The Very Best

"Sublimely cheerful G-Funk..."  Read the full review from Pitchfork here.

Purchase on AMAZON or iTUNES.

Purchase on AMAZON or iTUNES.

"THE VERY BEST Three-chord jubilation reigns on the Very Best’s “Warm Heart of Africa,” a collaboration by Esau Mwamwaya, a singer born in Malawi and living in England, and the London-based production team Radioclit (Etienne Tron and Johan Karlberg), with occasional guests like M.I.A. Most of the lyrics are in Chichewa, a Malawian language, but the music isn’t ethno-exotica: it’s pop, with Mr. Mwamwaya’s voice and overdubbed harmonies in the foreground and buoyant combinations of electronics and African instruments at his service. Available online now, at greenowl.com; CD release Oct. 6. Green Owl. (John Pareles)"  nytimes.com

FADER #52 cover The Very Best, aka Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit, join with FADER #27 cover and all-around FADER muse MIA for one of the more hectic deep cuts off The Warm Heart of Africa LP, finally available for purchase tomorrow. Samples identified so far: whistles, crickets, handclaps, toads, a rainstick, thunder, actual rain, heavy breathing and either a baby hiccuping or some kind of bird. We’ve been dancing along for about an hour and don’t see any clouds looming but we are sweating something crazy, so that has to count for something. Pre-order the album on iTunes today or go back tomorrow and buy it in real time. And if you want it on vinyl or CD, that will be available on October 6th. Advance copies come with a body sponge. Not true, but it is incredible.

via FADER

...when this Very Best LP finally lands it's going to get a lot richer, especially if you're not weirded out about actual good-sounding sunshine pop mixing with the lo-fi stuff (which you shouldn't be because that's just odd.) One of the LP highlights finds VW's Ezra Koenig signing on a song named for Malawi's tourist slogan-- it's almost like he's rubbing it in his critics' face-- but he sounds like a natural. Esau Mwamwaya does even more so, riding a sample of Victor Uwaifo's "Guitar Boy" with one of the most effortlessly lovable voices around in a season full of effortlessly lovable sounds.

Full article here.

See full report...

Consider this the DJ Khaled-style remix for people who veer into weirder lanes than commercial rap. Our man Theophilus London gives himself the leadoff verse on The Very Best’s eponymous new song, with an assist from Ezra of Vampy Weeks, from their upcoming album Warm Heart of Africa. Make this official!

• Story via THE FADER

Today Pitchfork announced something we have been excited about for quite some time, The Very Best's debut album, The Warm Heart of Africa.

"Thankfully, that mixtape didn't mark the end of Mwamwaya's collaboration withRadioclit. This fall, the Very Best will return when Green Owl releases The Warm Heart of Africa, the group's official debut LP. M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig will make guest appearances, on the tracks "Rain Dance" and "Warm Heart of Africa", respectively." -Pitchfork

Full story here!

"The title makes it sound like it's one of those NOW! compilations, but The Very Best is, as you may know by now, actually our favorite London/Malawi/Paris/Sweden trio, Johan and Etienne of Radioclit and FADER Number 52 coverstar Esau Mwamwaya. The sampler includes two songs you've seen here before, "Get It Up (The Very Best Remix)" and the truly epic "Paper Planes" cover "Tengazako," along with newer song "Kamphopo" which is just as good. On November 1st, The Very Best are releasing a free mixtape that we've heard a lot of good things about and potentially seen some its collaborators, and then in 2009, the African Phil Collins will release a legitimate album. All very exciting to us, but if you are a jaded liberal arts grad who still needs convincing, go spend less than a dollar on Vampire Weekend, "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (The Very Best Remix)" on iTunes before it "shuts down forever." -The Fader

Click HERE! So much more stuff.

"Way back in January I saw Radioclit deejay at Studio B. They played some good, current electro (like "Is You" by D.I.M.) as well as a lot of other good tracks that I didn't recognize which was nice for a change. They've been working with Esau Mwamwaya, calling the group The Very Best, and remixing MIA and Santogold. It should be interesting to see if working with Esau has affected their deejaying. In addition to the remix, the Very Best have put together a mixtape (The Very Best Mixtape) which will be available for free download as well as on CD and 7" on November 1st, but it's already been making the rounds on the internet. Download it at the top of this post (tracklisting below). More info on the party here." -Brooklyn Vegan

Full story here.

"I've been waiting to be able to post something by this guy, Esau Mwamwaya, for ages. Robot Mark and I both literally freaked out the very first time we heard his tracks back in the spring...

See, I was trying to get Radioclit to come play my party, but when they were gonna be in town just wasn't going to work out with when I had a space for them... anyway, I was really bummed it didn't work, because I think they're pretty awesome. They produce original tracks and make some truly amazing remixes (see their remixes of Bonde do Role, Lily Allen, Buraka Som Sistema, David Banner, Timberlake, etc on their Hard Working Class Vol. 1 CD available here as reference), and they have been working with this genius African immigrant, Esau Mwamwaya, for a minute too.

Esau is from Malawi, but moved to London in 1999 where he runs a second-hand furniture store, on the same street as the Radioclit boys' studio. Johan from Radioclit showed me Esau's Myspace page back in the spring, and as I said, both robot Mark and I have been salivating over his tunes, produced by Radioclit, and written and sung by Esau. Absolutely check out the demos for "Chalo" and "Chimbolo" - they're crushingly beautiful, but they've got a bit of bump to them too. I don't know what language Mr. Mwamwaya sings in (the official language of Malawi is Chichewa, but there are a half a dozen other dialects/languages spoken there), but it is gorgeous. This track is sung to the instrumental of MIA's "Paper Planes" and almost made my heart stop when I first heard it. Oh, you can also see Esau on this YouTube clip from the Tim & Barry TV show." - Music For Robots

More Here

"In the spirit of world music, as discussed in the context of M.I.A. here four years ago, I wanted to post a track by Buraka Som Sistema, a d.j. collective from Lisbon. (M.I.A. appears on the song and in the video below.) Good luck trying to divine its genre or point of origin. If this does anything for you, you can get not one but two free Buraka Som Sistema mixtapes: one from Pitchfork, and one from The Fader.

If you want more diasporic sprawl and more free music, then you are in dire need of "Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit are The Very Best," which you can download by clicking here. The Very Best is the name of the band, which is made up of the production duo Radioclit and the singer and drummer Esau Mwamwaya. Originally from Malawi, Mwamwaya lives in London now, as do Radioclit's Etienne Tron, originally French, and his partner Johan Karlberg, who is Swedish. They know more about Native American dance music than most Americans—including me, for certain—and are comfortable making African Kwaito house tracks. Mwamwaya is temporarily back in Malawi, helping his brother run a chicken farm, but Karlberg assured me by phone yesterday he will be back soon.

I have more to say about this remarkable team, but I wanted you to get your hands on the album before someone asks you what your favorite music of the year is. You may need to do some new math." -The New Yorker

More here.