Snarky Puppy’s Michael League leads new music group Bokante, who have released a stripped-back version of ‘Bòd Lanmè Pa Lwen’ from their 2018 album What Heat, ahead of their UK and Europe tour.
Bokanté are a super group of players from five countries and four continents, different genders, races and generations working in harmony, celebrating individuality; a band whose members are united in the belief that music should be a voice for the voiceless, a force for change against a rising tide of exclusion and indifference in a world that is, well, reaching boiling point.
Michael League explained: This track (‘Bod Lanmè Pa Lwen’) is a hopeful tune about perseverance, action, and what can happen if we continue to struggle and push forward. Malika is singing about trudging through the desert and finding an oasis (‘We walked, we suffered/But we’ve stood firm and now we’ve arrived’), which is represented musically by a transition from down tempo blues to a heavy up-tempo thing with Moroccan-style percussion; Jamey [Haddad] toured with Berber groups and he loves putting a three feel over grooves in different time signatures. Knowing that made me write it into several songs on the record. The Metropole steams through high-speed linear figures that Malika cooked up. It’s stunning to hear an orchestra with such agility and groove.”
VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/
Others had this to say about Bokante:
“Buckley’s orchestrations add eastern-tinged atmosphere that sometimes echoes the dramatic thud of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’. They do, however, leave lots of space for the soloists. Malika Tirolien sings with passion and power and, propelled by an array of African percussion, on the best tracks the music attains a hypnotic grandeur.” ★★★★ THE TIMES
“Guadaloupe-born singer Malika Tirolien’s vocals are supple, capable of both delicacy and force, and with hip-hop inflections … The opener All the Way Home booms cavernously; Réparasyons has swaying Turkish strings; and Don’t Do It comes spiced with a bank of saxes.” THE OBSERVER
Bokante’s UK Tour Dates 27 Jan – 2 Feb:
27 Jan LIVERPOOL, UK Jakaranda Records Phase One
28 Jan MANCHESTER, UK Band on the Wall*
29 Jan LEEDS, UK Brudenell Social Club*
30 Jan BURY ST. EDMUNDS, UK The Apex
31 Jan BRISTOL, UK St. George’s*
1 Feb LONDON, UK Ronnie Scott’s
2 Feb GLASGOW, UK Celtic Connections
* Promoted by Band on the Wall. A Band on the Wall Fundraiser Event.
Tickets for all dates: http://bokante.com/#!/tour
www.realworldrecords.com/bokante
Feature photograph provided by Band on The Wall.
