Free Download: The Very Best Live on KCRW – Guju Guju (Exclusive Acoustic Version)

The Very Best by Larry Hirshowitz

The Very Best walked into KCRW’s studio running on just a few hours of sleep.

They were about to close out their North American tour with a show at the Roxy here in LA and stumbled in ready to close out strong and live up to their name.

Indeed, KCRW staffers kept magically appearing in the studio as they played, showing the magnetism of their exuberant global pop.

The core duo — Swedish producer Johan Hugo and Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya — met in London. Esau operated a secondhand shop outside of Johan’s studio and was recruited to add vocals to a track they were working on for another artist. Esau credits Johan with helping him find his voice as a singer.

Their latest record “Makes a King” is a richly textured album that addresses some serious issues amongst the funk and house-inflected tracks.

Garth Trinidad hosted the session and when we saw that his favorite track “Guju Guju” wasn’t on the set list, we were a little bummed. It turns out they weren’t prepared to play the album version BUT they worked up an acoustic version especially for us!

So find the full session in our archives here and check out the exclusive version of “Guju Guju” below and grab it as a free download while you can!