Extra Golden's third album closes with the title track, a song thanking the band's fans for donating money to keep the Kenyan members' families out of harm's way during the violent convulsion that heaved through the country after last year's contentious election. It's a buoyant song that typifies the band's seamless blend of American rock music with benga, Kenya's ebullient and propulsive dance music, but like a lot of benga songs, it packs a serious message into the lilting, doubled vocals, sung mostly in Luo, with an English verse by Ian Eagleson. "Next time, it could be you," Eagleson reminds English-speaking listeners; near the end, there's a cry of "ok-oyot!" amid some celebratory cheering, a reference to the title of their debut LP, and a phrase that roughly means "It's not easy."
And nothing has been easy for this band. For a moment, set aside the fact that half the members live on one continent and the other half live on a separate one, a challenge in itself, and consider their path to this point. Original member Otieno Jagwasi died of AIDS-related illness before the first album could be released, and his brother Onyango is now in the band, dueling with Eagleson's guitar. The other original Kenyan member, drummer Onyango Wuod Omari, sings lead on "Ukimwi" an impassioned plea to wipe out the disease that killed Otieno Jagwasi and holds much of eastern and southern Africa in a terrible thrall. Three years ago, the Kenyan members needed intervention from then-Senator Barack Obama to get visas to enter the U.S., and the threat posed by last year's violence is self-explanatory. So it's a small triumph that the band even still exists.
The music on Thank You Very Quickly is a triumph of a different sort. Extra Golden have conquered whatever divide there once was between rock and benga to create a distinct sound of their own that respects both traditions. They've gained so much confidence in their sound that they've even begun to expand it beyond that collision. "Fantasies of the Orient" is a hard-grooving track laced with psychedelic organ and three-against-four rhythms that recall the pop music of Kenya's neighbor to the north, Ethiopia. Eagleson and Jagwasi trade lines throughout the song, dueting in two languages while their guitars carry the multi-lingual conversation into the music, pitting distortion against clean fluidity.
I'm grateful that Extra Golden have continued their partnership, not only because of the quality and uniqueness of the band's music, but also for the fact that the band is a powerful symbol for the good that can arise from an interconnected world. They're a community-building entity on multiple levels, from the way they inspired fans to reach out and help their families in a time of tremendous need, to the way they feed into notions of global community. Thank You Very Quickly is an album for everyone from four guys who've discovered a way to make our world just a bit smaller.
