Isaac Pheko
7 October 2008
Francistown — Mos and the Ghanzi gospel group have released a debut gospel album. The group's lead vocalist Knight Moses said that the album has been on the market for some time now, "it is only that we never had time to promote the album. It was released in 2006 under Derrick studios in South Africa."
Moses, who is also known as Double Mos in music circles, said that the group was formed in 2001 and consists of six members. Moses explained that five members of the group are from Ghanzi and he is from Tsamaya village in the northeast. "The group was conceived while I was working in Ghanzi," he said. Moses said his love for gospel music began back in the 1990s while he was a member of the Zion Church of Messiah.
"Being a member of the scripture union at secondary school also fuelled my love for gospel music, I m now a member of a church called Bautwi Ba Lefoko," Moses revealed.
He said his group was inspired by South African gospel singer Derrick Nzimande's music. "Our gospel group ended up gravitating towards Otogetswe Mosekwa's music, which sounded like Nzimade's music."
Moses said that they approached Otogetswe who helped the group in arranging instruments like keyboards and drums.
"Lopang Rrabolo sponsored us with transport using his own car to travel to South Africa for album recording session," he said. He said that the album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Nzimande at Derrick studios in Mpumalanga.
The group's first DVD is in the pipeline and it is slated for release sometime in December.
"Releasing the DVD during the festive season will help us to promote it properly since we will be on holidays and free from our jobs," Moses explained. "We have toured the country extensively, supporting artists like Ndzimande and Mosekwa. Some of the places we played at include Ghanzi, Maun, Lethakane, Serowe, Mahalapye, Molepolole and Kanye."
He said that the group is involved in philanthropic causes around the country. "We raised money to help home based care programmes in places like Letlhakane and Palapye. We book halls in these places and sell tickets through youth groups, when we finish all the proceeds go to home based care programmes.
On March 8 our group, Phempherethe, Mosekwa and Kajonto performed in Molepolole to raise funds for nine secondary schools to help students who could not afford to pay their school fees," he said.
The group's debut album title is a long question O Tshela Jang Wena Motho? (How do you live as person?)
The title has connotations of consciousness, introspection and religious beliefs. Moses said that he and his group have no specific formula to writing an album. "Our mentor Nzimande told us to focus on issues that affect people everyday, we do not put too much emphasis on writing songs we draw inspiration from every day life," Moses explained.
The lyrics may sound like protest music but at its core 'Otshela Jang' is a gospel album.
The first and title track O Tshela Jang Motho, protests against witchcraft, it calls for individuals to shun the devil and turn to God. The good versus evil theme runs through most of the songs in the album. The second track titled Morena Jeso praises Jesus Christ the back-up singers Bamphithetse Mokgwatheng and Gothusamang Kakole come to life in this track hitting high notes with their impressive voices.
Other members of the group include project coordinator Pitso Kaome and turner Frank Mothibi. Track three, Satane o shakgetse talks about Armageddon prophesies and calls for the second coming of Jesus to intervene, it is the most haunting track in the album.
Track four 'Lo Dirang' focuses on moral degeneration plaguing society, like "passion killings", suicides and other crimes. Front man Moses experiments with his equally impressive baritone as the lead vocalist. In track five Moses shows his ability to change his voice into a high pitch and he does this without much ado.
Melodic tunes from a keyboard dominate most of instruments in the album. The beats and the base lines are clear and crisp, the problem is that in most local gospel albums all the tracks carry the same tempo and the beats end up sounding the same. Over reliance on the keyboard also hurts the album a bit.
This album is formulaic and it is saved by bringing on board seasoned veterans like Nzimande in the production to give it some pedigree. Moses is also a decent lead singer and oozes charisma in his performances. Members of the public had to stop and take notice while he was performing to promote the album in front of score supermarket in Francistown.
Moses said that he sold 11 copies of the album in less than an hour while performing in the street. O Tshela Jang Motho? is an above average album that gospel fans will love for the witty lyrics and they will tap their feet to the beats on a Sunday afternoon.
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