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LP
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HK 022LP
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Absolutely killer ten-tracker debut album on Hakuna Kulala by Russian avant-club producer and DJ Wulffluw XCIV. Designed to cause serious cerebral and physical damage on dancefloors across the world. Innovative and genre-blending, Wulffluw XCIV incorporates industrial/EBM techno and synthetized tones with dembow rhythms, kuduro and gqom to forge layered corporeal music with no geographical borders that feels vast. Each track is richly textured, surgically produced with agility and fierce finesse connecting a barrage of sounds and cultural influences plus high doses of playful and visual appeal. Wulffluw drops multiple emotional club bangers that are intriguing and jittery, marked by the front, harsh and unrelenting percussions, and enriched with repetitive sonic explosions, haunting vocals, cyberpunk ambience, and emphasized loud-soft dynamics. Standout tracks include Ash Bay and the psy-trancy Endelea. With this album (while in residency in Kampala) Wulffluw XCIV reveals a vigorous artistic sensitivity defined by his interest in connecting disparate communities and diasporic styles. In the past he has collaborated with musicians from all over the world, among others Ink Midget, Santa Muerte & Rafa Maya, Blastah, Nahshi, Yoshitaka Hikawa, AN System, Icy Flame, and Whiterose.
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LP
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HK 013LP
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In April 2019, improvising lyricist, producer and sound artist Elvin Brandhi moved into the "villa" in Kampala Uganda working on a collaborative album with several artists from the Nyege Nyege collective. Auto-tune blast beats from field recordings of Evangelist churches, the swamps surrounding the studios, with warped drums by Kampala based percussionist Omutaba, improvised stream of consciousness lyrics from local rappers Hakim and Swordman Kitala, with glitched-out bassy productions with Boutiq Studio manager Don Zilla and Congolese producer Oise. This new project called Viillaelvin is the first full LP to be released on Hakuna Kulala.
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2LP
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HK 014LP
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Ascendant star of the new global underground, Slikback wraps up his first two digital-only EPs with three killer bonus cuts on a vinyl premiere for Hakuna Kulala, his prized sublabel of Nyege Nyege Tapes. Hailing from Nairobi, Kenya via Kampala, Uganda, Slikback has rapidly attracted a wave of attention to his undulating mutations of current club styles, as found on the Lasakaneka and Tomo EPs between 2018-2019. Due to popular demand both those EPs now make their vinyl debut, packaged along with three previously unreleased zingers to weigh in the most significant showcase of Slikback's acclaimed style and pattern in club circulation right now. Distilling a range of inspirations from local East African hip hop to Congolese rhythms and Gqom's cold percussion, plus influence from US trap and footwork, and the subbass common to JA and UK soundsystem cultures; Slikback's music has arrived at a grippingly powerful sound which, while singular, is also entirely symptomatic of the thrilling styles emerging from Central Africa right now, and after many years of underrepresentation in the shadow of West and South African styles which have been popularized around the world. On his debut Lasakaneka EP, Slikback swaggers from icy, robotic dancehall in "Acid" to a gripping fusion of footwork and Gqom with a jungle bent in "Bantu Zen", and dancehall techno drill on "Ascension", along with the palpitating footwork pressure of "Venom", and a nervy new ace in the itchy step of "Shell". The follow-up of 2019's Tomo meanwhile represents a mean progression of his sound; exerting a firmer control of his scudding bass rudeness in "Sonshitsu", and the dissonant synth tone of "Gemini", while the syncopated gabber styles of "Zuhura" and "Rage" give way to almighty exclusive joints in the hard seam of trap called "Kite", and the Equiknoxx-gone-psycho styles of "Senshi". If you're new to Slikback, trust this double-LP is the perfect place to get acquainted with his lucid, hi-tech madness, before checking for the full-frontal futurism of his two new EPs in collaboration with Svbkvlt's Hyph11e, Yen Tech, and Osheyack. But if you've already heard Slikback's EPs, his Boiler Room at Nyege Nyege Festival, or witnessed his European tour dates, there's surely no need to overstate the crucial nature of this "early years" double-LP compilation. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Purple vinyl; edition of 500.
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