Mumford and Sons meet Baaba Maal, Beatenberg and The Very Best

June 18, 2016 12:08 PM

Arena-folk rockers Mumford and Sons toured in South Africa earlier this year, where they took two days to record new music. The result is their Johannesburg EP (YT playlist with live and studio tracks), with Senegalese singer and guitarist Baaba Maal (documentary playlist), South African pop trio Beatenberg (playlist of live videos), and the team of Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya with British production/DJ duo Radioclit as The Very Best (their original mixtape). More music from the collaborators inside.

Baaba Maal is the best known of the three collaborators, and his discography is the largest. You can hear five of his albums on his Bandcamp page.

The Very Best, the Afro-dance-pop trio turned duo (it's unclear if Etienne Tron is still involved, leaving Esau Mwamwaya and Johan Hugo Karlberg as the group's core) now have three albums, which are all on YouTube as playlists: Warm Heart of Africa (2009), MTMTMK (2012), and Makes a King (2015).

Beatenberg have two albums out: Farm Photos (title track from 2009 album) and The Hanging Gardens of Beatenberg (2014).

posted by filthy light thief (9 comments total)

This is really my pitch to get more people to hear The Very Best. I am in love with Makes a King, which is less a dance/electronic album like MTMTMK (which may stand for More To Malawi Than Madonna's Kids), but still a diverse, well-blended album. The Mumford EP is decent, but very Mumfordian. Baaba Maal is amazing, but better known (his Wikipedia page has been linked twice before, for the post on Peter Gabriel's 'Passion', live and 1 Giant Leap), and Beatenberg make some decent South African pop.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:19 PM on June 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

For those that enjoy the EP, Idris Elba's version of Home is worth checking out.
posted by Candleman at 12:44 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I enjoy M&S and I also enjoy Baaba Maal, and when I heard they were collaborating, I was excited. I've heard a couple of snips of tracks from an NPR review. I will probably get this album, too. Good on them for feeling inspired during their time in South Africa to create new music.

Thanks for the post! I look forward to listening!
posted by hippybear at 12:53 PM on June 18, 2016

I LOVE the very best. Esau can sing his way through anything and I will end up smiling.

Actually, TVB covered Mumford and Sons a couple of years ago.
posted by sleeping bear at 1:07 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Si Tu Veux" is gorgeous, definitely my favorite track from the EP. Also, pitch successful, filthy light thief! Definitely went to download MTMTMK immediately.

Mumford & Sons also did a great EP with the Dharohar Project, a Rajasthani collective of musicians, and Laura Marling. "To Darkness" is to my mind the superior version of the song that later became Broken Crown. The version of Laura Marling's "Devil's Spoke" they all did together is a hell of a collaboration too.
posted by yasaman at 2:28 PM on June 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

The Very Best is WONDERFUL, and I've been listening to their albums all day as I drive around. Mwana Wanga is such a beautiful song; I've recently been transcribing and translating it so I can sing it to my baby daughter; the title, appropriately, is "my child" in Chichewa.
posted by duffell at 6:13 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cool. The Very Best was totally off my radar, but I remember Esau getting early internet hype with the Paper Planes rework. Nice to see he kept producing, and interesting to see the musical evolution.
posted by p3t3 at 7:01 AM on June 19, 2016

Most excellent, thanks. The clip from the the Johannesburg EP is joyous - the musicians are having so much fun with it.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:30 PM on June 19, 2016

hey this is awesome! thanks!
posted by rebent at 11:07 AM on June 20, 2016