Mutations

Ever since 2017's Tribal Match found its way onto Kampala's dancefloors, Faizal Mostrixx has been a driving force on Uganda's electronic landscape. His experiments with traditional Ugandan folk and cutting-edge club sounds have seen the producer and choreographer carve out an identity as one of the scene's most stirring storytellers across a slew of EPs and glittering live shows.

On Mutations, Mostrixx is on experimental form, mixing field recordings and traditional song styles from across the continent with the polyrhythmic percussion of amapiano and house. Opener ‘Onions and Love’ is a perfect storm of pounding percussion built around the a capella vocals of Kebenesh, a restaurant worker Mostrixx met in Addis Ababa. Among Mostrixx's other collaborators are Morena Leraba, Lesotho's famo-meets-Afro-house breakout stars, who appear on ‘Loosely’. Frontman Teboho Mochaoa sings in his native Sesotho, with bandmates Thamsanqa Ngwenya and Molefi Makananise joining on marimba and bass, but it's Mostrixx's dynamic manipulations that elevate it into a restless slice of Afrofuturism.

The title-track is another stand-out, arriving as a pneumatic stuck-key beat before bursting into an addictive stream of vocal snatches and squelching electronics. It's a shimmering feat from the producer that blends his anthropological eye for musical traditions with the sounds of East Africa's clublands.