ESKA - The Ordinary Life Of A Magic Woman

A hurricane, in her own way. It's impossible to talk about Eska Mtungwazi without mentioning the explosive energy with which she takes the stage – this time it was at Rough Trade East in London, on the occasion of the physical release of "The Ordinary Life Of A Magic Woman", a month ahead of its arrival on digital platforms. Shaved head, uninhibited spirit, a quivering voice and an inexhaustible punk energy: this woman steamrolled the crowd like a tank, overwhelming them with nothing but the sheer force of songs they'd never heard before, yet which it was already impossible to escape. That's because Eska doesn't "perform" – what she produces comes straight from her own experience as a grown woman and an omnivorous, self-produced musician. To put it in the words of the explosive "Down Here", the opening track built on odd rhythms and a spleen worthy of Prince: "La musica mi scorre nelle vene".

But reaching such purity of intent can take a nerve-wracking amount of time; a full ten years have passed since her debut "Eska", spent raising a daughter and minding her own business away from the industry, save for the occasional contribution offered to select colleagues (Shabaka, Dave Okumu, Keleketla!).

A sense of emotional, freewheeling freedom pervades "The Ordinary Life Of A Magic Woman", carried by synthetic, roaring art-rock structures, loose-limbed rhythms, alien melodies and stream-of-consciousness lyrics, by turns sharp and open to free association. To get a sense of it, just listen to "Daddy Long Legs", enriched by a free-mode sax courtesy of Soweto Kinch, or the vigorous indie-rock turns that punctuate various parts of the record, from the raucous celebration of "Magic Woman" to the oblique, dEUS-like atmospheres of "Fazerfolk". Or when the catchy "Human" stages a synthetic little march halfway between Bloc Party and V V Brown, because even pop can play its part, if properly taken apart.

But Eska never sits still; initially laid over a gentle acoustic wave bed, “All The Way Down” moves freely between math rock roars and IDM screeches, a sonic chaos that contrasts beautifully with the gentler moments, namely the madrigal “The Edge”, with flute and cello, and the splendid folktronica ballad “Touch”, awash with harps and echoes of Bjork.

A dark, convoluted and not always immediate record, it also includes interludes of varying decipherability, along with a painfully honest languor on “Snoozing Friends”, and the surprise ending of “Muzak”, which sounds like some nonsense out of Mr Bungle.

But, as often happens with works composed by following inspiration headlong, “The Ordinary Life Of A Magic Woman” brings back to the surface an untainted talent, free of rules save for an iron loyalty to her own inner voice.

Though wrapped in legendary status in the English capital thanks to decades of activity under various guises, Eska continues to elude the wider public with her own solo releases, preferring to look elsewhere, beyond every pigeonhole she's been assigned in the past, be it soul and gospel or the sounds of her family roots in Zimbabwe. As long as music keeps flowing through her veins with such force, the result will always be a compelling experience.

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09/06/2025