Keleketla!

Keleketla! is the self-titled studio album by British/South African musical project brought together by Johannesburg's Keleketla! Library founders Rangoato Hlasane and Malose Malahlela and English electronic music duo Coldcut. The album's title means "response" in the Sepedi language.^[1] It was released on 3 July 2020 via Ahead Of Our Time. Recording sessions took place at Trackside Creative Studios in Soweto, at Denmark Street Studios and at Assault and Battery Studios in London.

Keleketla!
Studio album by Keleketla!
Released	3 July 2020 (2020-07-03)
Studio	Trackside Creative Studios, Soweto, South Africa Denmark Street Studios, London, England Assault and Battery Studios, London, England
Genre	World music electronic music gqom afrobeat
Length	1:07:59
Label	Ahead of Our Time
Producer	Coldcut
Coldcut chronology
Outside the Echo Chamber (2017) Keleketla! (2020)
Singles from Keleketla!
"Future Toyi Toyi" Released: 21 May 2020 "International Love Affair" Released: 11 June 2020

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10[2]
Metacritic	81/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Exclaim!	8/10[5]
Loud and Quiet	8/10[6]
musicOMH	[7]
PopMatters	[8]
The Guardian	[9]

Keleketla! was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on nine reviews.^[3] The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 7.7 out of 10.^[2]

Adriane Pontecorvo of PopMatters praised the album saying, "Consistently exciting, always surprising, and full of soul, it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable releases of the year to date".^[8] AllMusic's Paul Simpson stated, "Keleketla! is a powerful combination of activism and musical exploration, bonding the sounds of several locations and eras in order to express messages of joy, optimism, and revolution".^[4] Safiya Hopfe of Exclaim! said, "With contributions from over 20 artists, including such musical giants as Tony Allen and Thabang Tabana, Keleketla! is a collaboration of rare magnitude. It is at once a celebration and a call to action".^[5] Jemima Skala of Loud & Quiet said, "Keleketla! breeds an impossibly enticing sense of hope that one day things might be better".^[6] Writing for musicOMH, Steven Johnson said, "In short, it’s an album that demonstrates the continuing merit of musical collaboration while also offering a hopeful counterpoint to a world all too often consumed by negativity and strife".^[7] The Guardian reviewer Ammar Kalia said, "Here, the component parts of hip-hop, jazz, dub and protest music are pieced together, like the many languages of a diasporic conversation. If the call is for music Keleketla!'s multilingual, effusive response is one worth hearing".^[9]

Accolades

Publications' year-end list appearances for Keleketla!

Critic/Publication	List	Rank	Ref
PopMatters	The 60 Best Albums of 2020	30	[10]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Future Toyi Toyi"	Jon More Matt Black Tony Allen DJ Mabheko Soundz of the South	4:49
2.	"International Love Affair"	More Black Allen Gally Ngoveni Nono Nkoane Tubatsi Moloi Thabang Tabane Sibusile Xaba	7:17
3.	"Shepherd Song"	More Black Allen Ngoveni Nkoane Moloi Tabane Xaba	8:11
4.	"Freedom Groove"	More Black Allen Anthony Hamilton	7:08
5.	"Crystallise"	More Black Yugen Blakrok	5:17
6.	"Broken Light"	More Black Ngoveni Nkoane Moloi Tabane Xaba	6:37
7.	"5&1"	More Black Ngoveni Nkoane Moloi Tabane Xaba	4:34
8.	"Papua Merdeka"	More Black Allen Benny Wenda Maria Wenda Koteka Wenda	6:41
9.	"Swift Gathering"	More Black Joe Armon-Jones	6:24
10.	"Future Toyi Toyi" (Edit)	More Black Allen DJ Mabheko Soundz of the South	3:28
11.	"International Love Affair" (Edit)	More Black Allen Ngoveni Nkoane Moloi Tabane Xaba	3:40
12.	"Crystallise" (Edit)	More Black Blakrok	3:46
Total length:			1:07:59

Keleketla! – Japanese edition (bonus track)^[11]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
10.	"Future Toyi Toyi" (Gqom version)	More Black Allen DJ Mabheko Soundz of the South	6:14
Total length:			1:13:13

Personnel

Coldcut

• Matthew Cohn – backing vocals (tracks: 2, 11), horns arrangement (tracks: 2–4, 11), JammPro MIDI controller (tracks: 5, 9, 12), producer
• Jonathan Richard More – horns arrangement (tracks: 2–4, 11), JammPro MIDI controller (tracks: 5, 9, 12), producer

Vocalists

• Nono Nkoane – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11), backing vocals (track 4)
• Tubatsi Moloi – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
• Thabang Tabane – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 11)
• Soundz Of The South Collective – vocals (tracks: 1, 10)
• Afla Sackey – backing vocals (tracks: 2, 11)
• Yugen Blakrok – vocals (tracks: 5, 12)
• The Watts Prophets – vocals (track 4)
• Benny Wenda – vocals (track 8)
• The Lani Singers – vocals (track 8)

Instrumentalists

• Tamar Osborn – baritone saxophone (tracks: 2, 4–6, 8, 9, 11, 12), clarinet & bass clarinet (track 9)
• Tony Allen – drums (tracks: 1–4, 8, 10, 11)
• Afla Sackey – percussion (tracks: 1–3, 8, 10, 11), additional percussion (track 6), djembe (track 8)
• Al Riley – percussion (tracks: 1, 2, 10, 11), keyboards (track 4), additional percussion (track 6)
• Ed 'Tenderlonious' Cawthorne – flute (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 10, 11), tin whistle & recorder (tracks: 1, 10)
• Miles James – guitar (tracks: 1, 2, 8, 10, 11)
• Gally Ngoveni – bass (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
• Thabang Tabane – percussion (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
• Shabaka Hutchings – tenor saxophone (tracks: 2, 5, 8, 11, 12)
• Joe Armon-Jones – keyboards (tracks: 3, 4, 7, 9), piano (track 9)
• Martin Perna – horns arrangement (tracks: 2–4, 11)
• Antibalas – horns (tracks: 2–4, 11)
• Sibusile Xaba – guitar (tracks: 2, 3, 7, 11)
• Dele Sosimi – keyboards (tracks: 2, 6, 8, 11)
• Patrick Carpenter – loops & editing (tracks: 2, 11)
• DeeJay Random – scratches (tracks: 5, 12)
• Chris "The Jungle Drummer" Polglase – drums (track 6)
• Tubatsi Moloi – flute (track 7)
• Darren "Sangita" Evans – piano (track 8)
• Eska Mtungwazi – strings (track 9)

Technicals

• Eric Lau – mixing
• Al Riley – engineering, recording, additional mixing
• Andrew Curnow – engineering, recording
• Dion Monti – engineering, recording
• Hugh Fothergill – engineering
• Guy Katsav – engineering
• Matt Colton – mastering

Charts

Chart (2020)	Peak position
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[12]	38