Our friend Gervase de Wilde writes for the Guardian, and we’ve been secretly hoping he’d get Just A Band a feature in the paper… but as it turns out the band shows up in the travel section as a fine example of Nairobi’s lively music scene. No need to paraphrase, just click on the image!

Marc of Afrobeat Blog has been very supportive of our work in the past. But his latest review of Just A Band’s album 82 is the best so far… we’re happy he dug JAB’s music, in his own words:

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: nobody is doing more to expose the best underground music in Africa to increasingly wider audiences than Akwaaba. The fair trade record label started by Benjamin Lebrave has given the world possibly their best album yet, 82 from Kenyan pop outfit Just a Band.

You may know Just a Band from their incredibly popular youtube video for Ha-He, but Just a Band has much more to offer than imitations of Chuck Norris. This album covers many bases, mixing bumping club tracks with cooler hip-hop and heartfelt down-tempo tracks. The three artists that make up Just a Band, Blinky, Dan and Jim, bring out different elements of their personality to collaboratively create a style all their own.

Just a Band accomplishes something truly impressive: they manage to create music that has widespread mainstream appeal without totally foregoing their integrity as artists. Many African musicians struggling to find their way often go for easy cop outs and cheesy effects, but Just a Band creates a production style that sounds contemporary and clean. They also know how to mesh hip-hop style lyrics in English or Swahili with R&B style vocals and electronic beats. The end result is something new and interesting you probably wouldn’t expect to come out of Africa.

This album is something new and different. If you were to listen to it blindly, you might think it came from a house producer in Miami. That’s what I like about it though, it’s maintains its African identity while simultaneously being obviously affected by European and American electronic musical styles. While it’s not easy to cross over as a Kenyan pop star, these guys have as good a shot as anybody.”

Not sure why you would CHOOSE to make a youtube video non-embeddable… hopefully this won’t scare you away, and you’ll make the daring decision to click here and watch the video – you won’t regret it!

Who knew… the Kenyan viral craze reaches the pages of the almighty Wall Street Journal – clash of the titans! Read the piece here, and enjoy some of the recent magazine coverage below:

Have you not seen Just A Band’s new video for the song Ha-He?!?! Do you not know about Makmende yet?!?! Read all about the viral craze from the Kenyan national press, and if you haven’t, do yourself a favor: watch the video and download the song for free.

Very funny mish mash of 1970s film… blaxploitation, Bollywood, probably some Kenyan cinema we don’t really know about – can anyone help us out? Get the song for free here, we only ask for your email, which we promise we won’t share with anyone!!!

If you like these guys, consider something crazy – buying some of their music! You can buy their superb album 82 either directly from us, or in the iTunes music store.

It’s out! Just a Band’s album 82 is available in iTunes… and very shortly right here on the site. Get Ha-He for free below:

Stream the full album here:

Akwaaba’s been mostly focusing on the Atlantic coast of Africa, but thankfully, we’ve finally connected with East African artists, in the form of this very interesting trio hailing from Nairobi, Kenya.

Traditionalists beware: Just A Band is pop music. Not Afropop, straight up pop. Pop as in music that you, your cousin and your mom might all enjoy. Music that your grandfather won’t ask to turn down immediately, as he may already be shakin’ his legs.

The references to Kenya’s musical heritage are not absent however, just subtle. Although the band mentions Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson as tttwo major influences, some of the softer tracks on their album “82″ evoke polyphonic, spiritual chants. Call it what you want: Just A Band’s recipe is potent, and we intend to spread the potency worldwide. Stay tuned, their album drops February 23! In the meantime, check out Just A Band’s Facebook page, and download this free mp3 of the song Ha-He: