Long running London party collective / soundsystem Beauty & The Beat continue their celebration and championing of the music of Guadeloupean gwoka with a new EP. The third volume in a series that began in 2022, this one focuses on a collaboration between Montreal-based electronic duo Topium and the master musicians Klod Kiavué and Djenmbi.

The creative quartet’s track Ti Bedon is a very Balearic burst of funky organ and Hugh Masekela-esque horn, while their take on the traditional song, Bo Bay Lamen (“to give a hand”) is a mid-tempo, swaying, shuffling, uplifting, chanted sing-along. Mixing machines and some fine live playing, the tune brings fresh global influences to the folkloric gwoka form. The guitar, psyche-edged and North African nomadic, while the muted trumpet travels more toward Miles’ Sketches Of Spain. The 12 features 2 remixes of the latter…

Vive La Musique’s Aroop Roy delivers an 8-minute deep house epic. Starting with fluttering synths and echoed, fragmented voices, the introduction of high hats adds significant energy. Something which continues to climb through collaged beats and dancing, arpeggiated sequences. Everything then drops to a peaceful piano solo, before Roy bangs back in with the full song and the brass. 

Time Capsule co-founder Kay Suzuki, instead, sets the track to slowed down disco / Salsoul drums, and delayed, thunder crack-like hand claps. Rearranging the fretwork and the horns into a kind of call-and-response, and grounding the groove with a brilliant, bubbling acidic B-line, that modulates and mutates. Riffing on The Unknown Cases’ mighty Ma Simba Belle. The 6-string gets to shredding, feedback arcs ringing, and the result is an ambient house odyssey, similar to Steve Hillage or David Gilmour getting it on with The Orb. 

Excursions in Gwoka Vol. 3 can be ordered directly from Beauty & The Beat. 

If you’re interested in the history of Gwoka, please check the terrific Time Capsule / Seance Centre curated compilation, Lespri Ka, which documents 3 decades of the music’s development.