Alongside the burgeoning experimental electronic scene in east Africa is a small but committed underground of metal bands, based in Nairobi. These groups are breathing life into a field hampered by a continued lack of diversity and the preponderance of racist imagery.
Figureheads from this varied scene include melodic headbangers Last Year’s Tragedy, Sabbath-referencing heavy rockers Rash, the chaotic speedcore of Lust of a Dying Breed and the sludgy, driving rock of Kanyeki. Duma, a new duo comprised of Lust of a Dying Breed vocalist Martin Kanja and producer and guitarist Sam Karugu, bridges the gap between the region’s fertile club scene and its moshpit-inducing live bands.
It is apt that the duo are releasing their self-titled debut on the Ugandan label Nyege Nyege Tapes, which has been responsible for a slew of recent excellent albums from the club-ready polyrhythms of percussion group Nihiloxica to DJ Diaki’s relentlessly uptempo balani music. Duma, in turn, is an artful blend of punishing industrial techno, programmed drumming and doom-laden distorted guitars; a hybrid acoustic-electronic experience.
Opener Angels and Abysses builds from a repetitive conga drum rhythm to a menacing dirge through a thick layering of buzzing guitars, jittering drums and grandiose melodic sweeps. This noise-based amorphousness continues on the thundering scream of Omni and the fragmented melodies of Uganda with Sam. Yet it is in the unabashed aggression of Corners in Nihil and Sin Nature that the duo come into their own. Here, both members display mercurial talents, with Karugu’s production seemingly switching at will from almost unbearably fast percussion to tentatively melodic drones, while Kanja’s vocals jump from throat-scraping screams to a low-register spoken word.
Duma is ultimately a deeply strange record, one which takes a surrealist approach to its metal and electronic influences, seemingly scattering elements of Aphex Twin, techno producer Perc and purveyors of doom Sunn O))) at will to see where they land. What results is an intriguing picture, one that is challenging yet full of a depth that promises an exciting future for this nascent Kenyan scene.
Duma is released on Nyege Nyege Tapes on 7 August.
Also out this month
Alam Khan, son of sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan, releases a meditative, minimal selection of solo compositions aptly entitled Solace: a beautiful introduction to the unfurling alap sections of Indian classical ragas and the plaintive stringed sarod. Russian multi-instrumentalist Katya Yonder releases her fourth LP, Multiply Intentions, pairing oneiric Brian Eno-style synth-pop with Japanese folk melodies and her own soft falsetto. Brazilian bossa nova pioneer Marcos Valle brings his latest album on Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge’s Jazz Is Dead imprint: JID 003 is a joyous pairing of Valle’s tenor with Muhammad and Younge’s rhythm-heavy orchestral production.
