Customer Reviews

Corruption

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This might be Mukanya's best ever album - and this comes from someone with almost all his albums. No filler, all killer here.
1. Moyo Wangu - my favourite deep chimurenga song, Jonah Sithole shows why he was without peers onlead, Mapfumo is on his moaning, groaning, growling finest!
2. Varombo Kuvarombo - fast but plaintive jit
3. Shebeen - slow but rugged, enough to make a drunkard shed a drunken tear. Zim's finest drummer, the late great Jethro Shasha guests.
4. Corruption - a dozen years before Zim's problems became worldwide fodder, Mukanya was singing it.
5. Muchadura - deep chimurenga, vintage Mapfumo, vintage Jonah Sithole
6. Handina Munyama - more jit, catchy horns
7. Kupera Kwevanhu - gallping beat, keyboard driven lament to Mozambique's civil war victims
8. Chigwindiri - more great rhythms and guitar licks when both Mapfumo and Jonah Sithole were at their peak.

The longevity of Thomas Mapfumo as an artist is illustrated by his ability to address everyday issues in song. This is true of Corruption; a single that was banned from the airwaves in Zimbabwe because it hit too close to home in the days of the Willowgate scandal. This magician blends African rhythms with reggae very successfully.

Many people say that this is Thomas' most reggaefied album. This album even garnered a mention in "Rough Guide to Reggae". I'm sorry, but I don't hear it. Nothing on this magical album sounds like reggae to me. What it does sound like is Mapfumo's complex, hypnotic and sweet chimurenga. And you can't top that. Not five stars but a million!