Saba Saba!

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Two all-acoustic, fiery-hot scratch bands with unique approaches and instrumentation recorded this CD in Mozambique in 1989, in a makeshift studio (a movie house, really). Mil-Quinhento ‘1500′ and Conjunto Popombo use a zither known as a pankwe (strings across a board, with a tin can and a gourd for resonators) as their central sound. The addition of shakers, a brake-shoe bell, voices, and a tea chest with a gut string (which sounds like a wash-tub bass) make a thin but driving sound. The band also adds unusual vocal work to make its mark. A call and response between the singers makes a blizzard of rhythmic notes. Conjunto Nimala focus on the accordion of Nimala Carlos. They add vocals, percussion, another brake-shoe bell, and a bass drum. A droning single-chord structure leaves it all up to the rhythm, which they have in abundance, as the singers dance, sing, shout, and whistle these songs. In both bands you will hear a taste of Indonesia and the Caribbean, but only as an echo. This composition is really its own, and you have heard nothing like it. –Louis Gibson

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