OO MP3
1000HZ Records (40 mins)
Polish label 1000HZ have spent the last few years quietly putting out records of incredibly interesting music from Malawi, and this second album in their Digital Indigenous series continues that trend.
DJ Kainga makes what he calls ‘Lomwe beat,’ electro music as it has evolved from the streets of Zomba, with the sonic imprint of the city and its Lomwe people. This is all synth, all the time: apart from the occasional song, it’s all made on what sounds like your standard, slightly tinny Casio in a manner that makes it feel like a cousin to Tanzanian mchiriku or South African Shangaan electro. Simple, cheerful melodies and layered over Lomwe rhythms (adapted into keyboard presets) and reggaeish chord stabs. It’s all so relentlessly optimistic, I dare you not to have a big smile on your face within a minute of the first track.
It makes a change to hear music clearly made for the local market and all the aesthetic choices that come with that – even when it does mean autotune-saturated chipmunkesque vocals on the two songs. This is a set of cheery club music with a unique sound and very little pretention. How refreshing!