MTMTMK

M.I.A.が虜になったという、ゴキゲンなサウンドが魅力のトロピカル・ユニットTHE VERY BESTが、2年半ぶりに新作をリリース！アフリカはマラウィ出身のシンガーEsau Mwamwayaと、ロンドンを拠点にするDJ/プロデューサー・チームRadioclitの一員であるJohan HugoによるユニットThe Very Best。2008年にMySpace上で公開された「Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit are the Very Best」では、Vampire Weekendの 「Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa」 やM.I.Aの「Paper Plane」、Architecture in Helsinkiの 「Heart it Races」 といったトラックをリミックスし、Esauのアフロ・ヴォーカルを被せるという力技をみせた彼ら。トロピカル・アフロテイストの楽曲に、ワールド・ミュージック、ロック、クラブから本物のアフリカンの血を交えるというハイブリット感が、彼等の最大の特徴である。2009年の日本盤も発売された彼らの1stアルバム『Warm Heart Of Africa』では、Vampire WeekendのEzraやM.I.Aをゲスト・ヴォーカルに迎え共演、話題となった。そんな彼らが今作『MTMTMK』で共演者として選んだのは、「マリから きた盲目の夫婦」として知られているAMADOU & MARIAM、FIFAワールドカップ南アフリカ大会に向け国連が貧困を終わらせることを目的に制作したキャンペーン・ソング「8 Goals for Africa」にも参加したセネガル人シンガー兼ギタリストのBAABA MAAL、そしてソマリア出身のラッパーK’NAAN、他。Esauの故郷であるマラウィのLilongweにて5週間に渡って制作されたという今作は、まさに「アフリカ色満載」と言える仕上がりになっている。

Rolling Stone - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]mproving on the debut with bigger hooks -- see 'Rumbae,' a synth-lashed dance track fun enough to fit into David Guetta's DJ sets." Entertainment Weekly - "[A] fun mix of Africa's urban grooves, Europe's club beats, and America's hip-hop swagger.' -- Grade: B Q - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he melodic constants keeping this album cohesive and adhesive are Mwamwaya's luminous vocals and Hugo's rich production."

East-meets-West electro-pop duo the Very Best follow up on their 2009 break-out album, Warm Heart of Africa, with the Moshi Moshi/Cooperative Music full-length MTMTMK. The duo of Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and London-based DJ/producer Johan Hugo (Radioclit, We Don't Belong in Pacha) traveled to the frontman's hometown and Malawi capital city Lilongwe to make the record, spending five weeks in a makeshift studio to simultaneously write, produce, and record together, a more collaborative process than the duo enjoyed previously. MTMTMK features guest appearances such as Malian husband-and-wife pair Amadou & Mariam, Senegalese pop star Baaba Maal (both on the track "Bantu"), Somalian political rapper K'naan (on "We OK"), and Nigerian born, London-based guitarist Seye Adelekan on the trippy, magic potion-themed, teaser single "Kondaine."|

Three years on from the exuberantly joyful Warm Heart of Africa (and one after the stop-gap grab-bag Super Mom mixtape) the Very Best return with a sophomore album that, without radically altering their distinctive blend of African singing, synthesizer-based pop, and various strains of global dance music, is nevertheless a notably different affair. Recorded in the Malawian capital of Lilongwe, MTMTMK finds the group -- down to a duo after the departure of Etienne Tron -- delving deeper into African music while simultaneously flirting more boldly with clubby, high-gloss electro-pop. It's a shift that's reflected in the album's sizable pool of contributors: instead of indie-friendly luminaries like Ezra Koenig and M.I.A., remaining Besties Johann and Esau have teamed up with bona fide African superstars Amadou & Mariam and Baaba Maal (all on one track, no less, though regrettably it's the atypically beatless, frankly somewhat interlude-like "Bantu"), and world-conquering Somalian rapper K'naan (on the vaguely insipid "inspirational" "We OK"), as well as up-and-comers from across the African pop and dance music diaspora -- Seye, MNEK, Xuman, Jose Hendrix Nkedo, DJ Mo Laudi -- but they also engaged in songwriting collaborations with the likes of Bruno Mars and Taio Cruz (the latter resulting in the weird, garish Auto-Tune crash-course "Rumbae.") The variety and superabundance of collaborators, intriguing though it is, may partially explain why MTMTMK has a tendency to feel slightly faceless: almost unthinkably, the mighty Esau Mwamwaya, whose brightly harmonized vocals are the defining, integral element of TVB's sound, sometimes seem to get lost on his own album. Sure, he's always here, singing sometimes in English but mostly in his native Chewa, but his formerly inescapable magnetism doesn't quite shine through like before. If it's telling that most of the best moments here are those without guest vocal features -- chaotically eruptive opener "Adani," politically charged first single "Yoshua Alikuti," the jumping "Rudeboy" -- it's at least as significant that these cuts feature probably the hardest-hitting beats on the album, and come the closest to recapturing the first album's endearingly scrappy streak. Elsewhere, excepting the Eastern-tinged hip-hop reggae experimentation of "Mghetto," MTMTMK veers surprisingly close to the kind of streamlined, airbrushed, electro-dance confections that dominate Top 40 pop and R&B circa 2012, albeit generally with enough polyrhythmic (and cross-linguistic) complexity to make genuine crossover success highly implausible at best. It's not that overt poppiness is necessarily a bad look for these guys: "Kondaine," for instance, is the most blatant attempt to re-create the irresistibly frothy cheerfulness of the debut's stand-out title track, and it pretty much succeeds. But there's a fine line between blissfully sunshiny and merely cloying, and it's one that the Very Best aren't quite as adept at navigating this time out. They haven't lost their uplifting positivity or their restlessly inventive production spirit -- they just seem to be missing a bit of that Warm Heart. ~ K. Ross Hoffman

インディー・ロックとダンス・カルチャーの先端を切り取ったハイブリッドなトロピカル・サウンドに加え、ヴァンパイア・ウィークエンドとM.I.A.がデビュー・アルバムに参加した経緯もあり、2009年を大いに盛り上げた彼ら。この2作目でも溢れ出る異国情緒と、陽気さを抑えられないアフロ・ポップが高らかに鳴り響いている。ゲストにバーバ・マールやケイナーンを迎えたことでよりアフリカン・テイストを増しつつも、エレクトロ、ダブステップ、トランスなどのトレンドにもしっかりアンテナを張っていて、それらテクスチャーとアフロ・サウンドの出会いが実にフレッシュだ。現在制作中というヴァンパイアの新作が待ち遠しい人にもオススメしたいし、今年の夏のサウンドトラックとしても最高の一枚。
bounce (C)青木正之