Coinage by Nsasi

A founder member of Uganda's rebellious ANTI-MASS collective (alongside Authentically Plastic and Turkana), Nsasi has built up a reputation with subversive DJ sets, smashing together slowed-down dance anthems and glossy R&B with propulsive fringe club experiments. His debut album is a dynamic, industrial rasp that draws on his expertise behind the decks, expertly meshing rhythms from across the musical spectrum into a coarse, dancefloor-ready frame. With the safety of queer people in Uganda compromised by a conservative, intolerant administration, 'Coinage' acts as a rallying cry for like-minded outsiders that mischievously perverts East African traditional sounds, considering their revolutionary potential within a new context.

'Gabvla' is a clear stand-out, a polyrhythmic anarchy of hand drums and psychedelic, electroid wheezes that transcends its influences completely. Before you've realized it, Nsasi has transformed the blustery beat into a weighty, 4/4 thud, disrupting the flow with light-headed, xenharmonic squeals and acoustic ticks. On 'Endoongo' meanwhile, pneumatic kicks pump through an electrified fence of quivering synths before Nsasi sends out an alarm call, reducing the rhythm to a distant vibration and letting dramatic stabs ricochet between the ballroom and the dungeon rave. There's the unmistakable echo of cavernous, minimal techno on 'Ludo', but Nsasi offsets the swingy, uniform rhythm with cybernetic rolls and eerie, sci fi atmospherics - it's a peak-time banger and a hypnotic reverie concurrently.

Nsasi's percussive mastery is breathtaking throughout 'Coinage': on 'Tribune' he wakes up a dilatory, 96BPM shake with submerged voices and a tidal wave of abyssal, double-time thuds, and on the mind-melting 'Penetencia', burns quivering, off-grid snaps and stings with nauseous drones and swirling mbira loops. For a debut full-length, never mind one that pulls on so many seemingly loose stylistic threads, 'Coinage' is conspicuously coherent. The DJ and producer balances a precarious line, capturing the ramshackle energy of noise or industrial music and the digitized precision of club forms simultaneously, without losing focus or momentum. Breathtakingly unique, it's a record that peers into an uncertain future, accepting the world's chaos and operating outside borders and restrictions.

Club explorations from the East African and Congolese Electronic Underground and beyond.

We fulfill orders twice weekly, so most items will be shipped out within 3-5 days of your order being placed, with tracking provided automatically. We ship all records in whiplash mailers with extra cardboard protection.

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