Nyege Two Time

Nyege Nyege Tapes is one of the more interesting labels operating at the moment. Based in Kampala where all the hip kids are, it was launched in 2016 as a spin-off to the annual Nyege Nyege festival - held near Lake Victoria and the biggest electronic music festival in the region.

The label largely focuses on ethnic electronica from East Africa although over time it has increasingly added artists from elsewhere in Africa and even Brazil to its roster.

As well as being both interesting and innovative the good folks at Nyege Nyege Tapes are also generous. On Bandcamp Friday just gone they had a 'name your own price' offer on their entire back catalogue. I took the opportunity to pick up half a dozen albums including ones from such luminaries as Serokolo 7, DJ Znobia and (deep breath now) Lady Aicha & Pisko Crane's Original Fulu Miziki of Kinshasa.

Some of those albums will no doubt feature on here in due course but I have not got round to listening to most of them yet. So until then here are a couple of tracks from what is probably my favourite Nyege Nyege release to date: "Electro Acholi Kaboom from Northern Uganda". 

As I explained when I first plugged the album way back in 2023 it is a compilation of electronic updates of traditional Acholi courtship songs recorded in the early 2000s to help meet local demand when hiring a wedding band was not a practical option due to e.g. the activities of the Lord's Revolutionary Army in the region. Souped up songs for messed up times. 

In the words of the late Errol Brown, every one's a winner baby, that's for sure.

"Nyaka Kon Coo" - Ojegele

"Nyom Pa Denish" - Otim Alpha

Any resemblance between Otim and Errol is purely coincidental.