Do you know how they inoculate you against the flu - I’m sure you do - they give you a tiny bit of the virus - small enough so your body can easily handle it and in the process develop the antibodies so that - if you get a major exposure during the season - your body is already familiar and can deal with the infection.
Now imagine music as a virus.
Not in its negative aspects but in how it behaves: you get exposed, it enters your system and, if it manages to grow inside you, you end up passing it on to someone else.
Kinda sounds like music doesn’t it?
The thing is - we’re suspicious of foreign things - whether it’s a food we’ve never seen, a language we don’t understand or even a musical style we didn’t grow up with - we’re conditioned to be cautious - to test it out - dip our finger in and - more often than not - leap back, lips curled in disgust or confusion and move on to more familiar things.
And that’s a shame - ‘cos the only way we’re going to get to know each other is to get familiar with the new and different. And while it’s easy to bond over a dislike of something, it’s much more fun to connect over something that makes you grin.
That’s why I love tracks like this - they’re musical vaccines.
Here you have two families from Gambia working with a UK producer and together they’ve managed to blend their two worlds into something that is - at least to my western ears - not just accessible, but joyful and intriguing and leaving me wanting to know more about both artists.
Thanks to Thomas Jeffereson and his music to Move Breathe and Flow playlist for introducing me to Susso.
About the Curator: Andrew McCluskey
The first visual memory I have is that of the white upright piano in Singapore, Hell and the Dark Forces lived at the bottom, Heaven and the Angels at the top, they would play battles through my fingers and I was hooked.
As a psychology graduate I studied how sound affects human performance.
As a musician I compose instrumental music that stimulates your brain but doesn't mess with your language centers, leaving you free to be creative and brilliant without distraction.
As a curator I research how music can improve your life and create flow - I can tell you what music to listen to when studying for a test and why listening to sad music can make you feel better.
As the founder of musicto I’m on a mission to inspire a global audience of music lovers and artists through the development of people powered playlists.