Album of the week: The Healing by BCUC

Each week our music editor Dave Randall picks an album (with a local connection) you need to hear…

The Healing BCUC

The statue in the corner of Max Roach Park commemorating the 1976 Soweto uprising and several street names in our neighbourhood attest to the fact that solidarity has long flowed from the people of Brixton to those of South Africa’s biggest township, Soweto.

statue
Memorial sculpture on the corner of Brixton Road and St George’s Crescent. Titled ‘First Child’ by Raymond Watson, it was erected as a memorial to the 116 children who died in Soweto on 16 June 1976. It was unveiled by Happy Mahlangu, Deputy Commissioner for South Africa on 13 June 1998

Reason enough for me to tell you about this extraordinary album from Soweto’s own Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness (BCUC). If you caught them at Glastonbury last summer you’ll already love the band.

They combine some of South Africa’s most exciting musical traditions in a raw bass, stand up drum and vocal driven sound. The result is political, hypnotic, shamanic and great to dance to. So let The Healing do for you what it says on the sleeve …