There are certain types of music that seem to speak directly to our butts on the genetic level. "Move butts!" they say, and our butts, no matter their shape, color, size or cultural orientation, can't help but respond with at least a twitch or two in the funky direction. Marrabenta, a popular music style from Mozambique, seems to be one of those musics that it's impossible not to move to.
This survey of fifteen tracks from various generations of marrabenta musicians is another in the excellent Rough Guide world music series. Like the other Rough Guide discs, this one has a well written and informative booklet and biographical info on all the artists.
Marrabenta seems to be primarily distinguished by a rapidly repeated guitar figure that's played alongside a thumping 2/4 beat. Other than that, everything seems to be fair game in a marrabenta band, from traditional drum figures and percussion instruments to super tight 1970s style horn sections and groovy bass lines.
The producers of Marrabenta Mozambique clearly put a lot of effort into representing the whole spectrum of the Mozambique marrabenta scene, from the "grand old men" to the newer generations of musicians, and the result is an impressively diverse and lively batch of tracks.
Dilon Djindji's vocals on the musically simple "Maria Teresa" are wonderfully upbeat and goofy. Marrabenta supergroup Orchestra Marrabenta Star de Mocambique's "Matilde" could easily be mistaken for an amped up latin soca track. "Mahanhela" by multi-generational group Mabulu features both Lisboa Matavel's beautifully wobbly tenor and Chiquito's Mozambican rap stylings. Nene, the youngest artist on the disc, creates a sensuous, almost bluesy, but distinctly marrabenta vibe on "Africa".
There's a lot of variety (rhythmic, harmonic, stylistic) on this disc, and to be honest I'm not sure that if I heard some of these tracks in another context I would know that they were marrabenta. But there is an overriding sense of playful energy and good feelings here, and that makes listening to Marrabenta Mozambique a wonderful and butt-moving experience.
