Two years after their debut album, ten-peace-band Kelele is realeasing their new work, “Xaritoo”.
Through numerous jam sessions, live gigs and hard disks filled with recordings, a starting point was created.
The result pays tribute to the music and sounds of the bands personal heroes; Funk & Highlife bands of the 70’s and 80’s with artist such as Osibisa, Ebo Taylor, Fela Kuti, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Mulatu Astatke, all of whom have been a tremendous inspiration on Kelele’s musical jourrney.
Undogmatic, open minded and playful, the band breaks the usual genre boundaries, following the tradition of developing their own vigorous style. A mixture of Funk / Socca / Ragga-Beats, coupled with West African percussion arrangements and wind instruments, inspired and influenced by Fela Kuti’s afrobeat and brass band of the Balkans.

The songs “Xaritoo”, meaning “friendship” in Wolof, the native tongue of the Senegalese lead singer Abass Ndiaye, and “Ayaye” (shared suffering is half-suffering) are songs about friendship and solidarity.
In his lyrics Abass tells about his search for knowledge (“Tukki”) and asks questions about his own roots (“Laaj Am Na Solo”).
“Samedi Soir” is about dancing and celebrating the joy of life without having money.
The album ends on a contemplative note, in the political Dub Poetry style of LKJ, with “Peace”, a jam session from the last studio days.

Following in the steps of their first release, and in order to preserve the live character of their music, the studio used as few overdubs as possible. The recording of “Xaritoo”, as was “Terala”, were realised by Jochen Ströh’s Lovelite Studio in Berlin.

“Xaritoo” an album as interesting to listen to as it is fun to dance to.

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