judgitzu: umeme/kelele

Roving punk ethnomusicologist Julien Hairon, aka Judgitzu, delivers fire on Uganda's Nyege Nyege Tapes with two cuts of high tension, cheek-pulling club G-force. After spending the past six years recording soundscapes and traditional musicians across Asia, Oceania, and Africa, and releasing them on his Les Cartes Postales Sonores label (along with reissues of tape and CD discoveries on his petPets label), Judgitzu's finally presents his first electronic music productions as the result of his residency in Tanzania since 2017. Clearly inspired by the domestic, hyperlocal sound of Singeli, but more stripped and tipped towards minimalism, the results have been lighting up clubs, back-rooms and festivals from Kampala to Salford and beyond over summer 2019, and are only set to go further with this full release. "Umeme" is grade-A rocket fuel that runs at 180bpm for nearly seven minutes of unyielding, panic-inducing stabs and undulating bass rhythms. It starts up ferociously and does not let go until the end, sustaining a state of high alertness that will leave even the most reckless ravers breathless but ready to go again. "Kelele" follows with equal regard for your heart rate and rave health, but this time by stealth and less in-your-face, filtering the drums with field recordings of revving motorbikes and squawking animals in an ebb and flow of pilly rushes and tropical hyperdelia. Hands-down it's one of 2019's deadliest dancefloor sessions and hopefully the start of many to come from an exemplary new producer.