So this one is a bit a cheat for me. I've made a rule for myself to only write reviews for albums within the past calendar year, but this got a reissue in October, so haha! Loopholes!
Penny Penny, given name Giyani Kulani, started his adult working life as a laborer in a brutal gold mine in West Driefontein, South Africa, and rose to become one of the best-loved politicians and reality stars in the country's history. In between his humble beginnings and his rise to political power, he became one of the most famous and widely successful pop-stars of the post-apartheid era. As it turns out, the real gold mine was in Penny along (zing!).
Penny's music career started while he was working as a janitor in the studios of acclaimed Afrobeat producer Joseph Shirimani. In 1994 Penny approached Shirimani and told him he wanted to make a record. When Shirimani asked if Penny could sing, Penny answered in song. That was it. By the end of the year Penny had released his debut record, Shaka Bundu, which went on to sell over 250,000 copies in South Africa alone.
Yogo Yogo is Penny's second studio album, released in 1996, it is a direct sequel to Shaka Bundu, but with tighter rhythms, more level production, and didactic lyrics, calling for African unity against oppression and agitation. Penny is demonstrable more confidence on this release, moving with conviction in his style and approach, as he steps into bossy strut of opener "Ibola Aids" like a chief intoning a declaration of good tiding before the beginning of a grand festival. "Kulani Kulani" glows with a neon irradiated synth riff that inspires a relaxing side-to-side shimmy, giving you over to the soft press of the mill-stone like groove that rolls effortlessly and continuously, reducing any resistance to its motion to a fine powder which is scooped and showered into the air, the burden of your cares gifted to the wind for transport to the sea. The title track features swift, wicking percussion that transitions into a fat-bottomed, bassy bounce as a two-stepping melody rushes in like a hot southern wind, inducing an infectious, clothes-shedding wiggle that compliments the slap and twirl of Penny's avuncular shout.
A true classic of 90s dance, in dire need of distribution outside of its native country. Yogo Yogo will transport you to a time and place when music truly embodied a growing sense of humanity's ability to free itself from oppression and domination. If it doesn't inspire you to want to live in a better world, at the very least I hope that it will inspire you to move your body in ways you never thought possible. And if it can do both, even better.
