World music is a strange and often misapplied term. We seem to use it to describe certain cultural traditions and geographically, and often generically specific, sounds. To me, that seems the very opposite of what the label world suggests. To my mind, true world music is made by artists who, whilst they might be based in a certain style, place, culture, or tradition, allow their music to wander the globe and cross genre boundaries to create something truly of the world, in the fullest sense. Desert Air, the new album from Sharon Katz & The Peace Train, is the perfect example of what I am talking about.
Whilst the core sound here is one of those chiming guitar lines and afro-beat groove recognizable as the sound of their South African homeland, it is the journey they allow it to take that makes it so progressive.
‘Oh Baby Baby’ opens with the rich, evocative harmonies of the Afrika Mamas, melodic bass lines, and chiming, minimalist guitars creating an immediate sense of energy. Then, ‘Someone to Love,’ which follows, develops those ideas into something more distinctly Afro-pop, not least through the addition of buoyant brass stabbing and soaring and swooning as required. It is at this point that you begin to appreciate the strength of the band’s engine room, with Qhubekani Mthethwa‘s agile bass locking into Charles Boykie Mnomiya‘s vibrant drum patterns… everything starts with the rhythm section, something these two maestros make abundantly clear.
The title track moves into more seductive territory, blending soul influences with a distinctly Western sensibility, gently nudging us away from a place you could point to on the map and into more holistic, universal musical territory. ‘So Free’ returns to those lush African choral voices, but its rhythmic heart beats just as strongly to a Latin vibe, again, a reminder that this is globe-trotting music.
Similarly, ‘A Place I Call Home’ brings folk finesse together with the familiarity of pop balladry; ‘Turn the Page’ finds an equally natural meeting point between Western songwriting and South African roots.
Ultimately, Desert Air is an album about musical conversation and shared musical language. Its influences never feel like sonic rhetoric but rather like active participants in a musical dialog, each bringing something to the mix. Sharon Katz & The Peace Train create music that feels open, adventurous, and genuinely borderless, proving that the most interesting journeys often happen when different musical roads meet. Not only that, it reminds us of the adage, “it is better to travel well than it is to arrive.” This is certainly an album which is all about the journey rather than the destination – if there ever could be a definitive musical terminus for such creatives.
They say that travel broadens the mind; it certainly broadens musical potential, and never was this truer than here among the mellifluous musical mixes of Desert Air.
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