On BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness)

The South African group is twenty years long and going strong.

The lowdown on BCUC, in their own words:

"BCUC is a band from Soweto, South Africa. We draw inspiration from Indigenous music that is not exposed in the mainstream. We sing ritual songs, shebeen songs and church songs infused with raps and a rock and roll attitude. We always aim for a timeless, honest and traditional/ritualistic sound. The music should always resonate with the spirituality, the history and the future of the people."

The lowdown on BCUC, in the words of Banning Eyre, from a recent Afropop Worldwide article:

"This seven-piece band presents a frenetic boil of energy on stage, as we discovered recently seeing them perform at the Sauti Za Busara festival in Zanzibar. The sound is a barrage of drums, voices, whistles and booming electric bass. Melodies collide with shouted chants and multi-lingual raps in a dizzying swirl of pent up energy, spirituality, political passion and no-holds joy. You have to experience it to truly get the picture, but you can get a clue from their fourth studio album Millions of Us, out this week from On The Corner Records."

More from the group, from an interview at the web site, 15 Questions:

"The most vital thing about how we elected to approach our music is that we don't have a format because our instruments themselves are a key. They are the only limitation to where we can take our songs.

We are motivated by the fact that we are already 20 years deep in our journey and we are trying not to die without something to show (impact)."

And the best part, a few snips of BCUC's music: