Xavier Rudd - Koonyum Sun (Album)

You know Xavier Rudd, how could you not: the surfer guy with the didgeridoos; the mighty one man band? Well, he’s not a one man band anymore. In fact, he hasn’t been for some time – he’s been touring around the world with new band mates Tio Moloantoa and Andile Nqubezelo, collectively known as Izintaba.

Hitting festival stages all around the world, Xavier Rudd & Izinitaba have already appeared together at the likes of Bonnaroo, Ottawa Bluesfest, The Great Escape, Bumbershoot and The Falls Festival, the last of which they were kindly joined by an impressive thunder storm as their backdrop, a kind that fitted everything Rudd has done and will do. Certainly, they’ve done well to introduce themselves as a unit on the stage.

Koonyum Sun, then, marks the first recorded collaboration of Rudd & Izintaba, and it embodies all that the trio have already shown the world. If album art’s anything to go by, Koonyum Sun is a communal, reflective offering between musicians. And that’s the idea you get from the songs, too.

If you’ve heard the lead single from the album, ‘Time to Smile’, you can take that as a pretty good indication of the album’s overall sound. The positive, carefree nature of the track feeds through to many moments in the near hour-long listen, which marks a return to the sounds of Rudd pre-2008’s darker Dark Shades of Blue.

That’s not to say everything’s all smiles on this record. The brooding ‘Soften the Blow’ and ‘Bleed’ are signs that Rudd is still dragging along a little of his shadier side, and positioned throughout the happier tracks work well to balance the emotions of Koonyum Sun.

Predominantly though, this is the upbeat Rudd of years past – lots of which is the kind you’ll too easily recognise.

But along with each piece of Koonyum Sun that sounds familiar, there is something new brought along by Izintaba. The influences of the two South African musicians is rife, and strengthens Rudd’s use of the reggae style in some places, whilst adding a new blend of soothing, African folk sounds to many others.

Subtle bass by Moloantoa and widely varying percussion work by Nqubezelo do complement the keen work of Rudd’s guitar, slide and dij. The pair also adds a variety of multi-lingual harmonies on various tracks, really stamping their own sound into the record. And these are the album’s finest moments.

Koonyum Sun is an optimistic record that shows collaborating with Izintaba was certainly a worthwhile experience for Rudd. His energy has been reinvigorated and his sound given a new life here, but Xavier Rudd is hardly hiding who he’s always been.

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