The first track “Gimakiny Akia” opens with the raw, rock exuberance and stinging electric guitar bite of an early 70s Grateful Dead live show.  But when the lead vocal hits, in Swahili, it doesn’t seem the least bit out of place.  And that pretty much says it all about Extra Golden’s third release.  What began as a pairing or fusion of American rock and Kenyan guitar pop has coalesced into a coherent band aesthetic—rhythmic and driving, but also rough and dirty.  This band grew out ethnomusicology field research that guitarist/vocalist Ian Eagleson conducted in Kenya some years back.  Eagleson and guitarist Alex Minoff still live in the US, and drummer Onyango Wood Amari and Onyango Jagwasi still live in Kenya.  But anytime they are together, they are Extra Golden, a solid entry in a newly emerging genre of Afro-rock involving American and African musicians.

These 6 songs were recorded in the wake of Kenya’s 2008, post-election violence.  During that crisis, a plea to help the band’s Kenyan members, who could not perform during that time, was answered by American fans, and that’s the inspiration the CD’s title track.  The song pivots between a march-like vocal section in which singers recount their struggle, and a cantering guitar break with a raggedly melodious lead.  The violence in Kenya and the chaotic energy surrounding it created the setting for this recording session, and that seems to lend the music a rowdy, urgent edge.

“Thank You Very Quickly” and the rolling, 12/8 “Fantasies of the Orient” include English lyrics, but most of the vocals here are African.  When it comes to the music, the balance might be a tad the other way.  The punchy “Anyango” sports some sweet African guitar, and “Ukimwi,” heats up to a rowdy, African jam (including a whining keyboard, or possibly a guitar through a deliberately low-end distortion pedal—either way a sound familiar to collectors of local African pop in the 90s).  But the band’s overall feel is definitely closer to garage rock than to the clean, taut sound of benga or old-school Congolese soukous.  

In terms of winning American and European listeners, that’s probably a good thing.  Extra Golden are way more pop and song-oriented than Ashville’s Toubab Krewe (although they rock about as hard) and much less pop and song-oriented than New York’s Vampire Weekend, whom at least one reviewer used this release to slam for being amateurs by comparison.  What is clear is that these and other bands are part of a fascinating new trend in which the lines that have long divided rock and African music are dissolving.  

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org