Keleketla!

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10[2]
Metacritic	81/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Exclaim!	8/10[5]
Loud and Quiet	8/10[6]
musicOMH	[7]
PopMatters	[8]
The Guardian	[9]

Keleketla! was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on nine reviews.[3] The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 7.7 out of 10.[2]

Adriane Pontecorvo of PopMatters praised the album saying, "Consistently exciting, always surprising, and full of soul, it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable releases of the year to date".[8] AllMusic's Paul Simpson stated, "Keleketla! is a powerful combination of activism and musical exploration, bonding the sounds of several locations and eras in order to express messages of joy, optimism, and revolution".[4] Safiya Hopfe of Exclaim! said, "With contributions from over 20 artists, including such musical giants as Tony Allen and Thabang Tabana, Keleketla! is a collaboration of rare magnitude. It is at once a celebration and a call to action".[5] Jemima Skala of Loud & Quiet said, "Keleketla! breeds an impossibly enticing sense of hope that one day things might be better".[6] Writing for musicOMH, Steven Johnson said, "In short, it’s an album that demonstrates the continuing merit of musical collaboration while also offering a hopeful counterpoint to a world all too often consumed by negativity and strife".[7] The Guardian reviewer Ammar Kalia said, "Here, the component parts of hip-hop, jazz, dub and protest music are pieced together, like the many languages of a diasporic conversation. If the call is for music Keleketla!'s multilingual, effusive response is one worth hearing".[9]

Coldcut

• Matthew Cohen – backing vocals (tracks: 2, 11), horns arrangement (tracks: 2-4, 11), JammPro MIDI controller (tracks: 5, 9, 12), producer
• Jonathan Richard More – horns arrangement (tracks: 2-4, 11), JammPro MIDI controller (tracks: 5, 9, 12), producer

Vocalists

• Nono Nkoane – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11), backing vocals (track 4)
• Tubatsi Moloi – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
• Thabang Tabane – vocals (tracks: 2, 3, 11)
• Soundz Of The South Collective – vocals (tracks: 1, 10)
• Afla Sackey – backing vocals (tracks: 2, 11)
• Yugen Blakrok – vocals (tracks: 5, 12)
• The Watts Prophets – vocals (track 4)
• Benny Wenda – vocals (track 8)
• The Lani Singers – vocals (track 8)

Instrumentalists

• Tamar Osborn – baritone saxophone (tracks: 2, 4-6, 8, 9, 11, 12), clarinet & bass clarinet (track 9)
• Tony Allen – drums (tracks: 1-4, 8, 10, 11)
• Afla Sackey – percussion (tracks: 1-3, 8, 10, 11), additional percussion (track 6), djembe (track 8)
• Al Riley – percussion (tracks: 1, 2, 10, 11), keyboards (track 4), additional percussion (track 6)
• Ed 'Tenderlonious' Cawthorne – flute (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 10, 11), tin whistle & recorder (tracks: 1, 10)
• Miles James – guitar (tracks: 1, 2, 8, 10, 11)
• Gally Ngoveni – bass (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
• Thabang Tabane – percussion (tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 11)
• Shabaka Hutchings – tenor saxophone (tracks: 2, 5, 8, 11, 12)
• Joe Armon-Jones – keyboards (tracks: 3, 4, 7, 9), piano (track 9)
• Martin Perna – horns arrangement (tracks: 2-4, 11)
• Antibalas – horns (tracks: 2-4, 11)
• Sibusile Xaba – guitar (tracks: 2, 3, 7, 11)
• Dele Sosimi – keyboards (tracks: 2, 6, 8, 11)
• Patrick Carpenter – loops & editing (tracks: 2, 11)
• DeeJay Random – scratches (tracks: 5, 12)
• Chris "The Jungle Drummer" Polglase – drums (track 6)
• Tubatsi Moloi – flute (track 7)
• Darren "Sangita" Evans – piano (track 8)
• Eska Mtungwazi – strings (track 9)

Technicals

• Eric Lau – mixing
• Al Riley – engineering, recording, additional mixing
• Andrew Curnow – engineering, recording
• Dion Monti – engineering, recording
• Hugh Fothergill – engineering
• Guy Katsav – engineering
• Matt Colton – mastering

• Keleketla! at Discogs (list of releases)