Franco's new sounds coming next month

| Tuesday February 2, 2010 00:00

This past Saturday, Franco was joined by tens of local musos as he unveiled the DVD for his ninth album, released towards the end of last year. Franco's Baesekele recorded during election year appears to have been inspired by, among others, the 2009 general election, with two tracks in particular paying tribute to local politics.

Franco himself had been so busy in the run-up to the general election, at the behest of political parties, wooing potential voters at star rallies.

However, Franco will not have ample time to market the new videos after declaring that he is just about to drop a new album for 2010 next month. The album has been hailed as showing Franco's flexibility and adaptability to changes. Unlike his traditional rumba beats, Franco's March album would take a different path altogether.

The musician told Mmegi that his new sounds would be a fusion of afro jazz, with laid back rumba sounds inspired by Caribbean Touch, and he says it is not something entirely new to him: ' I used to play the same style of music back in the days when I was with the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) band. It (BDF band) is mainly afro-jazz band, so it is not something entirely foreign to me, it used to be my bread and butter in fact, up until I quit the BDF and ventured into a different style, rumba, which also worked for me very well,' Franco explained.

He says the new album is almost complete and could even be ready for release as early as this month.

It is hoped the new style would not only reduce the rumba monotony but could add new excitement in the afro-dance genre and give Franco a fresh taste among his followers at a time when the traditional rumba beats seem to have reached their ceiling.

Despite showing phenomenal rise in appeal in the late 90s and the mid 2000s, rumba, or kwasa-kwasa music has been losing popularity to new genres like house-kwasa and traditional music, resulting in the decline of rumba music sales.

Franco, however, remains one of those rare local breeds having released four albums, which surpassed one another in terms of sales.

While his debut 2001 album, Ke Lela le lona caused waves and made Franco an instant success, he went on to record further successes with the release of albums like Ba ntatola, Mamane robala, and Tipi ya mokwatla, although Franco's marketing team has refused to say how much the hit albums sold.