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“The work is first a monument to heal us, a vessel of healing. We’re a space of communion. We’re a church” Siyabonga Mthembu.
Internationally-acclaimed outfit The Brother Moves On (TBMO) are part of a musical underground that connects London and their home city of Johannesburg. They exist in a powerful lineage of protest music and in the role that sound and music has in combating and soaking up the everyday struggles of life. They were described as ‘the most important band in the country’ by online publication Platform and ‘the last remaining protest band’ by saxophonist Steve Dyer, who assisted in the recording of the 2021 Gilles-Peterson released Indaba Is – which TBMO frontman Siyabonga co-produced with pianist Thandi Ntuli.
The Brother Moves On’s exceptional 2021 album Tolika Mtoliki rebirthed classic South African music and messages into a stunning collection that made Apple Music’s Top Releases list of that year. Mthembu is also part of the critically-acclaimed Shabaka And The Ancestors and now, $/He Who Feeds You... Owns You is being released on Shabaka Hutchings’ Native Rebel label.
The album title comes from a speech by pan-African revolutionary Thomas Sankara to the Organisation of African Unity. “It takes his words into this time. It has a lot to do with food sovereignty and land – whoever feeds you, whoever owns your food system runs you.”
This album has a different genesis than the first two Native Rebel releases by Chelsea Carmichael and CoN& KwAkE where Shabaka Hutchings composed a framework for the artists to improvise into shape. Instead, The Brother Moves On’s fourth album is made of existing songs, recorded in studio at Asylum Studios in Pretoria and live in front of an audience at Dyertribe Studios, with additional flute, clarinet and production from Hutchings himself. The music was arranged by TBMO with one song arranged by Spaza multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Jiyane and mixed by top-flight engineer Dilip Harris, who also worked on the Sons of Kemet albums and Indaba Is amongst much else.
Tracklist
Side A (13m47s)
1. Puleng intro
2. Bayakhala
3. Sphila
Side B (13m10s)
4. Puleng
5. Itumeleng Revisited.
Side C (15m38s)
6. Sweetie Love Oh
7. Hamba the reprise
Side D (11.46s)
8. Mazel
9. Ta Tom
Soundwave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fekXcKzNEY