Arsenal Mikebe, a Ugandan Percussion Ensemble, Next on Nyege Nyege Tapes

Nyege Nyege Tapes will release a new album from Arsenal Mikebe, a Ugandan percussion ensemble.

The band is made up of percussionists Ssentongo Moses, Dratele Epiphany, and Luyambi Vincent de Paul, and it was co-founded by Portuguese artist Jonathan Uliel Saldanha. They released and perform a heavy style of drumming interspersed with soul vocals and jungle-infused trance.

To make their music, they use a custom instrument dreamt up by Ugandan master sculptor Henry Segamwenge, better known simply as Sega. By reverse engineering Roland’s iconic TR-808 beatbox, they devised a steel-cast “percussion machine” that allows Arsenal Mikebe to seamlessly integrate bass-heavy electronic sounds into their frenetic performances.

Drum Machine is a “rhythmic masterclass that’s impossible to slot into any niche or category,” we’re told, on which kinetic beats “appear to bisect each other, slipping between time signatures as fluidly as they pierce the membrane between the organic and the digital.”

Tracklisting

01. Okuleekaana
02. Amazina
03. Omuzimu
04. Boiller Omukka
05. Masiini
06. Bell Ghost

Drum Machine LP will land on September 6. Meanwhile, you can stream “Omuzimu” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

DRUM MACHINE by Arsenal Mikebe

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