Colourful carpets, bare feet, burning insense, cow bells, guitars, and drums, this was what characterised Southern Hermis Co.'s debut as a band at Harare's Moongate restaurant last year. A band of 7, under the aegis of Ulenni Okandlovu, with electronic music and rock at the heart of the sound it was bringing to life. The event was Take Over The City Live (TOTC), a futuristic take on the ancestral that easily endeared itself to the intimate audience.
What Ulenni Okandlovu inaugurated on that day is at the heart of his most recent album, Orbiting Around the Sun. A project that has a lending hand from Southern Hermis Co. and Lloyd Soul. The 8 track album sees Ulenni adding another layer of colour to the kaleidoscopic journey he has pathed as a creative.
Orbiting Around the Sun takes from his unique hip hop discography, his dance music exploration with Bantu Spaceships and his own Ndebele cultural heritage to shape into existence something new. Produced by Lloyd Bhebhe, the album is heady with atmospheric textures yet grounded in its tempo and rhythm. As far as his solo endeavours as a musician go, this is a much different Ulenni from what we've seen before.
The forlorn sounding "Inkomo," begins Ulenni's latest chapter, and aptly titled after the IsiNdebele word cow, it is a lament by a son questioning what happened to his father's herd. A profoundly important reflection in regards to Zimbabwean culture. "Amagugu" is adapted from a popular funeral song and it has an ethereal feel to it that leans into its meditative nature, while calling on us to appreciate the joy of life.
Orbiting Around the Sun is propelled by a sense of yearning, be it for love, understanding or happiness. It calls out, to the listener, to those that came before, to forces unknown, with the intention of connecting.
The love song, "Buya," enchants with a captivating bass lines and xylophonic sounding chimes. "Uthando" carries a message of brothely love underlied by warped woodwind treatment. "Vuma" has cycling grooves made for an experience of house music under the stars, and "Shangane River" is ode to an iconic body of water that features distinctive guitar riffs.
There is fault in the album's sequencing, and in some moments the production feels too safe, yet Ulenni's intention holds. The spiritual is expressed in synth and melody, with an execution that doesn't feel like half baked experiment. Orbiting Around the Sun delivers on its promise of a celestial journey and it is a breath of fresh air from a multi talented creative.
Greedysouth rating: 7.1/10