Album Review: The Very Best - MTMTMK

When the Rumbae rhythm starts to play, lace up your dancing shoes – it's the vocoder that will make you stumble in your tracks. Recorded in singer Esau Mwamwaya's hometown of Lilongwe, Malawi, The Very Best's MTMTMK is a brand new second hand collection of original AfroEuroPop. Debut Warm Heart Of Africa saw Esau teaming up with Johan Hugo and Etienne Tron (AKA Radioclit) to brew up a trans-continental stew acclaimed on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar. It was bookended by mixtapes, making MTMTMK the second full album under the name and the first release without Tron.

The 'Traditional vs. Contemporary' theme runs through their body of work and relationship – The Very Best first met when Hugo bought a new bike from Mwamwaya's antiques shop – and is of course part of what makes them such an interesting proposition. But while at times the dance production is invigorating, at others it leaves the unpretentious Afro pop straining at the leash. The aforementioned Rumbae and the banal We Ok (featuring K'naan) are so weighed down with studio fiddling that they sag in the middle.

These are the exceptions that (mostly) prove the rule that Afro Pop and contemporary European electronica are happy bedfellows. The Radioclitoral influence works best when it's second fiddle to the organic, DNA-level elements in Mwamwaya's vocal and music, and it usually is. Opener Adani is a joyful crescendo of sound and song. Bantu features the cream of a continent (Amadou and Mariam, Baaba Maal) and is a standout track.