Soundway Records label owner DJ Miles Claret was in town to spin some vinyl for an event to promote trendy G-Shock watches on July 5 at Sonic Ekamai. The event was organised by Zudrangma Records boss DJ Maft Sai, who brought Claret and DJ Hugo Mendez in along with his headlining outfit, the Bangkok Paradise Molam International Band.
Saksiam Petchchompu on congas and Sawai Kaewsombat on the woodwind khaen.
It was a good opportunity to see how the Bangkok Paradise Band has developed since performing in Vietnam last month. I spoke with bass player Piyanart Jotikasthira before the band's set and he told me that they had been practising new versions of well-known songs such as a lam version of the luk thung classic Ding Dong. He said the band had been working hard to prepare not only for the G-Shock gig, but also for the band's first European tour, which begins in Germany on July 27.
As far as I'm aware, the band's tour of Europe will see a lam band playing in several European cities for the first time since the Paris-based Molam Lao band, originally from Laos, was at its height in the 1990s.
Bangkok Paradise played a set of 11 songs, most of which were instrumentals. For the last two songs, however, they were joined by veteran luk thung Isan legend Saksiam Petchchompu, who despite struggling against an unhelpful sound system, thrilled the crowd with his percussive antics on a set of conga drums. The band's sound has clearly developed, with bass player Piyanart and drummer Phusana Treeburut more prominent in the mix as they get to grips with the lam groove. With Maft Sai's partner, UK-based DJ Chris Menist joining the Paradise team, European fans of Thai popular music will be in for a treat.
Soundway Records has steadily enhanced its reputation by releasing compilations on CD and vinyl that trace popular music in Africa, South America and the Caribbean during the golden era of popular music in the 1960s-1980s. It was Claret and his crew who brought attention to Benin's wonderful Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Ghanaian afrobeat and the back catalogue of Columbia's premier record label, Disco Fuentes. The label was also the first to pick up on the work of Maft Sai and Chris Menist when it released the hugely popular luk thung compilation, The Sound Of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Molam And Jazz In Thailand. Luk thung fans can expect a follow-up release in the near future.
Claret was very excited about the label's latest release on Kenyan music, which is much less well-known than, say, West African or Central African music. The two CD/three LP Kenya Special: Selected East Africa Recordings From The Seventies & Eighties features 31 killer tracks described as coming "from Kikuyu language 'liquid soul' to Luo benga and Swahili afrobeat to genre-bending Congolese and Tanzanian tracks recorded in Nairobi".
I told him that Bangkok is one of the few places in the region where Kenyan musicians have performed; Todd Lavelle's Rhythm of the World annual festival has featured several Kenyan bands, such as the Yunasi band. And if you go back to the 1990s, the Kilimanjaro Connection Band, which played genre-bending Congolese music sung in Swahili, actually had a residency at a major Bangkok hotel (as far as I'm aware it is the only African band to ever enjoy a long stay in Bangkok). The tracks I've heard so far show just how innovative the music scene was in Nairobi. There are distinctive local genres such as benga beat (long-time readers know of my affection for benga legend Daniel Misiani and Shirati Jazz), alongside hybrids and genre-benders that surprise and delight. This is a must for African music fans. Members of Yunasi complained to me last time they were in town that while West African music had a high international profile, very few people knew anything about East African music, but that is likely to change with Soundway's new Kenyan compilation. Copies of the CDs and vinyl LPs are available at Zudrangma Records on Sukhumvit 51. Visit www.soundwayrecords.com for more.
This column can be contacted at: clewley.john@gmail.com
