Rwanda, you should be loved (2019), is an album which I think is best encapsulated by the Portuguese word saudade, which means “toward a place I have never known.”
Riddled with hypnotic meditations on loss and grief, it moves us through the densely forested hillsides of Rwanda. Despite language barriers, it paints a picture of a beautiful and culturally rich country, still afflicted by the legacy of a genocide.
Twenty-five years after the cataclysmic exterminations of the Tutsi’s, The Good Ones released the album Rwanda, you should be loved. Uniting three tribes of Rwanda – the Hutu’s, Tutsi’s, and Twa – Adrien Kazigira, Janvier Havugimana and Javan Mahoro are a testament to “the good ones” of Rwanda: a testament to the promise of reconciliation and solidarity in the face of genocide.
The album was recorded live and produced by the grammy winning Ian Brennan in the bandleader Adrien Kazigira’s farm in the Rwandan mountains. Here, Kazigira would seek refuge from the genocide in surrounding trees. It is also where the members were taught as children to play music by Havugimana’s older brother, one of the 800,000 victims of the hundred-day genocide of 1994.
Although largely detached from Western influences and standards of music, this album features collaborations with Wilco’s Nels Cline, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, and Joe Lally from Fugazi. However, Rwanda, you should be loved explicitly situates Western modes of production in the Rwandan tradition; the Western influences are unobtrusive adornments to the styles rooted in local traditions and dialects. In the song “Where Did You Go Wrong, My Love,” Nels Cline’s soft and psychedelic electric guitar riff assumes a passive role, seamlessly weaving through The Good Ones’ poignant harmonies, minimalistic rhythms, and supple strings.
Their style is in direct conversation with folk styles born of the banks of Lake Victoria and the Central African rainforests. With the limited resources available, the band members use what they have on hand – from shoes to farming equipment – to create meandering rhythms and percussions. “Seraphinne, You Are The Pretties Woman In The World” returns to simple body percussions – also performed by Janvier Havugimana with shoes for their NPR tiny desk concert – and synergetic chantlike vocals.
Nonetheless, conflict and scarcity does not define them, rather, as Kazigira said: “love does.” In a time where the genocide of Palestinians is consistently encouraged by institutions we inevitably inhabit, the premises of our complicity seem dauntingly inescapable. The Good Ones become a ray of solidarity amidst the opaque dust of enduring and inconceivable despair. Their determination for harmony, both anthropical and musical, is a reminder of the resilience of human understanding and fellowship.
RATING: 3/5 STARS
Image Credit: “Kwibuka21 Closing of Commemoration Week at Rebero Genocide Memorial” by Kwibuka is under license CC BY-ND 2.0.
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The Good Ones – RWANDA, you should be loved.
Rwanda, you should be loved (2019), is an album which I think is best encapsulated by the Portuguese word saudade, which means “toward a place I have never known.”
Riddled with hypnotic meditations on loss and grief, it moves us through the densely forested hillsides of Rwanda. Despite language barriers, it paints a picture of a beautiful and culturally rich country, still afflicted by the legacy of a genocide.
Twenty-five years after the cataclysmic exterminations of the Tutsi’s, The Good Ones released the album Rwanda, you should be loved. Uniting three tribes of Rwanda – the Hutu’s, Tutsi’s, and Twa – Adrien Kazigira, Janvier Havugimana and Javan Mahoro are a testament to “the good ones” of Rwanda: a testament to the promise of reconciliation and solidarity in the face of genocide.
The album was recorded live and produced by the grammy winning Ian Brennan in the bandleader Adrien Kazigira’s farm in the Rwandan mountains. Here, Kazigira would seek refuge from the genocide in surrounding trees. It is also where the members were taught as children to play music by Havugimana’s older brother, one of the 800,000 victims of the hundred-day genocide of 1994.
Although largely detached from Western influences and standards of music, this album features collaborations with Wilco’s Nels Cline, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, and Joe Lally from Fugazi. However, Rwanda, you should be loved explicitly situates Western modes of production in the Rwandan tradition; the Western influences are unobtrusive adornments to the styles rooted in local traditions and dialects. In the song “Where Did You Go Wrong, My Love,” Nels Cline’s soft and psychedelic electric guitar riff assumes a passive role, seamlessly weaving through The Good Ones’ poignant harmonies, minimalistic rhythms, and supple strings.
Their style is in direct conversation with folk styles born of the banks of Lake Victoria and the Central African rainforests. With the limited resources available, the band members use what they have on hand – from shoes to farming equipment – to create meandering rhythms and percussions. “Seraphinne, You Are The Pretties Woman In The World” returns to simple body percussions – also performed by Janvier Havugimana with shoes for their NPR tiny desk concert – and synergetic chantlike vocals.
Nonetheless, conflict and scarcity does not define them, rather, as Kazigira said: “love does.” In a time where the genocide of Palestinians is consistently encouraged by institutions we inevitably inhabit, the premises of our complicity seem dauntingly inescapable. The Good Ones become a ray of solidarity amidst the opaque dust of enduring and inconceivable despair. Their determination for harmony, both anthropical and musical, is a reminder of the resilience of human understanding and fellowship.
RATING: 3/5 STARS
Image Credit: “Kwibuka21 Closing of Commemoration Week at Rebero Genocide Memorial” by Kwibuka is under license CC BY-ND 2.0.
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