Global Playlist: Africa Express

Behind the new tour...

The past decade has born witness to a silent revolution.

Once upon a time, any artist outside the Trans-Atlantic drift was shunted down into the ‘world music’ section – a dark, dank, dusty corner of your local record emporium. Now, though, the most influential blogs are re-discovering African music while audio globe-trotters such as Vampire Weekend invite a generation of guitar groups to search beyond The Beatles ‘n’ The Stones.

In its own small yet influential way, Africa Express has played a major part in this. A decade long series of concerts and live events, the organisation has encouraged Western and African musicians to collaborate, swapping influences and tapping each other up for new ideas. Organising a full length tour – on a train, no less – Africa Express is set to steam across the country this Autumn, a physical example of a much under-stated shift in musical influece.

Invited to hop on board, rising songwriter Kyla La Grange is both excited and surprised at the prospect of the train-bound tour. “It sounds like a really brilliant idea!” she says, before breaking down into laughter. “I can’t even begin to imagine how it will work but I’m sure it will come together”.

“My dad’s Zimbawean and my mum’s South African, so whenever we’ve gone over there – it sounds like a cliché – music is a much more visible thing in Africa than it is in England” the young songwriter continues. “People just sing all the time, whereas over here you only sing when you’re on your own in the shower. It’s a nice thing to kind of get people more familiar with it over here”.

Not that Kyla La Grange is despondent about the fate of music within British life. “I think that there is kind of an element of that in Britain – or rather there used to be – in the folk tradition” she muses. “When I was little my parents used to take me to folk festivals in England, just little ones, and you did get that there. People just sitting on the grass singing songs to each other. I think – especially in somewhere like London or any of the big cities – you’d just be completely laughed at for doing something like that. It’s a shame, really”.

Not that her passion for music as a communal phenomenon can placate her nerves, though, as Kyla La Grange readily admits. “I think I’m very nervous.. I’m not very good with big groups of people because I tend to get a bit shy so I’ll probably have to get over that quite quickly!”

One of the year’s most hyped newcomers, Charli XCX has also been invited on board Africa Express. Part of an ever broadening circle of musicians taking part – the latest announcement included Gilles Peterson, Gruff Rhys and Maximo Park doncha know – the young English artist is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to step outside of her comfort zone. “I think it’ll be really interesting for me, because I’ve never worked massively outside my genre before” she explains.

“It’s going to be really interesting for me to collaborate with so many people in such a short space of time. To get a taste of music from a completely different part of the world – I’ve never really done that before, so that’ll be really exciting!” she exclaims. “Bringing that music to people like myself who never get exposed to it anyway. I definitely think it’s a brilliant project”.

The open-ended nature of the project seems to be what excites the musicians taking part, even if it causes a fair amount of trepidation. “To be honest, I’m going in with the most open mind that I can. I just want to make sure that I can get some energy across and that we all manage to write some amazing music” Charli XCX explains. “I’m completely free doing that whole experience. I want it to be an amazing learning experience for myself, rather than trying to pin down any collaborations or anything like that. I’m just thinking of it as an awesome opportunity. I just don’t know, I’m going to go into it and let loose, see what happens. It could be absolutely terrible for me, it could be amazing – I really don’t know”.

Ghanaian rapper M.anifest is a long time support of African Express, having taken part in a series of Parisian shows back in 2010. Musing on the project’s impact, the MC points to a more general trend – the opening up of Western ears towards the new sounds of Africa. “There’s a big appreciation, there always has been” he explains. “But I think what has changed most significantly in my mind is nowadays, people do not look to hear the sound of 1920 or 1960. We are more open to hearing the contemporary sound of Africa. There’s a new wave of African music, it’s not static. So I think people have been exposed more to that in the last decade or so…from the hip-hop influences, to the indie rock influences to Afrobeat influences. People are beginning to see, going from D’banj, to Nneka to hip-hop artists from Ghana. There’s a new wave of African music that’s still connected to the past but still very forward-looking”.

Part of the African contingent on the new project, M.anifest knows the impact that these collaborations can have on the artists involved. “Being able to perform with Femi Kuti, then have Damon as well… it was just one hell of an experience. And from these experiences, I ended up working with Damon and Tony Allen and that was an excellent, excellent experience” he says. “I spent the week in London and it was basically just experiencing a situation with people who are very inspiring and have been doing this for years and finding new ways of doing exciting music and also music that I’m familiar with, having African grooves”.

Finishing, M.anifest emphasises the impact these concerts will have on both the audience and the musicians. “It’s an opportunity to get introduced to very inspiring musicians, that is one of the most valuable things” he states. “Because even though people get to see the shows are going to be excited in seeing these unexpected collaborations, they do not realise that for most musicians on tour is that it’s surprising and exciting to have these unexpected, unlikely collaborations happen. So that’s part of the excitement, in being introduced to new music and forming a synergy, an instant synergy and creating this musical feat that everyone’s enjoying onstage and offstage”.

Africa Express dates:

September
3 Middlesbrough Town Hall
4 Glasgow The Arches
5 Manchester The Ritz
6 Cardiff Solus
7 Bristol The Big Top (Creative Common)
8 London Graniary Square (King’s Cross)

Click here to buy tickets for Africa Express!

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