jay mitta: tatizo pesa

The hyper blaze of Jay Mitta's debut album, Tatizo Pesa kicks off a trio of searing singeli albums from the sound's ground zero: the Sisso Studios of the Mburahati ghetto, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. A breathtaking boost of 180bpm+ rhythms, syncopated loops and nagging hooks, Tatizo Pesa notably introduces 13-year-old MC sensation Dogo Janja alongside nine knockout instrumentals that make much western dance music seem prissy and pedestrian. Dispatched by the acclaimed Nyege Nyege Tapes from Kampala, Uganda, Tatizo Pesa presents the raw, untrammeled energy of Tanzanian singeli with immediate effect. Like his peers, Bamba Pana, DJ Balotelli, and DJ Longo, Jay Mitta combines traces of older, local folk melodies with elements of "bongo flava", or up-to-the-minute Swahili rap music, but at breakneck tempos that give the sound its inexorable energy and verve. Their style takes traditional music into orbit of contemporary, accelerated styles ranging from Grenadian jab jab/soca to Chicago footwork, hardcore UK rave and French flashcore. Jay Mitta's debut offering renders the lushest, variegated spectrum of singeli since the style emerged in its current form only a few years ago. On the one hand he plays up to pure rave needs with outright steamers such as "Don Bet", and the ratchet tension of "Mwakidimba", but they're balanced with hip-hop swagger in the standout title tune featuring 13-year-old Dogo Janja, and the deep south bounce-esque of "Masera", while the mercurial quickstep of "Dura" and "Mchuma Bet" are bound to snag wider-eared ravers with their so-fast-they're-weightless string and key arrangements. It's very hard to ignore that with Tatizo Pesa, Jay Mitta has produced a new and unmissable high-water mark of the ancient yet up-to-the-second east African music bound to translate directly to all willing bodies. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Edition of 300, blue vinyl.