603. Shaka Zulu - Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Like most people (philistines?) I mainly knew about this group from the Heinz advert that they famously provided the music for. Whilst this piece is catchy and powerful, I was unsure what i would make of an entire album's worth of this type of music. I've normally avoided world music simply from the snobbery somewhat aligned with Rob Gordon in High Fidelity.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo are an acapella group from South Africa, who rose to fame following their backing contribution to Paul Simon's Graceland album. They toured with him around the world, and so their fanbase grew from their impressive live displays. This album went on to win the 1988 Grammy for best traditional folk recording.

Unomathemba is a delicate opener, which captures the depth and richness of this acapella group's voices. The rhythm is very pedestrian, but in a positive, calming sense, and the chorus elements of this song really do capture the imagination. Hello my Baby follows very much in this vein, with plenty of harmonies and ebbing chanting. Golgotha makes greater use of more percussive elements of the vocalists' sounds. The back and forth of the chorus is precise yet organic, and quietly joyful. King of Kings is basically as the same, and The Earth never gets Fat is the same but not as good. How Long has a delightfully rhythmic section where the vocalists offer themselves up as ready, which probably stayed with me more than any other moment on the album. Alas, the song's response to its own title is 'too long'. Home of the Heroes I barely noticed, and Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain is great until the Larry the Lamb impression that shows that tremulation works better on guitars than vocal cords.

I really enjoyed this album the first couple of times through, but then started to lose interest. My main issues with this album were two-fold. Firstly, there is a lack of variety when compared to a more conventional, multi instrumental album. Whilst the voices and tones are no doubt impressive, they are still more limited in terms of pitch and percussion than a range of instruments. Secondly, and relatedly, this makes it a hard album to focus on. It works in the background, and indeed is the first album we've used to help us get to sleep. Whilst there is a role for such music, for example as assistance to the wakeful, I certainly prefer albums that grab my attention and leave me trying to understand and analyse them fully. This week I've found myself interspersing listening to the assigned album with others a lot more than usual, not because I don't enjoy Shaka Zulu, but it is the equivalent of a nice warming bowl of soup - pleasant, but not enough to sustain oneself.

Chloe's rating: 7

Chloe's favourite track: 2. Hello my Baby

Olly's rating: 6

Olly's favourite track: 1. Unomathemba

Next week is 217. Led Zeppelin - Four. I've heard of that one, it's fair to say.