‘RWANDA, YOU SHOULD BE LOVED’ IS OUT TODAY
ALBUM PRODUCED BY GRAMMY-WINNER IAN BRENNAN + FEATURING WILCO’S NELS CLINE, TV ON THE RADIO’S TUNDE ADEBIMPE, SLEATER-KINNEY’S CORIN TUCKER, MY BLOODY VALENTINE’S KEVIN SHIELDS + FUGAZI’S JOE LALLY
Rwandan farmers The Good Ones have released their new album and first for ANTI-, Rwanda, You Should Be Loved today. Directed by Marilena Umuhoza Delli, watch new footage of them performing music from the record on the remote, Rwandan hilltop they live on HERE.
“Harmonies and farming tools – potent hilltop folk from Rwanda … [The Good Ones] show by example there is more profit in peace than in war.” – MOJO
“The Good Ones’ Latest Is The Heartbreaking Lament Of A Desperate Father” – The Joy of Violent Movement
“The trio’s music is stripped down, using largely acoustic and often homemade instruments, but intensely emotional … The unadorned production treads a careful line, letting the emotional honesty of the vocals carry the weight of the song.” – Afropunk
“A breathtakingly tender trio from Rwanda … Although they sing in Kinyarwanda, the musicians evoke America’s rural blues in haunted harmonies that seek light in the shadow of devastation.” – The New Yorker
The Good Ones utilize one-of-a-kind instruments in their music, often incorporating their own farming tools as percussion. Vocalist and guitarist Adrien Kazigira continues to subsist as a farmer on the land that he and his children were born on, where he hid for months and survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the place where his wife died.
Since they live without electricity and have had little access to devices to reproduce musical recordings, The Good Ones’ vocalizations are based on the singing traditions and dialect of their local immediate, agricultural district more than by outside and Western influences. Primary songwriter Adrien Kazigira interweaves intricate harmonies with co-singer, Janvier Havugimana, in a style frequently referred to as “worker songs from the streets.” With the musicians’ rural origins, the harmonic similarities to American Bluegrass vocals is often eerie. Third member, Javan Mahoro, lends additional background vocals and percussion on select songs.
The stellar musicians who collaborated with them on the new album convey the Good Ones renown: Wilco’s Nels Cline, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, and Fugazi’s Joe Lally. In 2009, Grammy-winner Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Zomba Prison Project) travelled to Rwanda in search of local music with his Italian-Rwandan wife, filmmaker and photographer, Marilena Delli. After two weeks of crisscrossing the country and listening to countless artists, they met The Good Ones.
From the moment he laid eyes on them, Brennan said he knew, “What these guys do is precious and rare. Don’t fuck it up!”
In 2010, The Good Ones released their debut album, Kigali Y Izahabu (“Kigali of Gold”), making them the first Rwandan artists to distribute internationally songs in the language of Kinyarwanda. In 2015, they released their follow-up album, Rwanda Is My Home. It was named one of the Top 50 Albums of the Year by the Sunday London Times.
Rwanda, You Should Be Loved Track Listing
- The Farmer
- Despite It All I Still Love You, Dear Friend (with Tunde Adebimpe)
- Will You Be My Protector?
- Where Did You Go Wrong, My Love? (with Nels Cline)
- Young People Are the Future
- Please Come Back To Me (with Corin Tucker)
- Marciana, You Should Love
- A Long, Sad Journey Watching You Die (with Kevin Shields)
- Life Is Hard
- Seraphinne, You are the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
- My Wife is as Beautiful as a Sunset (with Joe Lally)
My Smartest Friend Has Lost His Mind
THE GOOD ONES
https://thegoodonesmusic.com/
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