Global dance continuum transmissions from Kenyan bass engineer Slikback.
When I first saw Slikback, aka Freddy Njau, perform last year at Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda, he’d only been making music for just over a year. The young producer had moved to Kampala from Nairobi to study and was quickly swept up in Uganda’s burgeoning club scene, combining sounds to come up with a form of hybrid bass music.
Before long, an interest in trap and gqom was expanded as Nyege Nyege founders Derek Debru and Arlen Dilsizian fed Njau’s interest in experimental sounds, exposing him to music from PAN, Planet Mu and Hyperdub and artists like Errorsmith, Rian Treanor, Jlin and Tzusing. And as the producer’s talent developed, Debru and Dilsizian formed a label to support this new sound: Hakuna Kulala, an offshoot of the Nyege Nyege Tapes imprint.
Njau has already released two stunning EPs for the label: last year’s Lasakaneku (standout track ‘Venom’ was FACT’s no.2 track of 2018) and February’s mind-melting Tomo, and both offer a fresh look at experimental bass music. The insular, self-serious mental masochism that capsized the IDM genre is all but gone, replaced by a sense of fluidity, exploration and joy.
This philosophy carries perfectly into Slikback’s FACT mix, where he lays out a roadmap of connections, weaving together tracks from the across the global club continuum: South Africa’s DJ Lag, China’s Swimful, Hyph11E and Osheyack, Uganda’s Hot In Da Club, Miami’s LA GOONY CHONGA and much more. It’s a vivid, cross-cultural exploration of manic club energy, psychedelia and bass.
Tracklist:
Ogniki – ‘SS1’
Sclews – ‘Yearn’
Know V.A. – ‘Strange Days’
Slikback – ‘Xternal’
Astrosuka – ‘Туман’
Yen Tech – ‘Acceleratus’
Reelle – ‘amethyst (other mix)’
Slikback – ‘Track 4’
DJ Lag – ‘Drumming’
Reelle – ‘Tra (edit)’
Ashida Park – ‘Wulffluw XCIV’ & Nahshi – ‘Terra’ (bod -包家巷- First Date Edit)
Slikback – ‘Rage’
Hot In Da Club – ‘Mediokore – 01 Futrip’
Amnesia Scanner – ‘AS SEMBLY’
Slikback – ‘Sketch0472’
Swimful – ‘Bounce’
Medulasa – ‘Medulasa’
Hyph11E – ‘Enter Nowhere’
Slikback – ‘Cane’
LA GOONY CHONGA – ‘CLARO QUE SI OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO’
Osheyack – ‘I not me’
Slikback – ‘Sonshitsu’
[happy thoughts happy thoughts happy thoughts] – ‘111X’
Exploited Body – ‘Threnody’ (ft. APEAK)
2twoam – ‘Pullup in A ride chopped n screwed’
Read next: Nyege Nyege 2018 – The world’s best electronic music festival is in Uganda
