CHiLLUM WOODS SOUND

Media / Written

Romeo's Bunyoro beats sooth the world, by Joseph Batte

Publication date: Friday, 31st March, 2006

Two years ago, Akiiki Romeo, the young bespectacled Kads Band member, warmed our hearts with a cheeky zouk-powered tune titled No Parking.

Soon after that, he cast a long look at the state of Uganda's pop music and was not happy with what he saw. "Ugandan music is threatening to become an art without a face and soul. It has been killed by commercialism," he said. Akiiki then vowed to make a difference. "From now on, I'm going to do music with a traditional feel to it," he told The New Vision.

A fan that overheard the conversation laughed at the notion. As soon as Akiiki left the room, he asked: "Has that young man gone nuts? How many people will buy traditional music sung in Lunyoro, of all languages?"

How wrong he was! Music has no boundaries. And tomorrow, a 30-year-old highly trained English musician and producer called Gdava Woods, who teaches music at Kabira International School, is out to prove it. He will unleash Akiiki Romeo to an unsuspecting audience of a select few in the plush gardens of Blue Mango restaurant in Bukoto. Tucked under his armpits will be an artistic statement in form of a new 10-track CD titled Chillum Woods presents Akiiki Romeo.

After listening to the CD, the words that immediately spring to mind are: wonderful and great. But there is more to it.

The collaboration between Woods and Akiiki has actually yielded pure magic. Woods took a fluid, artistically cohesive approach to Akiiki's compositions and other folk tunes from Bunyoro to create beautiful music in a style that transcends the borders of Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom. This style is called World Music.

The first track Bukiire Bukiire (It's Morning), turns out to be an adventurous entrée to songs that, at first listen, sound like they are principally devoted to Bunyoro folklore. They are not.

Soon after Akiiki's 'wake up' call, producer Gdava Woods locks in with his guitars, plucking along, not so intensely, with the groove. To add colour to the song, where he should have laid a fat, bowel-shaking bass, he replaces it with yodelling, and shakers.

Ngayaaya (Muhuma wange) is an appealing, 'mournful' love song, that is delivered unplugged. It has a calming effect, you can play it for your stressed lover and lull him or her to sleep! It is exquisitely arranged with guitar, back up voices and percussion. It reminds one of a typical African evening -- cattle being taken back to the kraal and children playing their last game before the sun disappears into the horizon.

O invoke a spirit of adventure, the Kora, which represents a typical sound of West Africa's music, but has now become a continental sound, was featured on Abalungi Baliiza and Rosa. However, West African masters did not play this unique stringed instrument which has a harp-like appearance. A young, highly talented Ugandan musician called Kinobe plucked it.

Akiiki takes a less-than-fond look at the death of our cultural values in a charming Lunyoro-accented voice on Byebeere.

Enkokoko, an acapella, creates a warmer and more mellow aura and conjures up images of herdsmen looking after their cattle in villages.

The music is arranged by Woods. He clearly brings out a rare sense of freedom and satisfaction. It also cements his reputation as a sterling musician. Akiiki, who Woods allowed to shine with less a glossy production, has fired pride in one of Uganda's indigenous languages and culture.

His complex interpretations of these simple melodies, most of which have stuck in Banyoro's minds for decades, offers a new kind of ecstasy. But it is not hard to pin down just what makes this CD one of the best Uganda has to offer the international community. The key word is "simplicity". It is not clogged with instruments. It has a calm and relaxing effect.

Akiiki and Woods are saying: "You can still make good music with quality sound even without the help of those fancy studio electronic gadgets. (Woods recorded this dynamic disc in a four-track studio that he rigged up in his bedroom and used hand claps, clicks, shakers, voices and guitars, the latter to simulate effects like croaks of the frog!) Musicians can enrich their music by borrowing from other styles but at the core of everything, there should be the musical lock between the producer and the artiste.

That said, this is an excellent CD that no fan of World Music should pass by. I love it, too, for offering a perfect escape from most of the mainstream so-called music that assaults our ears daily! With the guiding hand of Woods, Akiiki has earned a place alongside Kaweesa and other World Music greats.

This article can be found on-line at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/38/490355
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