V/A - Kikommando
Label: PAN / Hakuna Kulala
Cat.No. PAN 124 / HK029
Format: DL / Book
Release Date: 6 August 2021
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/Kikommando
Video: bit.ly/3i2EgSg

A collective effort from a vital scene in Kampala, KIKOMMANDO takes its name from Ugandan street food of flat bread and beans. As a ‘food of soldiers’ offering maximum energy for minimum funds, the eponymous mixtape, video series and book project is an equally nourishing and ambitious proposition. It all began in the East African summer of 2018, during a two-month residency at the Nyege Nyege label and collective’s villa, in collaboration with their sublabel Hakuna Kulala. Producer and PAN artist Simone Trabucchi (aka STILL) opened the door to his temporary studio in the city and a crucial cross-cultural collaboration was born.

“The intention was to record as much as possible,” Trabucchi says about KIKOMMANDO’s musical showcase of eight Kampala-based artists, coming from the spectrum of musical influences, crossing trap, drill, cut ups, kuduro, electro, smooth jams—the list goes on. In creating a sonic space to support the expression of its featured singers, poets and emcees, the mixtape ties countless styles and flows into a single snapshot of a particular part of the Kampala music scene, at a particular point in time. The invective of rapper and street legend Blaq Bandana’s “Nkwaata” is laid over a spare and brooding ambient. Kampala Unit trumpet player and first-time singer, Florence, rolls a thick melodic texture through the organic clicks, knocks and atmospherics of “Bae Tasanze”. Jahcity’s unique lyricism combines a personal take on traditional music and soulful-reggae with a jerky, wobbly collection of drops and donks.

Meanwhile, Ecko Bazz applies his grimey vocals and rhythmic, introspective words to lead single ‘Ntabala (Rolex Riddim) at a particularly pertinent moment of self-reflection. “I was trying to listen to the voice inside myself and wanted to achieve a higher level of understanding of things, life,” he says about the themes that he felt inspired to explore with Trabucchi at the recording desk. The accompanying video, shot on a rooftop in the Kampala neighborhood of Ggaba, is one of a series of slick and high-definition films complementing each one of the KIKOMMANDO tracks. These also include contributions from Ugandan emcee and key Hakuna Kulala member Biga Yut, don dada of the GabaGaza gang Swordman Kitala (with Omutaba on percussion) and South Sudanese poet and singer Winnie Lado.

Also accompanying a ‘visual mixtape’ of moving images for each song on KIKOMMANDO is a recording diary of sorts, where Trabucchi compiles a vibrant collection of pictures, colours and textures reflecting the its heterogeneous sonic palette into a book. Together this multifaceted, interdisciplinary project showcases, what Lamin Fofana’s liner notes describe as, “amazing originality, complexity”, while “embracing dissonance”.

Trabucchi’s personal take on a kind of ‘digital dancehall’ defined the sound of his ground-breaking rumination on Italy’s colonial history on debut STILL album, I, in 2017. KIKOMMANDO is a different proposition entirely, where he finds new ways to complement the personality and skills of its contributors sprung from a constant stream of visitors arriving at the Nyege Nyege Villa’s makeshift studio. “It was a dialogue,” stresses Trabucchi, who has always preferred collaboration as a means to escape branded and stereotypical identities, while creating something new. “I created the musical platform to make the singers confident, and challenged them at the same time. Working together accelerates ideas and reveals that nothing is your invention alone. That’s why KIKOMMANDO is a mixtape to me, and not an album.”

The mixtape is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by NMR. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11 & 12 mixed by Ville Haimala. Tracks 5, 6 & 8 mixed by Lorenzo Dal Ri.

@hakunakulala

KIKOMMANDO

STILL, Biga Yut - Tukoona Nalo (PAN 124 / HK029)

@lucas-laredo
@du-coeur-records

Jules Du Cœur et Sucré Saleté présentent : V/A – Du Cœur Compil – Vol.1 
Premier opus d’une série de compilations sous forme de« défi saisonnier ». Chaque sortie sera dictée par une thématique ou contrainte avec laquelle les artistes devront composer. 
Le premier, lancé il y a quelques semaines, a été développée selon deux axes : « la track de la fin du monde ou celle d’un monde nouveau ». 

A l'occasion de la sortie de ce premier opus, Jules Du Cœur , Sucré Saleté et adorablesteak93 ont développé ces axes dans un format mix.

Du Coeur Records TAKEOVER • : "V/A - Du Cœur Compilation - Vol.1" - release mixs : Sucré Saleté

We’re excited to announce that the next EP deliver “Volant” is in charge of Radeco Domar. Clever combinations of latin rhythms and club oriented sound design shape this aggressive yet bouncy composition.

Volant EP

Radeco Domar - Volant EP

Radeco Domar - Conmoción

Taken from SBKT044: Prettybwoy - Tayutau Remixes
Release date: 1st October 2021
Artwork: Wang Jingxin
Mastering: Raphael Valensi

Prettybwoy’s debut album ‘Tayutau’ gets a UK remix package from Cooly G, DJ Q, Mr. Mitch feat. miles and Pinch.

Tracklist:

1. SLT (Mr Mitch Remix feat. miles)
2. Island (Cooly G Remix)
3. Destination feat. lIlI (DJ Q Remix)
4. Mikoshi (Pinch Remix)

Tayutau Remixes

Prettybwoy - Mikoshi (Pinch Remix)

Shenzi Predatora est l'une des multiples facettes de Jules, artiste autrice, performeuse et auto-éditrice. Pour cet épisode de Looking For, Shenzi choisit et dissémine des souvenirs de vive voix, des hommages à des fictions enfantes et pré-adolescentes et des extraits de ses textes. Le tout se distille entre fantômes pop, rythmiques de l'obscur à la douceur, nappes émotionnelles et habitées de récits.

Looking For #28 w/ Shenzi Predatora

Thanks to https://soundcloud.com/assyouti.

(+)earth w/ Assyouti

carrusel

Peder Mannerfelt - Autobiographical Blast

A dollar sign ($) is the symbol found on the same key as the number four. Why is this important, you may sweetly ask? Because it’s put there just FOUR you! No but seriously, when you seek to make an expression, of your dreams, your reveries, you look towards that marker and it howls to you. Almost weeping, you hit it, an absolute cell of reference is called down and it sounds unerringly like this release. So well-met, hmurd, quietly, a soothsayer of little club mutations, has produced this very countenance. It’s seely music -- deserving of compassion -- and if you email hmurd for the code that runs it, you’ll find a litany of $ signs which speak to this. Innocent figures which swill along. A hub world, e-delightful. Line to line in joy.

clip that [clubmix] features a sample of shelob’s mate - cerin amroth
stack disarray features a sample of shelob’s mate - shevek

words by Emile Frankel
@hmurdoch

Boycott Ethical Consumption

clip that

Náab (feat. Bruja Prieta)

An iridescent hope; an imagined reality. ‘Unsleep’ is the debut collaboration between NYC’s @laenzzz & Tokyo luminary @tsumutsumu. As Laenz’s falsetto vocals dance in the reflections of crystalline club textures, the EP presents an experimental dreamscape melted from 2020’s charred blossom.

 ‘fantasma’ pulls us deeper into an altered consciousness: as concrete club rhythms bounce in the VR echo chamber. 


“Imagine a pair of chopsticks submerged into a glass of water. They appear to be bent by refraction of light. While veritably straight, this encounter gives credence to the mental image of curved chopsticks. At times, we process this temporality into a dream state, a safeguard against a dissipating world. Yet when transience is incongruous with our wakeful states, dreams, clung to for their impermanence, uncover a reality that is just as illusory. Whether a spectre or a dream, perceptual experience exists. As dreams and reality clash, they create frictional heat, dissolving a once tenuous boundary. The sensation that differentiates the two is an uncalibrated compass. While this blurred landscape sits through an eclipse, the future becomes backlit with promise, a contour of dissimulated simulation. The dream, rather than a speculative retreat, becomes the illumination. To unsleep is to undo is to unlearn, a chance at reversibility and a sense of mutable permanence.” 

All songs written, performed and produced by @laenzzz and @tsumutsumu
All songs mastered by Tsui Honagi (@djdirtykkk)
Artwork & Visuals by Tabitha Swanson
Editing by Anthony Ko

Unsleep

Laenz & T5UMUT5UMU - fantasma

Label based in Berlin, est. 2008. http://www.p-a-n.org