The collective Nyege Nyege was founded by Arlen Dilsizian and Derek Debru in 2013 in Kampala, Uganda. The collective was started to make African electronic music available to a more widespread audience, limited physical copies of releases were printed however their music is available on band camp. Hakuna Kulala was added to their catalogue in 2019 as an all-digital label made available via Bandcamp. 

I picked the track Durilla by by Russian club producer and DJ Wulffluw XCIV. to analyze off Hakuna Kulala’s catalogue on SoundCloud. The track features catchy ambient synth hits drenched in reverb and experimental dance drums. The artist uses synthesized tones along with percussion that reminds me of Jamaican dancehall. The vocals for me bear a strong resemblance to some of JPEGMAFIA’s performances on “All My Heroes are Cornballs”.

The track had a barebones song structure but was made interesting via various vocal chops and effects sprinkled throughout the mix. The song had a constant sense of excitement. The crescendoing snare at the beginning sets the upbeat tone for the rest of the track. The track is infectious, catchy and experimental at the same time. 

Although my experience with electronic dance music is limited, I found this track to be a very interesting experience and I found that I could relate a lot of it back to the experimental hip hop artists I listen to.

In conclusion, listening to this track gave me a new perspective on African and electronic music as well as a reason to reflect on my own culture’s music (Indian Classical) and wonder how that can be electronically recontextualized as well.

References

Fazio, M.I. de (2019) Nyege Nyege Tapes spotlight Uganda’s burgeoning electronic music scene, Bandcamp Daily. Available at: https://daily.bandcamp.com/label-profile/nyege-nyege-tapes-feature (Accessed: 18 January 2024). 

Durilla, SoundCloud. Available at: https://soundcloud.com/hakunakulala/durilla (Accessed: 18 January 2024).