Kidi Band: So Good | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- So Good is the second album from Californian four-piece Kidi Band. Named after a traditional Ghanaian drum, the group formed when they were all in college studying the same class on West African music. Their style is an attempt to integrate the polyrhythmic percussion common in that part of the world with Western indie-pop.

The result is a remarkable mix of intertwining voices and instruments. The songs are often epic and euphoric, though they are composed of minimal ingredients – human voice, simple percussion instruments, acoustic guitar and thumb piano. It’s notable as well what’s not present – no ringing cymbals, no resonating guitar chords filling up space.

At times, with the sweet harmonies and simple song structures, the music resembles a more generic indie folk. The likeness is short-lived though – almost always present are the twisting rhythms common to both traditional and contemporary West African music, and wordless vocalisations that recall the acapella gymnastics of Congolese artist Zap Mama. To Western ears, it is a much stranger mix than well known Afro-fusionists like Paul Simon or Vampire Weekend. And the album gets better, and the experiments wilder, as it goes on.

My favourite tracks are those where all the different ingredients are thrown in the pot together for a joyous polyphony. Tracks like Burn It Up and Go On are dizzying with all the interweaving musical elements, while Under The Blue Sky starts off pretty normal but then detours into a wonderful breakdown. Elsewhere though, like on Across The Sea and Mary (Merry), simple nursery rhyme style melodies are given surprising new life with the odd rhythms and group vocal dynamics.

Polyrhythms, where two different but complementary beats play simultaneously, are not traditionally very prevalent in Western pop music. Here the focus is mostly on one strong and driving rhythm, where drums and bass guitar “lock in” together. This is so common that most listeners don’t even notice it, we just think of it as how music is meant to be made.

Harmony singing in a way though is the melodic equivalent of a polyrhythm, where two different but complementary notes are sung together. Harmonies, of course, are much more common to us - as evidenced by the fact that many pop musicians can intuitively sing in harmony, whereas playing polyrhythms usually requires intense concentration.

That makes Kidi Band’s mix of harmony singing and polyrhythmic percussion an intriguing combination. What they have made is experimental but not totally unrecognisable. Like different drumbeats intertwining or notes harmonising, Kidi Band have combined two disparate styles of music from two different continents, and come out with an exciting new creation.

- Andy Paine.
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