GETTING IT BACK: THE STORY OF CYMANDE
GETTING IT BACK: THE STORY OF CYMANDE
at Ritzy Picturehouse in London on 28/01/2025.
by Alex Shukri
It’s finally possible to leave a documentary about a band and know more about everyone else but them.
Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande tells the story of the Cymande, the music industry-changing hidden gem from the 70s. It emphasises their legacy and how their originally short-lived career was essential to the creation of genres like house, hip-hop, and so many more. The documentary is filled to the brim with interviews with names across the American and European music scenes who sing the praises of the band and their ever-still influential music.
But it also only somehow gives eight minutes of runtime to their recording career (1971-1974) and about twenty minutes to the band’s history. It can partially be summed up here: Cymande (derived from the Calypso word for dove, pronounced sih-MAHN-day) is a ‘70s soul-funk band that has inspired countless artists across the globe with their signature hits like ‘Bra’ and ‘The Message’. From the start, their sound and style were intentionally hard to pin down, but inspiration from their South London’s West Indies immigrant community and self-taught musicianship shines through. There is so much to tell about Cymande that goes beyond a short paragraph or a third of their documentary’s runtime.
To give director Tim MacKenzie-Smith some credit, the film did beautifully place the band’s birth and development in the political and cultural contexts of its time. Viewers easily understand how Cymande’s success was found abroad and not in the U.K. While unfortunately also on the surface level, the film does get the point across that in the 1970s, Cymande was not welcome as themselves or as performers.
Archival footage from the BBC and news programs tied with narration from the band portray how Black Brits were treated and how the band was an outlet to express their frustrations with a racist and segregated British society. Though the United States wasn’t much better in terms of equality, there were more opportunities for this band to have their music heard and appreciated. They had resounding success stateside. New York City, especially Harlem and the Bronx, craved their music. Even when the band took their hiatus, the music lived on. The footage from club nights and DJ sets brought to life the stories the interviews shared and fleshed out just how loved the music was. They were, and are, loved for their art.
So when the different band members did have their moments to shine and talk, it was nothing short of positively enlightening. They reminisced about their childhoods, reflected on immigrating, their connection to Brixton, Balham, and London, and how essential their music is to them. But, they also opened up about their pain of being dismissed by British radio, television, and the overall British public for decades.
Each member who spoke emphasised that Cymande was, and is, a way to connect and stand for something as a band. But the plot of the band’s desire to reconnect, perform, and release a new album became muddled with others’ interviews interjecting with their claims to Cymande. To be clear, this music can be enjoyed by anyone. But he interjections were from a lot of white professionals and musicians speaking about how they felt so cool to know the band at certain points ‘before it was cool’. It felt as if interviews from Black music industry musicians and icons, like DJ Maseo and Jazzie B, were secondary to their white counterparts.
And for a movie talking about how the struggles a Black British band had to be heard, it was a bit on the nose.
Overall, the overwhelming amount of interviews detracts from the meaning of a film where the band talks about how no one was listening to them in the first place. If there had been a select few interviews, or even less of the same amount, this documentary would have been stronger and more memorable.
However, there were a few saving graces in the overflow of interviews. One was when the story introduced the Bronx and the beginning of hip-hop. Different DJs who played Cymande at clubs were edited together to be describing the beat of the songs in tandem. The audience could feel the song and the build-up, a similar feeling to how it was when these songs were first experimented with.
It was a one-of-a-kind moment in the film to form a deeper understanding of how Cymande could make people, especially other marginalised people, feel on the dance floor. Free, alive, and energetic.
The hearts of those involved in this film were in the right place, as this documentary was finally proudly honouring the legacy of a band cast aside due to British racism. But heart isn’t enough, and this film didn’t show enough of Cymande.
The most striking and illuminating moments of the film are the ones where the band is the focus and when the audience and subject get to experience the music together. Seeing the band perform, and feeling the music as they intended, was quintessential to this film being slightly memorable.
So to understand the band more as they are now and then, audience members are better off asking a DJ to throw on a song from the band’s latest album, RENASCENCE, and dancing all night long.
Alex Shukri
★★★☆☆