Maajo

About

" A blast of sultry, tropical goodness from an unlikely place "

Finland might not be the most obvious place to look for tropical, Balearic-infused beats, but then Maajo are extremely proficient at confounding expectations. What started out as a solo project by DJ and producer Jon Thureson has morphed into a fully-fledged seven-piece; based in Tampere, they now included several African musicians and singers. That influence is key to their sound; they weave Afrobeat, funk, soul, reggae, calypso, disco, traditional African instrumentation, and Balearic vibes through traditional club and dance rhythms to create a sultry, intoxicating brew. As they themselves say: “a hot tropical breeze from the cold north“.

They certainly bring heat to the dancefloor. They’ve done off-beat mixes of disco reggae grooves and dancehall rhythms, dark and mellow dub disco groovers, and old school, upbeat disco. Some of their tracks pay homage to 1970s African and Caribbean Disco, others are sung in their vocalists’ native Creole and Nyanja. Collaborating with Ismaila Sané, they produced two powerful songs sung in Jola, the native tongue of Casamance, Southern Senegal.

New record ‘Water Of Life’ on Brooklyn’s Wonderwheel Recordings – the band’s third, after ‘Tropic Of Tulli’ (2016) and ‘Kuru Kuru’ (2020) – continues their “something different, something special” ethos. It is, they say, a “fluid celebration”; Afro-Balearic sound meets late eighties new age and fusion, with touches of modern soul. Listen to the first two singles, ‘Better Days’ and ‘Unelmissani’, and it’s clear those Afrobeat vibes and electro-tropical rhythms remain as potent – and infectious – as ever.