Mushoro

Hailing from the Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, exiled Kampala based producer Rey Sapienz new 6 track ep continues to explore his unique style of weirdly abstracted Soukous and Kalindula. Fitting into a trajectory of Congolese artists who were fascinated by the possibilities of progressive electronic music of their time such as Denis Mpunga and Zazou Bikaye. Rey breaks down traditional Congolese pop music into its constituent elements of dramatic vocals, fluid bass chords and dark and slowed down Soukous Synth melodies. **** BOOMKAT PRODUCT REVIEW **** Sickest mutant dancehall from Uganda’s Rey Sapienz, returning to Slikback’s Hakuna Kulala (sublabel of Nyege Nyege Tapes) with a marked step forward from his debut of crooked soukous ‘Mushoro’ packs twice as much material as Sapienz’ 2018 debut ‘Hakuna Kulala’ for a start, but the production is also detectably slower, more detailed and layered to express a wider range of moods and killer drum patterns stemming from the Congo, while the vocals are also more diverse and speaking to current club tastes. Pairing wonky acidic stabs with low-slung vox in the dark sidewinder ‘Mushoro’, he finely toggles the vibe between playful technoid and Terminator cold throughout the EP, shifting his weight on an off the beat with icy control in ‘Ngando’, while ‘Dancehall Pigmé’ turns out a gripping take on acid-hall styles shades away from Equiknoxx. ‘Anti Machine’ then start out super brooding but buoyed by psyched-out bleep melodies like some early Warp cut, before ’Nzela Mabulu’ cuts the lights for a proper piece of central African voodoo nearly compatible with Gqom, and ‘Entaintenment’ roudns back to a rugged flip of soukous styles. Strong looks for the dancers and DJs!