BCUC - Emakhosini

The Guardian 80

There may be stirring harmony vocals, but these dynamic, ‘afropsychedelic’ artists are anything but bland

BCUC, AKA Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, are a young seven-piece band from Soweto who are shaking up South African music. Vocals and sturdy harmony work have always played a dominant role in township styles, but here the tradition is updated and reworked with the powerful but subtle use of drums and bass.

They play lengthy songs (the opener lasts nearly 20 minutes) that mix ancient and modern influences in a style that is distinctively South African, and includes soulful, elegant playing with passages that are as dramatic and frantically menacing as the best Congotronics bands in Kinshasa. BCUC have an impressive sense of dynamics, allowing songs to develop, fade away, change direction and then build to an often furious climax. Insistent, inventive bass guitar work holds it all together, as in Moya, which begins with a brooding riff and distant chanting, before the voices and percussion take over. Then there’s another switch, as echoes of what sound like ancient African war chants give way to cool, soulful vocals from Kgomotso Mokone, the one female member of the band, before the drums and chanting vocals return.