Proud Zimbo Recommends : Mbeu & The Mhodzi Tribe

Coming across new and upcoming artists is a joy of mine, I believe such artists are at their creative best before fame and celebrity status cloud their creativity. Over the past couple of months I cam across an artists named Mbeu who is backed by his band the Mhodzi Tribe and instantly feel in love with his sound. He sings the now overshadowed but largely loved reggae genre. I'm a huge fan of Reggae music so you can imagine my joy when I came across and artist who is willing to push the genre forward. 

Since I first heard the jam Mavanga, I was closely following the lad and recently he released a 29 track compilation which he is sending to all his fans and anyone who wants to hear what he is all about. Downloaded my copy of the collection and immediately got down to listening and after just one full listen I was burning to write up on Mbeu and The Mhodzi Tribe. The tracks are good, i'm loving the vibe and sound on this collection.

The first thing you notice is how strong Mbeu's vocals are, they are quite distinctive and in a way sounds like Romain Virgo. The vocals are structured very well throughout all the tracks, they complement the instrumentals quite well.

On his collection he tackles a lot of social issues in his songs such as love, family, personal struggles, struggles of the young people in our society and also offers some motivational messages.

The thing that impressed me the most is despite being an upcoming act he already has a live band. Many local artists especially in the dancehall/reggae industry do not treasure the importance of a live band and /or what value a band adds to one's profile. A few will finally engage a band when they become popular and for the majority of those few it's just for certain shows. Some will argue that when the tracks are being played on radio there is minimal difference between those who record using live instruments and those who do not... which is true but when it comes to live performances using a band gives an artist way more freedom on stage to alter their songs accordingly and deliver a memorable performance. After some time listening to his tracks and also watching some of his live shows online I can say Mbeu and his band The Mhodzi Tribe have chemistry and they will get even better if they keep working together.

The instrumental arrangements are well done but they are still a bit limited and they will need to push themselves more and expand their sound because at the moment their instrumentals are not that different from each other. Lastly although the tracks are sounding good, I feel as if the bass need to be upped a bit, it doesn't have to over power the other instruments but its just s bit low.

Stream the collection:

Mbeu & The Mhodzi Tribe have definitely caught my attention and will be keeping a eye on them in the coming months. Hope he does not get drawn into the dancehall craze and continue mastering his reggae/conscious sound.

What do you thing of Mbeu & The Mhodzi Tribe???

Proud_Zimbo