Singali reimagined for Dar Es Salaam’s dancefloors in this album of Tanzanian electronica of the future
T IS FOR TANZANIA
Tanzanian music has been long defined by its singeli iteration: a drum beat-heavy danceable music with a clear calypso element. Born from humble beginnings in villages, singeli became the defining trend in local pop music and took the internet by storm. It’s great, but it wasn’t enough for the edgiest youth of Dar es Salaam. So now Dar es Salaam has a booming electronics scene, where singeli is sped up to a heart attack, corroded to a car crash and resurrected to soar. Bamba Pana is one of the lead artists on the record label Nyege Nyege tapes, part of the collective named Cisso, and this, his debut album, is exquisitely fresh, excitingly radical and extremely futuristic. The star track of the album is “Linga linga” with Tanzanian rapper Makaveli delivering witchy vocals in Swahili, which has been holding my brain hostage for the past few weeks. Are you putting “clubbing in Dar es Salaam” on your bucket list? I am.
Poaa by Bamba Pana, 2018
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