If you didn’t get to live-stream Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Festival – or you’re ready for more goodness for Kampala – you’re in luck. There’s great music from “across the continent and the wider African diaspora.”
First up, there’s a terrific compilation from Nyege Nyege and friends. It opens with our favorite Afrorack on his homebrewed modular, with eerie sonic murk parting to reveal a slowly tripping oddball groove. And from there there’s just – a lot of people, from across Uganda and its neighbors to far-flung friends around planet Earth, from YUNIS and SlikBack and MC Kadilida and The Kampala unit and Gabber Modus Operandi and Don Zilla and a whole mess of other people to rediscover or discover for the first time.
That’s 49 tracks in all, and some serious esprit de corps in L’Esprit de Nyege 2020. I know a lot of these folks couldn’t play in person, so it’s even sweeter to see them together on a single, endlessly banging compilation.
It’s limited to one month only, and pay-what-you-will – yeah all 49 tracks of it, so you can adapt in case you’re cash strapped in pandemic times. Just don’t sleep on it.
Description:
Music has always been at the heart and soul of Nyege Nyege, and we wanted to encompass the spirit of this year and of our line up and our 2020 edition of our annual festival into an essential collection of exclusive music from artists on this year’s program from across the continent and the wider African diaspora.
Just like our festival, it will remain a testament to the resilience, talent and vision of the artists who joined us in the sixth edition of Nyege Nyege. 50% of the income of the compilation will go towards the cost of the festival and towards current projects including our artist residency, and 50% will be evenly shared between all the artists on the compilation, a way to support everyone at once, and to support the festival and its ongoing projects. The compilation will be available for ONE MONTH on our Bandcamp.
Our 96 + hour extravaganza with an incredible lineup of artists, dancers, producers, costume designers and editors from across the continent and the wider African diaspora is available to watch for free on our you-tube channel or Nyege Nyege Fest Facebook page.
They did say 96 hours. That’s a lot to navigate, but you can follow their account:
https://www.youtube.com/c/NyegeNyegeMusic
Right now it seems the live streams are down/set to private, though if they return, you should check the excellent highlights playlist picked out by Michail Stangl.
There are a bunch of videos on Facebook, though:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/NyegeNyegeFestival/
For instance, an East African showcase from Tangaza Magazine, actual cooking with Farmer Brown, a literal bounce-y castle, serious party energy from Marseilles, superb writer-producer-DJ energy from South Africa in the form of the Mzansi Gqom Show’case with DJ MP3, spectacular live performance from REY Sapienz (originally from Congo), and the wonderful closing set. And don’t forget SlikBack. Or TURKANA. I can’t embed, but go check it out; hopefully it stays up there. (Hurry?)
We can also go back in time to Nyege Nyege’s takeover of Refraction Festival:
Follow the homepage:
Previously: