MUSIC AND MIRTH
Barmy beats of Afro-Balkan ‘beasts’ bring joy to Johannesburg
Wyatt felt his soundtrack from the resulting Taka Takata movie was a great foundation from which to form an inclusive 14-piece orchestra
From comical to quirky and weird to wonderful, Bombshelter Beast’s Afro-Balkan sound combines the fast pace of Joburg ubuntu with the craziness of Eastern Europe. The idea to make a comic film about a buffoonish Joburg soccer team with a Serbian coach, starring Kagiso Lediga and Trevor Noah, propelled jazz trumpeter Marcus Wyatt into a carnivalesque musical space. Wyatt felt his soundtrack from the resulting Taka Takata movie was a great foundation from which to form an inclusive 14-piece orchestra called Bombshelter Beast. "I thought the music was so accessible, danceable and such fun that we were automatically going to be famous. It has taken me three years and a bit to realise that that was the wrong assumption," he says. Wyatt studied jazz at the University of Cape Town and has always played with cross-over bands, including Truly Fully Hey Shoo Wow Band, Bird Tribe, Interzone, Kusasa and Language 12. His father was the chairman of the folk club in Port Elizabeth. "Most music is ...
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