The Soil

Do South Africans make sad music? Even The Soil's ‘New Year's Resolutions’—a song about a resolution made by band-member Luphindo Ngxanga's girlfriend to leave him come the new year—sounds a little like celebration. A three-piece a cappella soul outfit from Soweto, the band blend the faith-driven music of their homeland—concepts such as joy, life and family have a pervasive presence—with more commonplace pop music concerns – relationships and adolescent revelry.

And if ‘three-piece a cappella group’ makes you wonder whether the sound might be a little thin, think again. Their mastery lies in the fact that they're all ardent multi-taskers. Ngxanga, for instance, simultaneously hums robust bass-lines whilst beat-boxing. Opposite him, Ntsika Fana Ngxanga, with his soulful solo voice, effortlessly switches to an androgynous falsetto that complements the female member of the group, Buhlebendalo Mda, whenever necessary. Even Mda herself flits between spotlighted chanteuse and textural supplement throughout the course of the show.

The Soil are soulful a cappella outfit for whom joy is the primary (and perhaps only) objective. Not only is ‘Joy’ the title of a track from their debut album, it's a word that's bandied about throughout the course of tonight's show – the collective certainly aren't shy of interacting with the audience between songs, taking ample time to thank the audience, God, and to tease Ngxanga about his still-suffered loneliness. Utilising their surprisingly full sound to combine the music of their origins with Western pop aesthetic, The Soil's show is one of the most heartening musical performances of this year's Fringe.