Kobo Town

Kobo Town

Kobo Town is a Toronto, Canada-based calypso group active since 2005. The band is an eight-piece outfit led by Drew Gonsalves and PK Giunta, and its name comes from the historic neighbourhood of Kaiso/Kobo Town in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where traditional calypso develops among stickfighters, musicians and colonial-era conflict.

The group works from the historical roots of calypso while treating contemporary political and social subjects in its lyrics. Its repertoire addresses domestic violence, the US war on Iraq, globalization, Caribbean dependency and the experience of immigration. It draws on the older calypso tradition associated with artists such as Roaring Lion, Mighty Spoiler, Lord Invader, King Radio and Attila the Hun, while presenting those concerns in a present-day context.

Musically, Kobo Town combines old-time calypso and West Indian folk styles with dub poetry, roots reggae, zouk, son montuno, funk and jazz. The project presents calypso as a form developed through contact with other musical traditions, and extends that cross-pollinated approach in its own work.