TKZee's album Coming Home is ready to hit the stores

On TKZee’s first studio album in eight years, Coming Home, Tokollo “Magesh” Tshabalala, Kabelo “Bouga Luv” Mabalane, and Zwai Bala make no secret of their thrill at being back in the studio, back in the spotlight and back on top.

“Let me tell you a thing about TKZee/it’s a brand oozing with supremacy … you want repertoire? We got it/Earning capacity? We got it/Hits back to back? We got it?,” Kabelo boldly states on the superb and eternally optimistic ‘Thata Eezy’.

It’s a sentiment that ripples throughout the album’s 12-tracks – echoing the buzz that Tokollo, Kabelo and Zwai have felt since deciding to reunite to record a follow-up to 2001’s ‘Trinity’, much to the delight of the group’s extensive and loyal fanbase.

“We told you. We told you alright, we’ll be back with a bang,” goes album opener, ‘Everyday’ and on ‘Viva la Pantsula!’, TKZee (with the help of a few creative collaborators) reclaim the enduring street cred they always had and balance it, just like in the group’s early days, with an astute sense of high-end drama and musicality.

The magic of TKZee has always had its foothold in the singular combining of the vocal and lyrical style of each of the band’s three members – Tokollo rough-hewn and streetwise, Kabelo full of swagger and smooth where required and Zwai punching in with real sonic power.

Nowhere is this more evident than on ‘Dikakapa’, a track that’s bookmarked by the piano-playing and strings (both synth and live) that TKZee managed to always find a place for in its sound. With Zwai providing the spot-on hook, it’s left to Tokollo and Kabelo to riff off each other in a song that’s full of the bounce that always made TKZee’s songs so damn irresistible.

‘Dikakapa’ may be an album standout but the interplay of the trio of vocals is on brilliant form throughout ‘Coming Home’ – especially on songs like ‘Let’s Go’, which draws in all three vocals in the seamless, flowing way that has been TKZee’s signature in the 13 years since they first impacted the South African music scene with debut EP ‘Take It Eeezy’ in 2006.

Even in the earlier days, TKZee was able to lasso some scorching hot collaborators – and ‘Coming Home’ also features a brace of top-drawer collab efforts. The horn-heavy, swaggering and defiantly celebratory Viva la Pantsula! features Gwyza, S’bu and Loyiso on a stormer of a track that also underscores TKZee’s influence on and hand in creating the careers of other key urban artists.

As you may expect from a group that’s always effortlessly displayed its versatility, not every track on Coming Home is Guz-style, upbeat, and party-ready. Towards the end of the album are several songs that reveal the maturity and spirituality of the bands members. Among these are Coming Home, featuring Joyous Celebration and Ntokozo Mbambo, as well as TKZee’s version of ‘Children Hold On’ – both songs injecting a moving emotional element to the record.

What’s strikingly evident on ‘Coming Home’ is the meticulous attention to detail in the production. In this Zwai – who takes the production reigns for the most part – has observed the intricate workings of worldclass producers like Quincy Jones.

“Nothing is left to chance,” he confides. “Everything part of every song is arranged,” adds Zwai, hinting at the effort put into delivering a top-drawer product.

With Zwai at the helm and Kabelo assisting on several songs, ‘Coming Home’ has a polish and finely honed sense of musicality that has been lacking on many other releases in similar genres. “The result of everyone’s great efforts is the sound of TKZee all grown up and I think that fans will really respond to what they hear on the album,” says Tokollo.

Also weighing in with additional production are the likes of Terry Pinana and Godfrey “Guffy” Pilane - Pilane contributing production duties on the most defiantly kwaito of all the album’s tracks, ‘Sdudla’ which is already proving a radio hit in South Africa.

Another of TKZee’s music signature’s has always been a real ability to balance programmed music with live instruments and tracks like the out-and-out Gospel song ‘Coming Home’ features a trio of brilliant musicians in Zwai on piano, Victor Masondo on bass and Lawrence Matshiza on guitars.

All of this rigorous attention to the detail of the music, the lyrics, the performances means that recording ‘Coming Home’ was as much of a challenge as an exhilaration. “The emotions were running high throughout the recording process,” admits Kabelo, adding that while it may have been draining at times, this had the effect of pouring the trio’s passion into each of the songs.

“What I think is really key is that we didn’t just decide to get back together and make an album that is simply about delivering something new for fans to listen to,” says Zwai. “We wanted to treat this album with the same love for the genre that we had right in the beginning, although obviously bringing all our different professional and personal experiences into the mix.”

The vision that drives ‘Coming Home’ then is not one based on nostalgia or a whim: as all 12 tracks prove, TKZee have once again brewed up something special in the Guz kitchen to create a scorcher of a record that more than lives up to the expectations of fans – and gives urban music a real injection of fresh, optimistic energy.

So come summer 2009, it’s time to turn up the heat and dial up the volume switch. TKZee are back. Play it loud!