Arsenal Mikebe – Drum Machine

Nyege Nyege Tapes

I’ve sat on this record for ages because I’m an idiot. tl;dr — very much a banger.

I’d like to say that it’s something like if Jeff Mills was Ugandan but that’s ridiculous. This does share the intensity but not the build-up. It’s adjacent to techno and there’s cowbell; but it’s also a smidge faster and more dynamic — second track “Boiller Omukka” gives the impression of a slurring tempo, like a wobbly sea journey, but it’s a more concise and mobile thing than four-to-the-floor Detroit-isms.

Problem is, of course, I don’t have much in the way of frame of reference. Does this sound Ugandan? I’ve no idea. It’s percussion-heavy but not lacking in melodic elements. It’s nominally repetitious, but only in that way that it keeps a pulse and has plenty of variations. I saw a Ugandan act on Saturday — Seby Ntege. Based in London, recommend seeing him if you get a chance. Does this sound like that? It does not. Or any of the other Ugandan records I’ve got.

There’s a thing happening the last while where stuff pops up out of Africa and European journalists [hi] get excited about it. And the problem I have is that it’s difficult not to act like it’s coming from nowhere because people like me have minimal visibility of whatever scenes produced Ammar 808, Nadah el Shazly, all the amapiano out of South Africa, all the kuduro out of Angola, all the afrobeats, pop-adjacent stuff like Spice Diana (also Ugandan), Burna Boy out of Nigeria … etc. Politically and geographically it’s ridiculous to treat Africa as a single place. What’s my point? I guess that Arsenal Mikebe almost certainly isn’t operating out of a void, and I wish I had more of this business in my life.

Nominally I could say this isn’t too far from Ammar 808, perhaps, but that’d be off also — there’s a degree of electronic bassisms and quick tempos but also this isn’t electronic music. Not in the same way, not in a producer-at-a-computer way. Seemingly not at all, from the videos I could find — three percussionists doing their business. But it definitely sounds like electronic production. Not just from the sound of the drums, but also from the tightness of the playing. There’s no swing to this, in the best possible way.

It’s an absolute belter of a record, is my point. Nothing outstays its welcome, everything is nominally simple and then shows a rhythmic depth with more listens. It’s rhythm-heavy but it’s not lacking in melodic elements. I guess if I was going to stick with the techno comparison, it’s got the sense that keeping the songs moving is the imperative, but the core pulse of the track must be sovereign. I look forward to sweating to it, fatly, in a venue in the South of England soon.

Also worth saying — check out those shoes:

-Kev Nickells-