJay Random – scratches (tracks: 5, 12)
  • Chris "The Jungle Drummer" Polglase – drums (track 6)
  • Tubatsi Moloi – flute (track 7)
  • Darren "Sangita" Evans – piano (track 8)
  • Eska Mtungwazi – strings (track 9)

Technicals

Charts
Chart (2020) Peak
position
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[10] 38
gollark: It *is* apparently terrible in various ways.
gollark: > those 2 solve like 80% of our current problems tbhI'm not convinced that there wouldn't just be unofficial lobbying-type stuff happening another way.
gollark: It would be hard to quantify, but you could probably come up with *some* metrics.
gollark: It MIGHT.
gollark: Nonsense, this is a very correct and valid* line.

References
  1. Pareles, Jon (July 2, 2020). "Coldcut + Tony Allen and African Artists = Studio Electricity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  2. "Keleketla! by Keleketla! reviews | Any Decent Music". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  3. "Critic Reviews for Keleketla! - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  4. Simpson, Paul. "Keleketla! - Keleketla! | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  5. Hopfe, Safiya (July 2, 2020). "Keleketla! Cross Borders on Celebratory Self-Titled LP". Exclaim!. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  6. Skala, Jemima (June 29, 2020). "Keleketla! - Keleketla! - Album Review". Loud And Quiet. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  7. Johnson, Steven (July 3, 2020). "Keleketla! - Keleketla! | Album Reviews". musicOMH. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  8. Kalia, Ammar (July 3, 2020). "Keleketla!: Keleketla! review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  9. Pontecorvo, Adriane (July 7, 2020). "The World Comes to Johannesburg on Phenomenal Collaboration 'Keleketla!'". PopMatters. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  10. "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
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