Their associated label, Nyege Nyege Tapes, is already known on a global level as a platform which encourages disparate people, and types of music, to mix. One group which embodies this philosophy is Nilhiloxica, who merge Bugandan drumming with techno to create a powerful grimey sound which manages to embody both an ancient culture and a basement in Leeds.
The best example of this however is the Nyege villa, a residency for international artists, which I was invited to check out during my stay. The place is massive, with producers and musicians hidden behind each door. The space offers opportunities for musicians to learn and live, encouraging those from different African nations and the wider European electronic scene to engage with and teach each other. This year’s residency invitees is a good barometer of attempts to facilitate further trans-continental collaboration prior to the festival. Indonesian outfit Gabber Modus Operandi, Japanese breakcore producer DJ Scotch Egg, Swiss-Congolese Planet Mu and Purple Tape Pedigree associate Bonaventure, Istanbul-based Elvin Brandih, and Kinshasa powerband Fulu Miziki among them.
A group to have already benefitted from this unifying atmosphere is Poko Poko, a conscious pan-African queer pop duo hailing from Canada and DR Congo respectively. Feminist messages delivered by Pauline’s soulful voice, paired with infectious party beats and interludes of Rey’s French bars, makes it easy to see why they’ve managed to appeal to the Ugandan club scene. I witnessed this first-hand when Poko Poko performed at The Factory, a club in Kampala's industrial district, the crowd going mad during their set.
The duo met through Nyege Nyege and have been supported by the organisation throughout their tour in Rwanda. They will soon be releasing new tracks on Hakuna Kulala, a sub-division of Nyege Nyege Tapes devoted to a club-orientated digital sound. Rey has been with Nyege from the start, founding Hakuna Kulala after he created a new genre of music by fusing Soukous, traditional Congolese pop music, with electronic music to create what he calls “Congotekno”.
Rey was given a book on Ableton back in 2016, self-learning the production software with some help from producers who came through the Nyege villa. He picked their brains until he started his own production classes in 2018. What makes him happiest? “Ladies making beats.” Growing up in Kampala, Rey wanted to make mainstream music, so spent a lot of time in that scene. What he saw propelled him to seek work in other genres; a huge pool of talented female musicians in Kampala would need to trade sexual favours as well as cash to get access to production studios.
It gives him massive amounts of satisfaction to see female producers working with male musicians. That’s his aim now, alongside following his own musical endeavours, to teach as many women as possible in East Africa to produce. “And in all of Africa”, he adds smiling, “if I can find them to teach.”