Flag bearer of a post-apartheid South African youth turned towards the future, the bubbling collective BCUC composes and performs long-format pieces that draw on the sources of free-jazz, hip-hop and traditional rhythms of South Africa. South for “take the listener to the place where the ancestors live”. Decryption with Zithulele Zabani Nkosi, known as Jovi, the singer of BCUC.
Choral singing, Zulu mouth drum, shona minor whistles, imbomu horn (ancestor of the vuvuzela), bass inherited from the mbaqanga groove, soul voice, furious rap… the overpowering “afrospychedelic trance” of BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) takes all its fullness live, it exudes audacity and releases a jubilant rebellious energy!
On Emakhosini (2018), the second part of a trilogy initiated in 2017 with Our TruthBCUC singer Zithulele Zabani Nkosi, aka Jovi, chants: “My magic flow is contagious, it’s something that has nothing to compare with pop music, something that grows inexorably in you!”.
I was therefore warned and did not shy away from my pleasure of being able to meet Jovi in Marseille, a few hours before the group’s concert at the Fiesta of the South. The event celebrated its 30th anniversary and the boiling show of BCUC was in its image: a rare and precious experience.
SessionLab by Hortense Volle : a conversation in complete privacy and in 3D audio (spatialized sound). A podcast to listen to, preferably, with headphones.
Achievement : Benjamin Sarralie
3D sound recording and mixing : Fabien Mugneret
Production : RFI Lab
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Titles broadcast
► Excerpts from the album The Healing (2019 – Buda Music) : Sikhulekile ; Isivunguvungu ; The Journey with Mr Van Der Merwe
► Taken from the album Emakhosini (2018 – Buda Music): Moya ; Nobody Knows
► Taken from the album Our Truth (2016 – Nyami Nyami Records): Yinde ; Asazani ; In My Blues