The high-tech pop intro to The Very Best‘s song “Kondaine” suggests a carefree summer party. There’s Afropop uplift to the sound and Top 40 melodiousness to the vocal.
The words mix English and Chichewa — Malawi’s official language — and tell an absurdly frightening tale of a witch doctor’s potion. In the song’s video, three musicians partake in a gory animal-sacrifice ritual in an African village, at the end of which they turn into goats. That’s The Very Best: sun and fun in the sound, and the problems and ambiguities of African life in nearly every lyric.
The Very Best is a fusion of African rhythm and melody with cutting-edge pop and dance music. The founders, Swedish producer Johan Hugo and Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya started out with a successful mixtape posted on a blog. They followed up with a strong debut album, Warm Heart of Africa, and this summer released a second LP, MTMTMK. The band has yet to reveal the meaning of the title, but we do know that the basic tracks were recorded in Mwamwaya’s hometown, Lilongwe.
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