South Africa doesn’t get more touristy than the outer edges of Soweto, but don’t let the bike tours and trinket shops fool you: the Johannesburg township spreads far beyond that, and still conserves every bit of that political conscience that ignited the Soweto riots in 1976, and later saw it become the epicenter of the fight against apartheid. For every step of the struggle, music was front and center, providing encouragement and comfort. First it was Mbqanga, then jazz. In 2016 BCUC, aka Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, emerged as worthy torch bearers to this lineage with their debut Our Truth, a punk rock, psychedelic, Zulu firecracker that harnessed all the power of music as a tool for political, social, and spiritual liberation. Emakhosini is the second of what would become a trilogy (with 2019’s The Healing), and just like the others it contains only three sprawling tracks. At almost 20 minutes long “Moya” develops operatically, with different scenes and acts, finally building into an all encompassing deluge of percussion and voices; vigorous drums and bass run through “Insibi,” but classic South African harmonized vocals soften the blow; “Nobody Knows The Troubles I’ve Seen” starts as a piece of gospel (it’s their take on a classic), but in true BCUC style swells into a rapturous, afro-psychedelic tsunami. Powerful stuff.

– Megan Iacobini de Fazio