The Sunday News
Robert Mukondiwa
Otherwise talented Sulumani Chimbetu and mbira player Hope Masike have been hauled for a terrible case of blasphemy just days after releasing their first duet together, the much hyped about single Tingwarire.
The song, before the court of public opinion, is without doubt a mockery of the sacred instrument, the mbira. Over and above that, if music were a religion as it is indeed to many souls no doubt, then blasphemy the duo did commit.
The track is a tactless indecipherable conglomeration of audible and inaudible hotch potch. And like the previous sentence, it is high sounding nonsense.
An apparent attempt to tell the tale of lovers and advise them to protect their relationship, guard their love and be wary of people out to destroy them, the song should otherwise be a warning to listeners to be wary of a bad meets evil team of Sulu and Hope out to destroy the art of music-making.
In the effort, they have succeeded in sodomising the very art of making music and the bleeding is torturous, bad and not even a blanket can wipe away the blood. The sexual assault to the ears is beyond measure.
And the fact that the promotional pictures have Hope and Sulu with tired bows and arrows is evidence that they really wanted to hunt and kill good music.
The song does nothing to prop Sulu, who has had other great duets with the likes of people who include Oliver Mtukudzi and recently Pamela Zulu, aka Gonyeti, in which he gave a good account of himself.
Apart from his great ululation (mhururu), Mono Mukundu’s flash of brilliance on a guitar sequence and Hope Masike’s well-rehearsed attempt at bird-cooing like a cuckoo in the wild, everything else is just all over the place.
It sounds like a day at the bird aviary listening to bird calls. Thankfully, it is free on YouTube and one does not have to part with anything apart from bytes too mess their musical palate.
But then again, this is a good single in one thing. At least we know we have seen their worst ever effort and everything they will ever sing in their lives from henceforth will be better than this.
Because, let’s face it — nobody can ever get worse than this. — @zimrobbie
