Tonga Boys vs Artificial Intelligence

 

Tonga Boys previously released by Sacral Grooves 1000HZ, based in Warsaw, Poland are back. This

time with help of Wojciech Kucharczyk.

And again we can have a bit of conundrum thinking how to place and label this feisty act. Are they

modern, yet traditional Malawian music? Or is it just free-form, take-it-easy project of guys who just

feel eager to experiment with the music that they enjoy doing.

Or, let’s jumble up the perspective – from European perspective all of this doesn’t necessarily make

sense.

We have an act who just represents how Mzuzu spend their lives – how they party, what are they

doing on a daily basis, their beliefs, their biases ( nothing wrong with a healthy dose of bias).

Let’s take a look at this album as a scene caught in an eye of musical camera – with all the aspects

and features of it. A rhythmic pulsating fantasy of beats, vocals that fit only their own category. A

playful and joyous, larger than life shade of ethnic electronic sounds with beautifully unusual for an

European ear metre of rhythm.

A postcard from the world unlike your own, a picture that may fade in time but will never lose the

energy of its participants.

Tonga Boys vs Artificial Intelligence. 1000HZ028

Recorded in Mzuzu, Katula and Warsaw between 2019 and 2026

Cover design Wojciech Kucharczyk

Nde ulemu kupelekedwa kwa anthu awa:

Bogusia,

Waldek, Maria

Wojtek

As on their four previous albums, Tonga Boys remain a band that escapes both the box of traditional

local music and the African experimental scene. Yet, they combine these two genres into a singular

dimension where trance, absurd humour, brutally honest commentary and sonic raw invention

meet.

The album, perversely titled Tonga Boys vs Artificial Intelligence, contains no artificially generated

elements apart from its cover, provocatively prompted by Wojtek Kucharczyk, yet it significantly

expands the band’s sonic language. To the main drum played by Salomon Njikho, a sound module

has been added, allowing the group’s sound to be boldly placed within electronic references

complemented by dub and noise soundscapes.

The diverse references drawn from everyday life in northern Malawi – rural music in the malipenga

style, ceremonial music for the vimbuza spirits, dancehall, as well as religious hymns and stadium

chants – are transformed by the musicians’ inventiveness. Thematically, the album represents the

experience of Mzuzu’s lowest social classes: how they party, how they preserve customs, how they

love and hate, how they protect themselves from magic and from misfortune provoked by charms.

In its digital version, the album interweaves a radio play (second production of that kind after New

Roads) parodying Nigerian TV series popular in Africa, in which the magical and spirit-related meets

money, jealousy and the tension-filled family life of the upper classes.

There are many signs that this may be the band’s final album: after completing it, one vocalist,

Albert Manda, left for Tanzania in search of happiness, while the other frontman, Peter Kaunda,

moved to the country’s capital. Is this energetic album, combining laughter and anger and

representing the culmination of the band’s indomitable spirit, also their artistic farewell? Time will

tell. One thing is certain: this may be the last chance to applaud the five rebellious artists from

Mzuzu. 

credits

releases November 11, 2026

Iyi nditonga boys, uyu ndi

Peter Kaunda,

Myrius Mido,

Guta Manda,

Solomon Njikho,

Peter Poland,

Albert Manda.

no AI musicians

https://tongaboys.bandcamp.com/album/tonga-boys-vs-artificial-intelligence